Striking out on my own last year, one of my key motivations was to have the freedom to travel. I wanted to be able to hop in my car and go anywhere, anytime.
Well, that plan hasn’t exactly panned out. Sure, I’ve gone on a few trips—the trip to Palo Alto for a job interview that didn’t work out, a trip to Montréal to see my brother, and numerous trips to Toronto to hang with my friend Avery—but nothing like the cross-continent exploring I had envisioned as I left my old office that wonderful May afternoon.
All that is about to change as I have a number of trips lined up for the coming months, the first of which is to the wonderful city of New York, New York to attend this year’s Brooklyn Beta.
I, like thousands of other designers and developers, blinked at exactly 12 noon the day the Brooklyn Beta tickets went on sale and therefore missed my opportunity to purchase a ticket. Undeterred, I began making plans with my designer friend Mike Precious to head to Brooklyn anyway to hob nob and rub shoulders with those who would be attending the conference.
Then, last week I got a surprising email from one Christian Ross—yes, that Christian Ross—offering me his ticket to the event. To say I was blown away by his generosity is an understatement. To say he should be expecting a year’s subscription to a certain colourful notebook brand pretty soon is a factual statement.1
So, now I’m going to Brooklyn Beta, my first ever web design/development conference. Ever. And man, I’m nervous.
You see, some of the people listed as attendees are people I’ve always believed to be no larger than a 48×48px. But before me they will stand, some of the greats of our industry. Andy McMillan, organizer of Build and publisher of The Manual; Brian Hoff, writer at The Design Cubicle; Cameron Moll, whose job titles would take a post of its own; Dan Cederholm, creator of Dribbble after he basically invented CSS, right?; Dan Mall, brilliant designer at Big Spaceship; Dave Rupert and Trent Walton of Paravel, one of my favourite web shops today; I’m not even half way through the list and I’m going nuts wrapping my head around the people attending this event, not to mention other friends who are planning to make the trek to meet up.
Needless to say, there are a ton of people I have admired for a long time, people who have taught me the knowledge and skills I now make a living with, who for a few short days will be within glancing distance.
I’m excited. I’m nervous. I really need to go buy some more oxford shirts and chinos or something. Damnit, I wish I had more time to buy some Threadless tees.
See you in October, New York.
- There was a bit of a mixup over the weekend, but the people at Brooklyn Beta have gone above and beyond to make things right.