Future of Conference Badges
So I attended this Future of Mobile conference on Wednesday. In general it was a great event. The one criticism that was thrown around at the event after-party which I kind of agree with is that it may have been a little heavy on Web topics. That might sound surprising, coming from someone such as myself who spends his days (and increasingly his nights) working on Mobile Web stuff, but I actually think there should have been some more material outside the Web topic. I did really enjoy a number of the presentations, including Brian Fling’s fantastic presentation on how the iPhone is changing the mobile space and great presentation from David Burke from Google which included live Java coding on stage (which in any other circumstance is sure to put people to sleep).
Apart from all that, Carsonified just runs really great events. In particular, they seem to have an intuitive grasp of the user experience of the events. Everything down to the badges is meticulously designed with a professional sheen that nobody else seems to be able to manage. In the case of the badges, they are printed on both sides (how often are you at a conference and you realize the person you’re talking to has no idea who you are because your badge has turned itself around), they are clearly printed and color coded based on whether you’re a developer, designer, speaker, etc… It’s just one of the many Carsonified touches that makes their events so pleasant. Great work!

I love the font size they use on the first names. My only gripe about the badges was that the categories were a little too narrow for the audience – I talked to a bunch of people who weren’t whatever it was their badge suggested they might be. The most interesting sessions for me were yours & Charles McCarthieNeviles, but it was an excellent lineup. Live coding was pretty fun – kind of like Ready Steady Cook for geeks. I’d have liked more on mobile SNS and how that space is developing.
lol – we printed those badges! Thanks for the comments Dan.
rik
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[...] Two years ago, I opined that Carsonified knew how to put on events like nobody else in the business. Two years later, it’s still true. I just attended a day of Future of Webapps London and I have to say – it was a great, inspiring event. I’m very impressed at how Ryan and team are able to put together a program of such good speakers, drawn from a range of backgrounds, and presenting across a range of topics (both technical, such as Twitter’s front-end coder Britt SelvitelleDustin Diaz waxing on about JavaScript’s relationship to Corn, and cocaine and “big idea” like the Guardian’s Chris Thorpe talking about the future of online news media) and somehow it all fits together and works brilliantly! [...]