This week something happened that I never thought would in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the hosting of a world-class web design conference.
The first ever Build conference was held at the Waterfront Studio in Belfast this week, Thursday 5th November. Featuring a truly stellar line up of Tim Van Damme, Andy Budd, Mark Boulton, Ryan Sims, Wilson Miner and the legendary Eric Meyer, Belfast had never seen anything like this.
Much credit has to go to Andy McMillan for pulling this off, with some 300 odd attendees, it put the FOWD tour which recently came to Belfast, firmly in the shadows.
Having attended @media 2009 this year, my 3rd time of going, I can confidently say that Build was better by a mile. Whether it was fluke or intentional, there was a natural progression through the day as one presentation seemed to follow into the other. From the opening appearance of Tim Van Damme chanting “designers, designers, designers” to the closing call of Eric Meyer announcing “the web has won”, Build brought some really inspirational stuff and will no doubt have a huge impact on every delegate who was fortunate enough to have had a ticket.
The highlight of the day for me was Andy Budd who has got to be the slickest presenter I’ve ever seen. Excellently prepared, informative and entertaining Andy’s talk about seduction techniques on the web was genius. I hope Build release video clips in the not too distant future as this is one that will get plenty of play on my iPod.
With Build 2010 already in the pipeline it’s hard to see how it will top this year. I for one would appreciate a presentation from the very personable standardistas, I’m just sorry I couldn’t attend their workshop. Judging by the amazing buzz at Tweets from Build I have a sneaky feeling Andy McMillan will have less asking to do next year when it comes to speakers and rather will be handling numerous requests to appear!
