Journal tags: lineup

UX London 2024 is done …and it was magnificent!

It’s always weird when an event like this moves from being something in the future to something in the past. I’ve spent the year so far fixated on getting the right line-up, getting the word out, and nervously watching the ticket sales (for some reason a lot of people left it to pretty late in the day to secure their spots—not good for my heart!). For months, then weeks, then days, this thing was coming towards me. Then it was done. Now it’s behind me. It feels strange.

I’ve spent the past few days decompressing and thinking back on the event. My initial impression of it has solidified with the addition of some rumination—it was really, really good! The best yet.

I wish I could take the credit for that, but it was all down to the fantastic speakers and my wonderful colleagues who kept things moving flawlessly. All I had to do was get up and stage and introduce the speakers. Easy peasy.

I will say that I am very proud of the line-up I put together. I had a nice mix of well-known voices alongside newcomers.

With some of the speakers, I knew that they’d deliver the goods. I didn’t spend any time fretting over whether people like Emma Boulton, Tom Kerwin or Ben Sauer would be great. I never asked myself whether Brad Frost would have valuable insights into design systems. I mean, does the pope shit in the woods?

But what really blew me away were the people I didn’t know. I hadn’t even met Clarissa Gardner or Benaz Irani before UX London. They’re not exactly fixtures on the conference circuit …yet. They should be. Seriously, I go to a lot of events, and I see a lot of talks, so I don’t offer my praise lightly. Their talks were great!

There were numerous times during UX London 2024 when I thought “More people need to see this!” More people need to see Benaz’s superb talk on the designer alter-ego. More people need to see John’s superb presentation—he put a ton of work into it and it really paid off.

And everyone needs to hear Harry’s blistering call-to-arms. His presentation was brilliant and much-needed. Oh, captain, my captain!

Oh, and needless to say, the closing keynotes on each day were just perfect. Rama, Matt, and Maggie bestowed so much great brain food, it was almost like a mini dConstruct.

I’m so grateful to all the speakers for really bringing their A game. I’m grateful to all my colleagues, especially Louise, who did all the hard work behind the scenes. And I’m really grateful to everyone who came and enjoyed UX London 2024.

Thank you.

UX London is just three weeks away! If you haven’t got your ticket yet, dally not.

There’s a last-minute addition to the line-up: Peter Boersma.

Peter is kindly stepping into the slot that Kara Kane was going to be occupying. Alas, since a snap general election was recently announced, Kara isn’t able to give her talk. There’s an abundance of caution in the comms from gov.uk in this pre-election period.

It’s a shame that Kara won’t be able to speak this time around, but it’s great that we’ve got Peter!

Peter’s talk is perfect for day three. Remember, that’s the day focused on design ops and design systems. Well, Peter lives and breathes design ops. He’ll show you why you should maintain a roadmap for design ops, and work with others to get the initiatives on it done.

You can get a ticket for an individual day of talks and workshops, or go for the best-value option and come for all three days. See you there!

Alright, so last week I gave you the low-down on each day of this year’s UX London:

1. Tuesday, June 18th focuses on UX research,
2. Wednesday, June 19th focuses on product design, and
3. Thursday, June 20th focuses on design ops and design systems

But the line-up for each day wasn’t quite complete. There was a mystery slot at the end of each day for a closing keynote.

Well, I’m very happy to unveil the trio of fantastic speakers who will be closing out each day…

Rama Gheerawo is the closing speaker on day one. Rama will show you how to frame inclusive design in the context of UX.

I’ve been trying to get Rama for UX London for the past few years but the timings never worked out. I’m absolutely delighted that I’ve finally managed to nab him! His talk is guaranteed to be the perfect inspirational ending for day one.

Matt Webb is giving the closing keynote on day two. Matt will show what it’s like to live and work with AI. You know my scepticism on this topic but even I have to hand it to Matt; he’s finding ways to use these tools to create true delight.

Honestly it feels like a bit of a cheat getting Matt to wrap up the day—his talks are always incredibly entertaining so I feel like I’m taking the easy route. If you’ve seen his appearances at dConstruct you’ll know what I mean.

Maggie Appleton is the final speaker on the final day of UX London. Maggie will show you how to explore designing with large language models. Again, even a sceptic like me has a lot to learn from Maggie’s level-headed humanistic approach to AI.

I’m so happy to have Maggie speaking at UX London. Not only am I a huge fan of her website, but I also love her presentation style. She’s going to entertain and educate in equal measure, and she’s certain to leave us with some fascinating questions to ponder.

With that, the line-up for UX London 2024 is complete …and what a stellar line-up it is!

Grab your ticket if you haven’t already, either for the full full three days or if you can’t manage that, day tickets are available too.

Use this discount code to 20% of the ticket price: JOINJEREMY. I’d love to see you there!

UX London runs for three days, from June 18th to 20th. If you can, you should get a ticket for all three days. But if you can’t, you can get a one-day ticket. Think of each individual day as being its own self-contained conference.

The flow of the three-day event kind of mimics the design process itself. It starts with planning and research. Then it gets into the nitty-gritty product design details. Then it gets meta…

Day three, Thursday, June 20th is about design systems and design ops.

Maintenance matters, not just for the products and services you’re designing, but for the teams you’re designing with. You can expect a barrage of knowledge bombs on alignment and collaboration.

The bombardment commences with four great talks in the morning.

1. Brad Frost kicks things off with the question is atomic design dead? Brad will show you how to imagine what a global design system might look like.
2. Alicia Calderón is going to be talking about unlocking collaboration . Alicia will show you how to use a framework for creating lasting aligment between developers and designers.
3. Benaz Irani will be speaking about empathy overload. Benaz will show you how to strike a balance between compassion and confidence within your team.
4. Kara Kane is going to talk about why UX building blocks need standards. Kara will show you how to use standards to enable adoption and contribution to design systems.

After the lunch break you’ll have your pick of four superb workshops. It’s not an easy choice.

1. Brad Frost is not only giving a talk in the morning, he’s also leading an afternoon workshop on the design system ecosystem. Brad will show you how to unpack the many layers of the design system layer cake so you can deliver sturdy user interfaces and help teams work better together.
2. Stéphanie Walter is running a workshop on designing adaptive reusable components and pages . Stéphanie will show you how to plan your content and information architecture to help build more reusable components.
3. Tom Kerwin will be giving a workshop on multiverse mapping. Tom will show you how to pin down your product strategy and to align your team around the stuff that matters.
4. Luke Hay is running a workshop on bridging the gap between Research and Design. Luke will show you how to take practical steps to ensure that designers and researchers are working as a seamless team.

Finally we’ll finish the whole event with one last closing keynote. I’m very excited to announce who that’s going to be—I’ll only keep you on tenterhooks for a short while longer.

When step back and look at what’s on offer, day three of UX London looks pretty unmissable. If you work with a design system or heck, if you just work with other people, this is the day for you. So get your ticket now.

But be sure to use this discount code I’ve prepared just for you to get a whopping 20% off the ticket price: JOINJEREMY.

If you can’t make it to all three days of this year’s UX London, there’s always the option to attend a single day.

Day two is focused on product design. You know, the real meat’n’potatoes of working at the design coalface (to horribly mix my metaphors).

The day begins with four back-to-back practical talks.

1. John V Willshire gets the ball rolling with a big-picture talk on the product of design. John will show you how to think about futures rather than features.
2. Tshili Ndou follows on with her talk aboutvalidating features. Tschili will show you how to create high value products and avoid wasting money.
3. Wioleta Maj is up after the break with a talk on understanding the impact of design choices. Wioleta will show you how to identify who we are creating our designs for (and who we are not).
4. Harry Brignull closes out the morning with his call to action, Do Not Pass Go. Harry will show you how to get to grips with our industry’s failure to self-regulate when it comes to harmful design patterns.

After lunch, it’s decision time. Whereas the morning talks are sequential, the afternoon’s workshops run in parallel. You’ve got four excellent workshops to choose from.

1. Ben Sauer will be giving a workshop on the storytelling bridge . Ben will show you how to find your inner storyteller to turn your insights into narratives your stakeholders can understand quickly and easily.
2. Tom Kerwin will be giving a workshop on multiverse mapping. Tom will show you how to pin down your product strategy and to align your team around the stuff that matters.
3. Serena Verdenicci will be giving a workshop on behavioural intentions . Serena will show you how to apply a behavioural mindset to your work so you can create behaviour-change interventions.
4. Brad Frost will be giving a workshop on the design system ecosystem. Brad will show you how to unpack the many layers of the design system layer cake so you can deliver sturdy user interfaces and help teams work better together.

Finally there’s one last keynote talk at the end of the day. All will be revealed very soon, but believe me, it’s going to be a perfect finisher.

If a day of outstanding talks and workshops on product design sounds good to you, get your ticket now.

And just between you and me, here’s a discount code to get 20% of the ticket price: JOINJEREMY.

UX London is just two months away!

The best way to enjoy the event is to go for all three days but if that’s not doable for you, each individual day is kind of like a mini-conference with its own theme.

The theme on day one, Tuesday, June 18th is design research.

In the morning there are four fantastic talks.

1. Tom Kerwin kicks things off with his talk on pitch provocations. Tom will show you how to probe for what the market really wants with his fast, counterintuitive method.
2. Clarissa Gardner is giving a talk about ethics and safeguarding in UX research . Clarissa will show you how to uphold good practice without compromising delivery in a fast-paced environment.
3. Aleks Melnikova’s talk is all about demystifying inclusive research. Aleks will show you how to conduct research for a diverse range of participants, from recruitment and planning through to moderation and analysis.
4. Emma Boulton closes out the morning with her talk on meeting Product where they are. Emma will show you how to define a knowledge management strategy for your organisation so that you can retake your seat at the table.

After lunch you’ll take part in one of four workshops. Choose wisely!

1. Luke Hay is running a workshop on bridging the gap between research and design. Luke will show you how to take practical steps to ensure that designers and researchers are working as a seamless team.
2. Serena Verdenicci is running a workshop on behaviorual intentions. Serena will show you how to apply a behavioural mindset to your work so you can create behaviour-change interventions.
3. Stéphanie Walter is running a workshop on designing adaptive reusable components and pages. Stéphanie will show you how to plan your content and information architecture to help build more reusable components.
4. Ben Sauer is running a workshop on the storytelling bridge. Ben will show you how to find your inner storyteller to turn your insights into narratives your stakeholders can understand quickly and easily.

After your workshop there’s one final closing keynote to bring everyone back together. I’m keeping that secret for just a little longer, but trust me, it’s going to be inspiring—plenty to discuss at the drinks reception afterwards.

That’s quite a packed day. If design research is what you’re into, you won’t want to miss it. Get your ticket now.

Just to sweeten the deal and as a reward for reading all the way to the end, here’s a discount code you can use to get a whopping 20% off: JOINJEREMY.

Just look at who’s speaking at UX London this year! That’s a damned fine line-up, if I do say so myself. Which I do.

If you haven’t procured a ticket yet, allow me to gently remind you that early-bird ticket sales finish on March 14th. So if you want to avail of that bargain of a price, get in there now.

The event will be three days long. You can buy a ticket for all three days, or you can buy individual day tickets (but buying a three-day ticket works out cheaper per day).

The first day, Tuesday, June 18th, focuses on UX research.

The second day, Wednesday, June 19th, focuses on product design.

The third day, Thursday, June 20th, focuses on design ops and design systems.

Each day features a morning of inspiring talks and an afternoon of brilliant workshops. I’ll be adding titles and descriptions for all of them soon, but in the meantime, don’t dilly dally—get your ticket today!

It is now exactly five weeks until Patterns Day—just another 35 sleeps!

Everthing is in place for a perfect day of deep dives into design systems. There’ll be eight snappy 30 minute talks—bam, bam, bam!

Here’s the schedule I’ve got planned for the day:

9:00	Registration.
9:45	Jeremy introduces the day.
10:00	Jina delivers the opening keynote.
10:30	Débora talks about the outcomes, lessons and challenges from using design tokens.
11:00	Break.
11:30	Yolijn talks about the relay method for design system governance.
12:00	Geri talks about her journey navigating accessibility in design systems.
12:30	Lunch.
14:00	Richard talks about responsive typography in design systems.
14:30	Samantha talks about getting buy-in for a design system.
15:00	Break.
15:30	Mary talks about transitioning from a single to a multi-brand design system.
16:00	Vitaly delivers the closing keynote.
16:30	Jeremy wraps up the day.
16:45	Have a drink and a geek pub quiz at the Hare And Hounds pub.

I assume you’ve got your ticket already, but if not use the discount code JOINJEREMY to get 10% off the ticket price.

See you there!

The line-up for Patterns Day is complete! You’ll be hearing from eight fantastic speakers on March 7th 2024 here in Brighton.

I really like the mix of speakers we’ve got…

Half of the speakers will be sharing what they’ve learned from design systems in their organisations: Débora from LEGO, Mary from the Financial Times, Yolijn from the Dutch government, and Samantha from University College London. That’s a good spread of deep dives.

The other half of the speakers can go broad across design systems in general: Vitaly on design patterns, Rich on typography, Geri on accessibility, and Jina on …well, absolutely everything to do with design systems!

I’m so happy that I could get the line-up to have this mix. If you have any interest in design systems at all—whether it’s as a designer, a developer, a product manager, or anything else—you won’t want to miss this. Early bird tickets are £225.

But wait! That’s not all. If you really want to dive deep into interface design patterns, then stick around. The day after Patterns Day, Vitaly is running a one-day workshop:

In this in-person workshop with Vitaly Friedman, UX consultant and creative lead behind Smashing Magazine, we’ll dive deep into dissecting how to solve complex design problems. Whether you’re working on a complex nested multi-level navigation or creating enterprise grade tables, this workshop will give you the tools you need to excel at your work.

Places are limited. There isn’t room for everyone who’s going to be at Patterns Day, so if you—and your team—want to learn design pattern kung-fu from the master, get your workshop ticket now! Workshop tickets are £445.

Put the dates in your dairy: UX London 2024 will be on June 18th, 19th, and 20th.

Better yet, grab a ticket right now. There are super early-bird tickets available until this Friday.

If you want a flavour of what to expect, check out the speakers that are already confirmed: Brad!, Ben!, Tshili!, and more!

It’s early days but I can tell you what to expect from each day. The first day will be themed around research. The second will have a focus on product design. The third day will be themed around design systems and design ops.

As usual, there’ll be a mix of talks and workshops: a single track of inspirational talks in the morning, followed by a choice of practical workshops in the afternoon.

We’ll be in a new venue next year too—right in the heart of London.

See you there!

UX London 2023 is over.

That feels weird. I’ve spent most of this year planning for this event. It’s been something that’s coming towards me. Now it’s in the rear-view mirror. Surreal.

I’ve talked about this with other conference organisers. Some of them get the post-conference blues. It makes sense. You spend so much time pouring all your energy into something and then one day, suddenly it’s done. No wonder smart folks book some holiday time for the week after a big event.

Luckily for me, the organisation of UX London isn’t all on my shoulders. Far from it. Louise did all the hard work: planning, logistics, execution. All I had to take care of was the line-up.

Before the event, I was already feeling pretty darn happy with the line-up I had assembled. Now that the event is over, I’m feeling even happier. I was blown away.

There were some speakers on the line-up that I already knew would deliver the goods. I’ve seen them speak before. They’re a safe pair of hands. But there were other speakers I had never met before, much less seen them speak. I was pretty sure they’d be great, but I couldn’t be certain.

Well, it turned out that literally everyone was fantastic. I know, I know—that sounds highly improbable. Out of 15 people, no duds? But take it from me, every single one of them was terrific. You kinda had to be there.

Imran, Vim, Daniel, Trine, Vitaly, Mansi, Stephen, Asia, Amy, Paul, Stacey, Ignacia, Stefanie, Hannah, and Dave—thank you, thank you, thank you!

I’ve been getting a heartwarming buzz from reading how much people got out of the event…

Eliza Lawson finished her summary by saying:

So many amazing things to take away from the conference. But I think the main one for me is “I want to do that. I could do that. I’m GOING to do that…one day.”

Anastasiya Korolkova came as part of the scholarship programme:

☺️ Thank you to everyone involved in organizing this remarkable event. Your dedication and hard work created a truly remarkable and enriching experience. I am sincerely grateful and eagerly look forward to what the future holds for UX London.

Jojo Tulip finished their detailed write-up by saying:

Couldn’t recommend UX London enough, it was awesome 😎👍

Jan Henckens said:

A good mix of inspiring talks and practical workshops, top-notch organisation and cool venue meant we had a great time (and we might already want to go back next year 😀)

And I’m equally pleased that the speakers got so much out of the event…

Imran:

Huge thanks to Jeremy Keith for inviting me, and the team at Clearleft for organising a great event.

Trine:

UX London was amazing - full of wonderful UX folks who genuinely care about using their skills to do good.

Mansi:

I bring back with me relationships and ideas that go way beyond the gathering!

I’m going to bask in this post-conference glow for a little while. Then it’s time to start planning the next event…

Back in November of last year I announced that UX London would be returning in 2023 and that I’d be curating the line-up again. That’s where I’ve been putting a lot of my energy over the last six months.

The line-up is complete. If I step back and try to evaluate it objectively, I’ve gotta say …hot damn, that’s a fine roster of speakers!

Imran Afzal, Vimla Appadoo, Daniel Burka, Trine Falbe, Vitaly Friedman, Mansi Gupta, Stephen Hay, Asia Hoe, Amy Hupe, Paul Robert Lloyd, Stacey Mendez, Ignacia Orellana, Stefanie Posavec, Hannah Smith, and David Dylan Thomas.

Take a look at the complete schedule—a terrific mix of thought-provoking talks and practical hands-on workshops.

On day one, you’ve got these talks:

• Designing your design process,
• Thinking differently about digital sustainability,
• Let’s choose empathy,
• The lies we tell ourselves about design systems, and
• What if people weren’t the product? Building a web that loves humanity.

Then on day two:

• The necessity and practice of women-centric design,
• Time team: Documenting decisions and marking milestones,
• User experience beyond screens,
• Can designers save lives? Not by themselves, and
• Ghosts in the machine: AI, design, and ethics.

And that’s just the talks! You’ve also got these four excellent workshops on both days:

• Practical, ethical design,
• Designing for complex UIs,
• Strategies for creating and evolving design systems, and
• Dataviz sketching session.

That’s a lot of great stuff packed into two days!

In case you haven’t guessed, I am very excited about this year’s UX London. I would love to see you there.

As an appreciation for you putting up with my child-like excitement, I’d like to share a discount code with you. You can get 20%—that’s one fifth!—off the ticket price using the code CLEARLEFT20.

But note that the standard ticket pricing ends on Friday, May 26th so use that code in the next week to get the most bang for your buck. After that, there’ll only be last-chance tickets, which cost more.

Looking forward to seeing you at Tobacco Dock on June 22nd and 23rd!

I’d like to play it cool when I announce the latest speakers for UX London 2023, like I could be all nonchalant and say, “oh yeah, did I not mention these people are also speaking…?”

But I wouldn’t be able to keep up that façade for longer than a second. The truth is I am excited to the point of skittish gigglyness about this line-up.

Look, I’ll let you explore these speakers for yourself while I try to remain calm and simply enumerate the latest additions…

• Ignacia Orellana, Service design and research consultant,
• Stefanie Posavec, Designer, artist and author, and
• David Dylan Thomas, Author, speaker, filmmaker.

The line-up is almost complete now! Just one more speaker to announce.

I highly recommend you get your UX London ticket if you haven’t already. You won’t want to miss this!

I know I’m being tease, doling out these UX London speaker announcements in batches rather than one big reveal. Indulge me in my suspense-ratcheting behaviour.

Today I’d like to unveil three speakers whose surnames start with the letter H…

• Stephen Hay, Creative Director at Rabobank,
• Asia Hoe, Senior Product Designer, and
• Amy Hupe, Design Systems consultant at Frankly Design.

Just look at how that line-up is coming together! There’ll be just one more announcement and then the roster will be complete.

But don’t wait for that. Grab your ticket now and I’ll see you in London on June 22nd and 23rd!

I am positively giddy with excitement to tell you about some more speakers you can look forward to at UX London 2023:

• Stacey Mendez, Product and Experience Designer,
• Hannah Smith, Director of Operations at the Green Web Foundation,
• Vitaly Friedman, Creative Lead at Smashing Magazine, and
• Trine Falbe, Ethical Design Consultant at Falbe Consulting.

I have more confirmed speakers but I’m going to be a tease and save them for a separate announcement soon. You can expect more of the same: smart, fabulous people with all kinds of design experience that they’re going to share with you at UX London.

But why wait for another speaker announcement? Get your ticket to UX London 2023 now!

Please put your fingers on the desk in front of you and move them up and down rapidly in the manner of a snare drum…

I’m very happy to announce the first four speakers for UX London 2023:

• Imran Afzal, Principal Designer at Co-op Digital,
• Vimla Appadoo, Head of Experience at Culture Shift,
• Daniel Burka, Director of Design at Resolve to Save Lives, and
• Mansi Gupta, Founder of Unconform.

This is shaping up nicely! You can expect some more speaker announcements before too long.

But don’t wait too long to get your ticket—early-bird pricing ends this month on Friday, February 24th. Then the price goes up by £200. If you need to convince your boss, here are some reasons to attend.

I very much look forward to seeing you at Tobacco Dock on June 22nd and 23rd this year!

dConstruct 2022 was great fun. It was also the last ever dConstruct.

If you were there, and you’d like to re-live the magic, the audio from the talks is now available on the dConstruct Archive. Here they are:

• George Oates
• Lauren Beukes
• Daniel Burka
• Sarah Angliss
• Matt Webb
• Seb Lee-Delisle
• Anil Seth

Thanks to some service worker magic, you can select any of those talks for offline listening later.

The audio is also available on Huffduffer on the dConstruct Huffduffer account. Here’s the RSS feed that you can pop into your podcast software of choice.

If you’re more of a visual person, you can watch videos of the slides synced with the audio. They’ve all got captions too (good ones, not just automatically generated).

So have a listen in whichever way you prefer.

Now that I’ve added the audio from the last dConstruct to the dConstruct archive, it feels like the closing scene of Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Roll credits.

dConstruct 2022 happened last Friday, September 9th.

And what an event it was! All eight talks were superb. To have eight speakers and not a single dud is pretty great. To have eight speakers and each one be absolutely brilliant is more than I could’ve hoped for.

Hidde has written a summary of the talks. I loved each and every one. I got to sit there in the front row of the beautiful Duke of York’s cinema and watch these supersmart people blow my mind.

With six of the eight speakers having spoken at previous dConstructs, there was a lot of nostalgia in the air on Friday.

It was the last dConstruct.

A lot of people seemed surprised by this even though I kept saying it was a one-off event. Really, the last dConstruct happened in 2015. This year’s event was a one-time-only anniversary event.

Obviously because the day was so great, people expressed sadness and disappointment that there wouldn’t be another. But like I said, if a band like The Velvet Underground reforms to do one last gig, that’s pretty cool; but if a band like The Velvet Underground reforms to go on endless tours, that’s kind of sad. It’s time to move on. Have one last blow-out and go out in style.

And who knows? Maybe there’ll be some other kind of dConstructy gathering in a different format. Perhaps an evening salon event is more suited to this kind of interdisciplinary mish-mash. But as a one-day conference, dConstruct is now officially over.

To be honest, there was never any doubt that dConstruct 2022 would be an excellent day of talks. I knew that each of the speakers would deliver the goods. I played it somewhat safe with the line-up. Because this was a kind of “best of” event, I could draw upon speakers from previous years who were guaranteed to be mesmerising.

In a weird way, that also highlights the biggest problem with this year’s dConstruct. Even though every individual talk was terrific, when you pull back and look at the line-up in aggregate, you can’t help but notice its lack of diversity.

That’s on me.

I could show you the list of people I tried to get. I could talk you through the spots that fell through. But all I’d be doing is giving you excuses. I could show that my intentions were good, but intentions don’t matter as much as actions. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and what we ate last Friday was wonderful but also sadly representative of dConstruct’s homogenous history. For that reason alone, it’s time to draw a line under dConstruct.

It was a bittersweet send-off. On the one hand, I got to enjoy a day of brilliant talks. On the other hand, I’m pretty disappointed in myself that the line-up wasn’t more diverse. I can make all the claims I want about valuing diversity, but they’re hollow without meaningful results.

So that’s enough looking to the past. I’m bidding farewell to dConstruct and setting my sights on the future, a future that features more and different voices.

If you came along to dConstruct 2022, thank you! If you enjoyed attending dConstruct just half as much as I enjoyed hosting it …well, then I enjoyed it twice as much as you.

Just one more sleep until dConstruct—squee!

Not that I anticipate getting much sleep. My sleepnessness will partly be like that of a child on the night before Christmas. But my sleepnessness will also inevitably be that of an adult neurotically worrying about trifling details.

In reality, everything is all set. Thanks to the stellar Clearleft events team, I don’t need to lose any sleep. But my stupid brain can’t help but run a conveyer belt of potential problems through my mind: what about dongles? Power? Timings? What if there’s an impromptu rail strike? A deluge? Other emergencies you can’t even imagine?

I try to ignore those pestering pointless questions and instead think about the fantastic talks we’re going to get. I’m genuinely excited about each and every speaker. I’m pretty sure that once the day begins, I’ll forget all my worries and bliss out to the mind-expanding presentations.

The day before a conference feels kind of like the build-up to a battle. All the strategic decisions have been made, everything is in place, and now there’s nothing to do but wait.

I’ve communicated (or maybe over-communicated) all the relevant details to the speakers. And one week ago I sent one final email to the attendees with details of the schedule and some suggestions for lunch.

I also included this request:

Could you do me a favour? Would you mind getting a hold of a Covid test sometime in the next week and taking a test a day or two before dConstruct? (And if you test positive, please don’t come to the event.)

If you can’t get hold of a test (I know it can be tricky), then could you please bring a mask to wear when inside the venue?

I think asking everyone to take a test is a reasonable request, and nobody has objected to it. I worry that it’s yet another form of hygiene theatre (like providing anti-bacterial handwash for an airborne virus). After all, the antigen tests are most effective when you’ve already got symptoms. Taking a test when you don’t have symptoms might well give a negative result, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t have Covid. Still, it’s a little intervention that might catch an infection that otherwise would’ve spread further.

I’m assuming that everyone coming to dConstruct is vaccinated. Maybe that’s naive on my part, but I figure if you’re intelligent enough to get a dConstruct ticket, you’re intelligent enough to protect yourself and others. So we won’t be requesting proof of vaccination. I hope my naivety aligns with reality.

See, this is all one more thing for my brain to gnaw on when I should be thinking about what a fantastic day of talks I’ve got ahead of me. Roll on tomorrow!

Not long now until the last ever dConstruct. It’s on Friday of next week, that’s the 9th of September. And there are still a few tickets available if you haven’t got yours yet.

I have got one update to the line-up to report. Sadly, Léonie Watson isn’t going to be able to make it after all. That’s a shame.

But that means there’s room to squeeze in one more brilliant speaker from the vaults of the dConstruct archive.

I’m very pleased to announce that Seb Lee-Delisle will be returning, ten years after his first dConstruct appearance.

Back then he was entertaining us with hardware hacking and programming for fun. That was before he discovered lasers. Now he’s gone laser mad.

Don’t worry though. He’s fully qualified to operate lasers so he’s not going to take anyone’s eye out at dConstruct. Probably.