Having fully recovered from the last two day’s worth of events, I guess you could say its about time that I give a quick overview of the two day affair…one - so that I can keep a note of the conference, and two - to share with those that didn’t get a chance to attend, a rundown of what went on.

Eric Meyer - Keynote presentation “A Decade of Style”

Well ok, so I was actually late for this one…I blame the tube and the long queue outside. Despite being stuck in the seats at the back, it was a very good talk.

Eric went through the history of the browsers with relation to the use of CSS. God bless this guy for doing what he did. If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t have had the breakdown of CSS support with different browsers dating back to IE3 and NN4.

I remember back in the day (8 years ago to be exact) when I started delving into html, tables and css. Seeing sites displaying support for IE or NN only, and not really understanding the meaning behind it. Getting frustrated when my pages would look one way in IE, and another in NN. And that was way before I gained an interest in using CSS.

Eric did make a very good point with IE5 on the Mac. Despite Microsoft no longer supporting the browser, you can’t really fault it for its CSS support. It really was a step towards meeting anything remotely close to what the w3 set at its time.

Its good to know that things can only be looking better for CSS support with the browsers out now, including the long awaited release of IE7 this year.

A trip down memory lane indeed.

Jeremy Keith -Using DOM Scripting to Plug the Holes in CSS

Admittedly I’m not the best person when it comes to javascript, let alone DOM scripting, but Jeremy was great with his presentation on overcoming the limits that CSS has with the use of DOM scripting.

You often worry that somewhat technical presentations will be dull and boring, but Jeremy was very good…especially with his jokes and references to bands that existed before my lifetime so you could win his book.

Definitely walking away with some new techniques to use, and for those that didn’t get a chance to write down his notes (myself included), you can get a copy of his presentation here:

http://domscripting.com/presentations/atmedia2006/slides/

Chris Wilson - IE: 7 and Beyond

I think this particular presentation highlighted to me the differences between those that come from a technical background and those that come from a design background. You can tell that Chris knows his stuff, as he was quite easily prepared for the FAQs in his slides, but his slides weren’t exactly aesthetically pleasing.

I found this talk particularly interesting, as we were able to get more of an understanding as to what to expect with IE7. The niceities such as having support for min-width and max-width in CSS (HURRAH), alpha channel support in PNG images, and a general improvement in css support has finally arrived!!!

We are due to get a final release of IE7 in the second half of 2006 (although an exact date wasn’t given), but hopefully this 5 year long awaited release should make a lot of developers happy.

I found it quite interesting to hear that Microsoft are already in the midst of working on the the next 2 releases of IE (take note how I said 2!!!).

The only criticism I have is the problem of side by side version testing not being available…boo to that!!!

Andy Clarke, Patrick H. Lauke, Gez Lemon, and Ian Lloyd - The New Accessibility Guidelines: WCAG 2.0

Granted, anyone that has taken the time to read through WCAG 2.0 will know that it is a long read, tiresome even, but anyone that attended this session will know exactly where I’m coming from.

Ian Lloyd did state that they were running this through the graveyard shift after everyone had stuffed their faces with lunch, but it was somewhat of a disappointment.

I don’t know what I was really expecting, and I don’t blame anyone in the panel at all. Accessibility is one of those topics that I find extremely important when developing sites, but to pretty much sit down and discuss the changes from the current guidelines to the new…well, maybe I should have had a caffeine boost before hand.

Jeffrey Veen - Designing the Next Generation of Web Apps

All hail Jeffrey Veen!!!

I was really looking forward to this presentation as I’m somewhat lagging in the knowledge of web 2.0, and Jeffrey failed to disappoint.

As with everyone else that has written on Mr Veen’s presentation it is understandable how he is in such high demand for attending and discussing his views on the way the web is moving today. He presented the topic in a way that was engaging, humourous and understandable to all levels.

Jeffrey broke down the way a business should perceive its relevance with web apps in the following structure:

• Surface - The aesthetics, to make the first impression with the user.
• Skeleton - The interaction between the user and the interface, and the way the page conveys the functionality with the user.
• Structure - The information architecture. Particular focus being on the way tagging in blogs has come about to creatae a hierachical structure and grouping of information.
• Scope - The limits of what can be done now rather than what you want to achieve overall.
• Strategy - The mission statement, including the importance of seeing how audiences are changing and how to deal with that.

Without a doubt, the best presentation of the day.

Sugar Reef Drinks

Gotta love vivabit for their nice little touches with the event. Each attendee received three coloured stones which we could exchange for specific drinks at the Sugar Reef bar.

I found it all quite amusing that a whole bunch of people with @media bags were roaming the streets of London to get to the shindig. It was a very civilised affair, with the ol’ footie match to watch at the same time!

Good stuff.