The last few months have been crazy. I had a blast visiting conferences, speaking at meetups, and working on new things. But now it’s time to recharge some of those batteries and have some family time. In this article a little throwback of the last month or so and some of my holiday plans.
I need to be honest right off the bat here. I have been doing a bunch of conferences and meetups lately and noticed that I lost a bit of the time where I would’ve created some demos and played around with new things. I’m also very behind on all the articles in my RSS feed. The last week or so, I’ve been catching up on those a bit, but as this week has ended, it’s time for me to do a complete shutdown for a bit when it comes to writing, demoing, and presentation creations. It’s also time to read some of that non-web-related stuff I’ve postponed.
A quick throwback
Let’s start with the beginning of June, I will not talk about the articles I’ve written as you can find those here, but I do want to look back at some of the awesome events. This piece will probably have the most pictures of myself in like…ever. But sure, why not I guess…
CSS Day and CSS Café
I’m always happy to return to CSS Day, so many people I get to see again or get to meet for the very first time. This is always a great one for me and feels like coming home. I did a full article on CSS Day at the tech_hub and they’re uploading the presentations weekly now. I want to encourage people to go to these conferences as you get to talk to a lot of people and you can take away so much more than just watching videos. So, for that reason, here is me probably trying to explain some Open UI demo I created to Joey Arhar using hand gestures as he knows a lot more about how this stuff works than I do.
Google I/O Connect
As a Google Developer Expert, I was invited to Google I/O Connect in Berlin. I absolutely had a fantastic time. There were some interesting Q&A sessions and so many things to see and do. I got to hang out a bit with Bramus and Una and meet some Googlers who work on fantastic stuff such as Barry Pollard, Sam Dutton. So nice to have a chance to talk to them in-person.
I had a demo about speculation rules by Jeremy Wagner who sold it to me like a pro (yes… I probably WILL write an article about that later this year). And of course, I had my colleague from Amsterdam Dave Bitter with me, always a pleasure to hang out with him.
The things at Google I/O are probably worth an article by itself, but for now, I’ll keep it to these brief words. I do have a head full of wonderful memories and hope to do this again next year.
Middlesbrough Front End
I got to speak at Middlesbrough Front End this week. It was quite exciting for me as it was the first time that I had to give a presentation to so many people who are native English speakers. I was dead tired when getting there due to some delays with the train, But thankfully I met one of the speakers there, Lu Wilson, also known as TodePond. If you read this Lu… thank you for getting me through that train ride! For those that don’t know Lu, you probably should as they are working on something cool called tldraw.
But honestly, once I arrived, everything was perfect, the people managing the event were awesome and the other speakers were so friendly and kindhearted that I quickly forgot the delays and lack of sleep. I am so happy I got to meet them, I’ll be honest, I was a bit starstruck as well. I had some insightful food tips from Harry, was amazed by all the things Daniel worked on, and was blasted away by the entertainment surge Salma ( I could never to Twitch, but really, I might start watching it a bit from time to time, I got convinced I guess). I also got to talk to Michelle IRL, which is funny, because I’m a long-time reader of CSS-IRL. Really, to all of them, it was an absolute blast.
I also met Jake Archibald, I felt like a groupie “hey, I love your podcast”. But really, super friendly, and it was a pleasure.
A lot of them are far more experienced than I am, and hearing from them they enjoyed my presentation (or even took notes) meant a lot to me. But in general, except for a little microphone beep at the start of my talk, I’m pretty happy, the attendees have been so good to me, and the organization as well.
It’s in my nature to mostly remember what I didn’t do well and where to improve. But I went home satisfied, even though I still have a full list of pointers, I feel I did ok.
I recommend this conference to everyone, and I hope it keeps existing. A beautiful conference, professionally handled in the North of England where you feel that community matters. I will be promoting this conference in the future because I believe this is an important one for the North UK community.
Here’s a few pictures
And an after-event-drinks photo: FLTR: Lu Wilson, Me, Shawn Anuptra Martin, Michelle Barker, Ryan Varley.
(PS, after the event, Shawn started blogging, check it out here.)
And then now: A well-deserved holiday
I’ve met so many people in the last month, it’s been absolutely bonkers…
But for now, it’s time… Yes, time for family, to go on trips, to amusement parks, and to the zoo. Time to read that book I never got to. Enjoy our garden and create + eat tasty food.
I also started some golf lessons, just out of curiosity which I will take during this summer.
So yes, It will be packed with a lot of things to do, but when it comes to the web, I’ll mostly just be boosting some posts from time to time, not creating demos, not joining meetings, a bit of digital detox. I’ve already written an article that might still get published during my holiday, but that’s about it.
So to everyone out there, enjoy your holidays, I know I will.
