Taken at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) last month. It’s a great place to visit and is really central so you can walk to it.
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Author: anthony
I was up in Belfast last week for the annual Build conference for web designers. I’m not a pure web designer or developer, with my role falling between the two in managing the entire process but I got a lot out of the talks that were held. I’ve mentioned some of my highlights from the day below.
Kirby Ferguson drilled home the point that everything is a remix and that there’s a “myth of creation” surrounding new ideas. His video series is highly recommended viewing. Jeff Veen from Typekit and Adobe talked of equanimity (seeing with understanding) and applied it to a major effort his team had to make over the course of one weekend in resolving a major issue. He spoke with candor and real insight so I’m looking forward to watching his talk back again. The keynote speaker on the day was Ethan Marcotte who has led the charge on responsive web design. His talk reminded us that in building responsively, we can’t just build for the top devices and that developing countries are adding millions of lower-end devices each year.
It was a fascinating day of talks and I met some really smart, friendly people who I’d hope to share ideas and thoughts with in future. The last Build, organised by Andy McMillan and co, takes place in 2013. Kudos to Andy and his team for a great conference.
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Irish Web Awards 2012
The Irish Web Awards 2012 were held on the 1st November and, as always, it was a chance to catch up with a lot of mates from Twitter and the Irish web scene. Things were made even better this year by the fact that two of the projects I work on for the Council were finalists in the Best Government and Council category. There were some excellent sites in the 8 finalists but we were delighted to bring home the award for dublincitycycling.ie. The site was designed by Sabrina Dent with Drupal wizardry by John Handelaar and is managed by our team and the Roads & Traffic Department in the Council. A massive hat tip to my flatmate Steph, who won Best Practice for UCD School of Medicine also and thanks to Damien Mulley and his team for another great event.
As we all know by now, Barack Obama won a second term as American President on Tuesday and I was lucky enough to spend the evening in the Guinness Storehouse as a guest of the American Embassy. There were screens with live footage from the US networks, entertainment by the Bugle Babes and political talks. Thanks to Darragh, Niamh and Marina.
RTE Concert Orchestra are playing the live score to a screening of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers tomorrow evening in the o2. They were mad enough to let us in before rehearsals began yesterday to get a quick demo of some of the percussion instruments used throughout the performance. In fact you can win two tickets to it by visiting WorldIrish.com with the winner being chosen tonight. Tickets are still available from Ticketmaster here too. Thanks to Angela, James and everyone in the RTE Concert Orchestra for the opportunity.