I’m writing this blog post while eating some of the amazing Lindt chocolates I got for free 10 days ago at Frontend conference in Zurich. But it wasn’t a good experience only because of them!
First of all, it gave me the opportunity to visit Zurich for free, and meet an old friend for the first time. A girl we used to be penpals with at primary school & junior high when she was still living in Athens and I in Lesvos. She is now living in Zurich and doing her PhD in ETH. I arrived in Zurich a day earlier and stayed in her place that first night. We caught up and I had a great time.
Secondly, the rest of the speakers are great people and fun too, it was a pleasure to meet them. Especially Smashing Magazine’s Vitaly Friedman. He’s a very kind guy, nothing like what you’d expect from somebody so successful. I also got the chance to meet Robert again, who was lots of fun as always. Those Swedes have a great sense of humor!
The conference itself was very nice, although small (only 200 people). Many inspiring talks, although I couldn’t attend them all because they were split into multiple tracks in one day. I would very much prefer it if it had 1 track and was 2 days. The 2nd day was an unconference, where attendees could speak, about whatever they wanted. I decided to get some sleep the second day, so I arrived a bit later, and didn’t attend many talks. It was kinda sad that it finished so early, around 4pm almost everyone was gone and most speakers were flying back the same day.
My talk went great, although I had the most technical glitches I’ve ever faced in a talk. That was my fault, not the conference’s. I guess I should learn to stop tweaking my slides at the last moment, cause things might break (and this time they did). Despite those glitches however, the audience loved it. Here’s a small sample of the twitter feedback I got:
https://twitter.com/smash\_it\_on/status/112107410155515904
If you read the above carefully, you might have noticed that my talk was recorded, so you can see it too. :) Enjoy!