Last Thursday I attended the inaugural New Adventures in Web Design conference, in Nottingham. What follows is a collection of thoughts and feedback from the day. I guess you could call it a review.

Ultimately a great time was had and I’ve come away with a collection of memories that I genuinely feel inspired by. I want this review to reflect that, but also be useful to the organisers so I’ll attempt to balance the gushing praise with some kind of critical feedback too.

Anyway, this is going to be a long one so let’s get cracking…

Organisation

Before I worked within the web industry I had a job that involved organising events and conferences. So I speak from experience when I say that Simon Collison (@colly) and his volunteers did a truly amazing job. Six hundred people is a lot. Really, a lot!

There is however, a slight logistical issue with squeezing 600 people through a door first thing in the morning. It wasn’t long before the queues were snaking round the block, and I think the organiser’s were taken a little by surprise.

Due to the queues, the starting time was put back 30 minutes. This is just one of those things and I don’t think anyone really minded, but consequently the morning sessions all felt a tiny bit squeezed for time. Which is a shame because - for me at least - the morning was the more interesting and inspiring half of the day.

The morning’s delay aside though, the whole day went swimmingly. Everyone was kept informed of the day’s proceedings and everything just went very smoothly indeed. Like I said, 600 people really is a lot, and considering this was the first New Adventures event, a serious donning of the hat must be made in Colly and his team’s direction. Well done.

Location and venue

The location of this event played a massive part in me deciding to attend. The ticket price, combined with travel and accommodation costs, combined with not doing any paid work for two or three days, means that attending any conference is an expensive affair for me.

Despite London being geographically closer to me than many other places, the costs involved in attending a London event rule most out for me. Having the event in Nottingham was great for those from the midlands and northerners, and for a southerner like me it just made the overall costs fall within a kind of psychologically acceptable bubble.

I’d love to see more conferences occurring outside of London, and hopefully the success of events like DIBI and New Adventure’s are setting a precedent.

The venue itself, Nottingham’s Albert Hall, was amazing. A Victorian building with ornate architecture and possibly the biggest pipe organ I’ve ever seen (which surprisingly only one speaker cracked a joke about), the venue proved a real treat. The seats in the back were lacking in leg room, but luckily blood circulation has returned to my lower limbs now.

Speakers

When New Adventures was announced, there were a few raised eyebrows from some quarters complaining that the same old faces were appearing at every conference. I suppose if you go to every conference, then you’re entitled to make that argument. But this was my first web conference so I was keen to see the same old faces.

The reality is that it’s no coincidence that of the ten speakers, it was two of the least experienced (in terms of speaking at conferences) who - at least from my perspective - struggled the most in terms of keeping the attention of 600 easily distracted Twitter addicts.

I don’t have a problem with that by the way. The only way someone becomes experienced at something is by having that experience in the first place. The point I’m trying to make is that if the panel didn’t have its fair share of conference heavy-weights, then the event would undoubtedly have been less successful than it turned out to be.

Whatever you think of the likes of Andy Clarke or Elliot Jay Stocks, they have an ability to deliver a talk in a way that engages and holds the audience’s attention. That ability isn’t too common.

The talks themselves covered a range of subjects. There was a strong focus on “design”, which I guess is not surprising given the name of the conference. Being a somewhat technical web designer though, I personally would have enjoyed slightly more practical and technical discussion.

That said, I have been left with a string of ideas that I feel are the beginnings of new conversations and themes. The conference didn’t answer many questions, but it has asked questions of me, it’s asked questions of the community.

I personally enjoyed the morning sessions more, especially Jon Tan and Dan Rubin’s talks on emotional design and language in web design respectively. It is from the morning sessions that my notebook has more scribblings and from these sessions that I have most ideas bubbling around in my head.

The afternoon, I must confess, was less enjoyable. This was partly because I found the topics less interesting and partly down to me beginning to feel a bit tired and restless. I found myself following the #naconf hashtag on my phone closer than I was the speakers.

However, the mid afternoon coffee helped and if anyone was still feeling tired, they were soon brought back to the land of the living by an exceptionally funny and well received talk by Brendan Dawes about, erm, the difference in paperclips (I’m sure there was a message in there somewhere).

If I was to offer any feedback on the speakers, it would be that maybe there was too many of them. The time issues I mentioned earlier might have been less pressing if there were eight speakers instead of ten. In any case, 9am till 6.30pm is quite a long day and I don’t think anyone would have minded if things wrapped up at 5pm or 5.30pm.

Mass debates

My main criticism of the day would be the questions and answers sessions. Frankly, they didn’t really work.

The morning session was doomed anyway due to the already discussed delays and timing issues. But even the afternoon session just didn’t really flow very smoothly or engage me in any way.

Whilst I think using Twitter to collect questions is a good idea, asking them without involving the original sender kind of detached the audience from the discussion. Also, the quality of some of the questions was a little lame which obviously put the speakers in a awkward position where they could only respond with an equally lame answer.

In fairness to Colly, he did say the question and answers sessions were an experimental idea. Personally I think the idea is brilliant - a public debate can and should be the most dynamic and engaging part of a public event or conference. They do however need more time allocated to them, more preparation and planning, and more expertise in getting the right questions out of the audience.

Vibe and atmosphere

And now onto the biggest cause for gushing praise. And for this, Colly himself must take all credit (although I’m sure he won’t accept it).

I’ve never met Colly before, but it’s clear to see he’s held in high regard by those around him and the industry at large. The way he presented the entire day was laid back, friendly, approachable, and not at all pompous or egotistical.

This approach was naturally mirrored by all involved creating a warm, informal and friendly atmosphere. Others have commented on the community feel of the event and I’d certainly vouch for that - from the minute it started through to the after-party, the whole day felt special.

All the reviews I’ve read and all the people I follow on Twitter who attended the event have all commented on this same thing.

Social and networking

Arguably the most value from attending conferences and events is not gained from listening to the talks, but is gained from meeting old friends, putting faces to Twitter names and networking with a new crowd of people. Certainly for me, the major justification for paying to go is actually the opportunities that networking might bring.

I went to the conference on my own, and admitting that I’m not the worlds smoothest schmoozer was putting myself out of my comfort zone a little. I did however know that there would be a bunch of people who I communicate with regularly on Twitter who it would be nice to meet with.

As it happens I met very few new faces and none of my Twitter friends who I was hoping to bump into. I think the sheer size of the event just made it difficult to find people.

I did bump into some people who I’ve met at previous events so I wasn’t left twiddling my thumbs. I had people to go for a meal with and share a few drinks with at the after-party, which is great but I can’t help feeling a little disappointed that I’ve missed an opportunity.

To be clear, I’m not criticising the event here and I don’t think Colly could have done any more. This is more of a personal reflection as this impacts whether I consider attending the event a valuable experience.

Conclusions

I hope this review reflects how highly I thought of the conference. Genuinely, it was brilliantly organised, had a wonderful atmosphere to it, and has left me feeling truly inspired.

For me the only disappointment is that I met few of the people I was hoping to, and I can’t blame that on the event. This disappointment has made me reflect on whether New Adventures was just too big? I think maybe it was - at least for my tastes - and maybe next time I’ll look for a smaller and more intimate event.

The debates are the main area where I’d encourage the organisers to have a rethink. These can and should work. Perhaps the size of the audience was at play here too? Maybe it would be easier to nurture an intelligent and flowing debate with a smaller group of people? I think so.

Either way though, nothing should take away from Colly’s achievement. I would personally like to thank him, all the speakers, the volunteers, the sponsors and last but not least, the coat man for making it a great event. I’m sure the New Adventures brand will be here to stay for many years to come, and deservedly so.

Further reading:

• New Adventures in Web Design 2011 Review by Simon Young
• Leaky’s adventure to #NACONF
• Rob's trip to the New Adventures in Web Design conference
• New Adventures in Web Design | A great new conference
• New Adventures in Web Design
• gablaxian's New Adventures in Web Design Flickr Set
• marc.thiele's New Adventures in Web Design Flickr Set