Now in its seventh year, the Children's Media Conference has just taken place in Sheffield, city of steel. I attended for the first time this year, with the expectation of meeting industry players, attending some engaging talks and get more of an overview of the state of the industry as it stands now.

The Children's Media Conference is aimed at everyone involved in media for children, but whereas the spotlight used to be broadcast focused, digital has become central to the majority of debate and discussion being heard, to various degrees of understanding and engagement.

The first day brought with it a number of workshops designed to encourage discussion and stimulate creative solutions. Monetising digital platforms was one area discussed as well as the almost ubiquitous conference inclusion, the crossover lab, facilitating creative ideas and culminating with pitches being made to commissioners on the last day. I went ...

Read more

@media is the UK’s biggest web design and development conference, attended by companies and individuals from all over Europe, with sessions led by some of the world’s most respected experts in the field.

Although there are no stated themes, each year there are discernible patterns in the subjects of the sessions which act like a barometer for the prevailing topics in the web climate (terrible analogy, sorry). This year, there were three apparent themes: HTML5 (and the diminishing influence of Flash); user-centred design (UCD); and mobile—or, rather, the web on different devices.

HTML5 has become something of a public discussion point recently, with a great deal of confusion around what it actually means. Strictly defined, it is an updated specification for giving meaning and function to content; but in the public sphere, it seems to mean ‘everything that’s not Flash’. Doug Schepers’ talk on SVG fell ...

Read more

This year we had the honour of sponsoring Playful, a one-day event all about games and play. Organised by Toby Barnes and his team at Pixel-Lab, this year’s theme was ‘Cross Disciplinary Frolicking’.

Conway Hall was filled to the brim with great speakers, an eager audience and three gigantic tea urns pumping out tea and coffee all day. The day was jam-packed and I’ve written up some of my personal highlights:

'The Ashes'

I've met Tassos a couple of times and both occasions he has either talked about or has been watching cricket. His analysis of The Ashes as an ambient game experience for those watching, or listening to it was passionate and fun. He suggested the 'play' happened between the bowling and the overs and something we could all be involved in. It was a tough pre-lunch slot with enough mentions of cake to keep the ...

Read more

I've just got back from my first SXSW experience – highly rated for all those who haven't been. A huge thank you to James for organising everything, Eva for party bands and The Driskill for letting us adopt their foyer as our HQ.

The guise for my visit was an opportunity to sit on a panel exploring the future of visual story telling. Organised and moderated by James, he assembled a talented (and very nice) bunch of people including Mark Pytlik, Victoria Ha , Rick Webb. I'm still searching for a podcast of the panel discussion, but James did a write up of it for those interested.

(Sketch credit: Austin Kleon)

Rather surprisingly, not everyone enjoyed it! This is worth a quick look.

The subject of UX and planning came up towards the end of the discussion, so when I get time I will do a post on the ...

Read more