Speak the Web is a series of small, intimate, low cost web design & development events put together in the style of a gig. Liverpool-Live went along to the fab Leaf Tea Shop & Bar to see what all the fuss was about.
Another city, another sold out venue... Organisers of Speak the Web - Dan Donald and Rich Clark - have certainly found their niche market with this series of relaxed events. Having already taken the brand to Sheffield and Leeds, people had travelled from all over the UK to attend the penultimate leg of this tour before the show moves down the M62 to Manchester.
The Leaf Tea venue was perfect in size and location with plenty of seating along with an array of lovely looking cakes on offer. The only gripe was that there was limited mobile service from within the Grade II listed converted warehouse, but the lack of network coverage certainly served to increase the concentration levels among the guests.
First up was Jake Smith a front-end developer and director at JP74, a digital agency which bridges the gap between designers and coders. Jake's presentation centered on the use of font in web design and in turn, how licensing of typeface affects the industry. It proved a perfect time for the first design joke of the evening... Two fonts walk into a bar, and the barman says, "sorry lads, we don't serve your type".
After a short break including a raffle for prizes donated by the night's sponsors, Patrick Lauke - a self proclaimed web evangelist from the Developer Relations team at Opera Software - took to the platform to discuss the latest development in browser language HTML5. Patrick gave an informative presentation looking at new features incorporated into the language while showing examples of what can be achieved with the new developments.
The most engaging presentation came from Simon Collison co-founder of Erskine Design. Announcing that he was on 'some really good painkillers' he had the room in fits of laughter recalling a strange dream he'd had involving 'trap doors', 'Rizla paper' and a number of 'Anne Hathaways?' all executed in his Dave Gorman style delivery. Moving away from the technical side of the web, Simon focused instead on design concept with the tagline 'Design to Communicate'. He brought the message that a website design should be engaging, simple and in context with the brand it represents.
I felt that the content was delivered in a manner that an intermediate like myself could understand, without patronising the professionals at the same time. And, while some of the detail went over my head I came away with more than enough to think about with regards to the development of this website and others that I will look to develop in the future.
The overall aim of the project is to bring experts in design and web based systems to easily accessible events for minimal cost and the organisers have definitely achieved this. The venture is also non-profit, with any money left over supporting a local charity. Good Work
www.thisisleaf.co.uk
www.speaktheweb.org
