Ok, so I’ve just got home from my first trip to Brighton and the Responsive Conference hosted by Jeremy Keith of Clearleft.

I’d been to New Adventures back in January and felt nothing could better that conference but I have to say that ResponsiveConf has bettered it.

I woke up after New Adventures, something stirred in me. I was inspired.

ResponsiveConf has confirmed that I’m on the right path and given me confidence to have my say.

The conference format was thus, each section split up into 3 speakers doing 20 minutes talks and then a Q&A session with all three speakers with Jeremy comparing.

This really made the conference work. It felt like we were involved and were just not there to listen.

I enjoyed the talks and take away with me some new ideas and also the feeling that a) there really is no holy grail yet and b) I share the same ideas / vision as some of the well known people.

The talks that stood out for me were the following:-

Laura Kalbag was fantastic and reaffirmed what I have always felt about responsive web design. Sarah Parmenter also helped confirm that really, we are just winging it.

Dave Bushell with his first web talk gave me ideas about how to use navigation. He’ll do well speaking. Bruce Lawson gave us great insight to what is happening at Opera and standards. I loved how he gave his talk and hope I can present like that someday. His hair is fucking crazy too. I only wish I had stopped at the station to say hello but thought best to leave him alone.

To be fair, everyone did a good job.

As well as the talks, I got to meet some great people, old and new. I had a lot to drink and probably had too many rants about sexism, designing in the browser and the fact I had no biscuits in the hotel room but hopefully I did no long lasting damage.

We’re all in this together and it’s going to be a hell of a ride but I think we’re going in the right direction. Responsive web design is exciting and it’s now.

What a fucking brilliant conference.

*Beefcheeks was a chosen hashtag for the conference