I had looked forward to it for a year and it certainly didn’t disappoint. For me, this year’s SXSW Interactive was the best so far. Every year seems to be a little different.

This morning when I opened my inbox, I found a flurry of messages discussing the Britpack and what it is, could and shouldn’t be and about whether or not the wider perception of it was elitist and somehow harmful.

The end of this week sees web design masterminds, mobsters and even petty criminals heading to Austin for SXSW. It’s like Parkhurst for design geeks.

So Web Directions North has wrapped and tomorrow we head to the mountains for a spot of cold weather sports activity (or probably in my case, my lips around a nice hot chocolate). But first, other news.

As I’ve just been invited to speak at a web conference in Canada next year, I thought that it was about time that I updated my biography. Looking back at what I have written before, it all seemed a little bland; designer this, accessibility that.

Bert Bos man Bos has informed me that those boffins (Ed says Oxford English Dictionary: Brit, colloq, a person engaged in scientific research ) at the W3C are offering places at a W3C Webinar on Mobile Web Design.

These last few days I’ve been looking back on @media2006; 800 people, two amazing days and one designer left feeling very humbled by the whole experience.

Being the proud owner of a new PowerMac Book ProMac Book BookPro Mac MacBook Pro with its dinky Apple Remote, I wondered what fun or naughtiness could be had with this (where the hell does the battery go) IR doofer.

April 27th and 28th will see me wrapping up warm, as I’m heading to Iceland for IceWeb 2006; billed as Iceland’s premier web oriented conference.

I often feel blue wishing I was old enough to have seen the blues greats play. Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson II, T. Bone Walker and BB King are rarely far away from iTunes for more than a few days.

So it’s done. This morning Mr. Budd and I presented How To Be A Web Design Superhero at SXSWi. For budding superheroes, our presentation slides are now online (PDF 13.5Mb). I want to say a great big thank-you to everyone for coming, Mr.

A busy few months of travel are ahead in Malarkey world. I’m very much looking forward to what’s coming up, to meeting old friends and making new ones.

As I head for London, I thought that you might like a sneaky peek at the presentation slides which I have prepared for next week’s Carson Workshop’s CSS For Designers events.

Released today, Paul Weller’s new album As Is Now isn’t the return to form which I expected. It’s better. A tour-de-force! Weller at his most spectacular for almost ten years.

Come you masters of war You that build all the guns You that build the death planes You that build the big bombs You that hide behind walls You that hide behind desks I just want you to know I can see through your masks You that never done nothin’ But build…

I’m back. Tanned, rested, fired-up and ready with news of a special design and CSS workshop event happening in November in old London town.

Since I delivered my (slightly modified) Anatomy of a Mouse presentation at @media2005, I’ve had time to formalise my thinking about my answer to one of the questions from the audience.

It’s amazing what people buy and sell on eBay. A quick Google reveals some crazy fools, with some of my favourites including someone selling (and bidding on) a Russian military patrol boat (No sale though, the highest bid of $85,100 did not meet minimum…

Well, it’s a wrap. @media2005 has drawn to a close tonight and a four hour train journey back to Wales has given me not only the chance for a bit of a snooze, watch Mona Lisa on my iBook but gather my thoughts about the last couple of days of what I hope…

It’s now only two weeks until @media2005 in London, and the (now sold out) event looks set to be one of the biggest web occassions the UK has seen so far. It will be interesting to see how @media’s style differs in comparison to SXSW.

Evil genius Brothercake has been busy in his secret laboratory and the result is a chicken with eight legs massive update to IOTBS - a full new version 2 release entitled’IOTBS: Look Who’s Switching Too’.

With less than a month to go until the General Election, here in the UK you can’t seem to get away from inanely grinning politicos squeezing palms and kissing babies for the cameras.

This is neither a permanent redesign, nor to be a regular event, I just fancied a bit of fun as it’s the day for it. Go on, hit’refresh’, I dare yer! (No markup was injured during the making of this site.)

I’ll never be able to show my face in Austin again, and I’d like to take this opportunity to apologise publically to… All that’s left to say is an enormous thank-you to everyone who made me and the rest of the Brit Pack sooooo welcome in Texas.

SXSW was the venue for Ethan Marcotte to announce the up-and-coming publication of Professional CSS, a new book by Christopher Schmitt, Dan Cederholm, Porter Glendinning, Mark Trammell, Dunstan Orchard and Ethan himself.

If you’re here in Austin, let me know and I’ll add yours to the list.

Reading Andy Budd’s SXSW Day 0 post this morning, I thought (cue Monty Python voice) You lucky, lucky bastard!;) While Andy and the other Brit Packers were sipping Frozen Margaritas and munching Tex Mex food, Hicks and I were still struggling with getting to…

This coming Thursday I’m taking a plane from Manchester to Austin Texas (via Chicago) bound for SXSW. It’s my first time in Texas so I’m looking forward to bumping into some famous Texans.

This coming Thursday I’m taking a plane from Manchester to Austin Texas (via Chicago) bound for SXSW. It’s my first time in Texas so I’m looking forward to bumping into some famous Texans.

OK, I can’t resist it. If you enjoyed Dealing with telephone salesmen, Dealing with window salesmen or Dealing with kitchen salesmen (and I hope you did) here is one last bash at cold callers.

London is most definately the place to be in June this year. Why? Well @media2005, that’s why! With speakers including Jeffrey Zeldman, Joe Clark, Douglas Bowman, Patrick Griffiths, Andy Budd, Jeremy Keith and, err, me … this looks like the web event of the…

When I was working (on my own) in the studio between Christmas and New Year, I played the Live Aid DVD which the guys bought me for my birthday.

Time travel. It’s a subject that often keeps me awake at night, pondering… So I thought I’d interview a bunch of bloggers to help me out. Thanks to Brit Packers Andy Budd, Simon Collison, Jon Hicks, Gordon Mackay, Tim Parkin and Richard Rutter.

Andy Budd wrote about Semantic Coding and said, This got me thinking about the benefits of naming conventions and I began to realise that these conventions matter, not just for the sake of web designers (and easier site redesigns), but for users too!

Carson Workshops have announced a second day and limited availability for the CSS for Designers Workshop in London. I am very pleased that demand for seats at the workshop has been so high as to require a second day.

About thirty years ago, my Mum had a friend called Reg, an ex-army chappy with a gruff manner and a rhodesian ridgeback dog called Simba. It was a huge creature. But this is not about Reg, or his dog.

While conferences are still at the front of my thoughts, I thought it about time to announce the WOW Web Design and Project Management Conference in Silicon Valley in September.