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I realise I’m hideously behind with blogging about lots of geeky stuff, but here goes. Apologies if you were expecting this sooner!

This year’s dConstruct was a lot larger than I was expecting: the last time I went in 2006 there was a comfortable number of folks there, and it felt really friendly. I didn’t go in 2007 as it clashed with the Rugby World Cup opening game in Paris. But this year there were about 500 attendees who gathered at the Dome in Brighton for the event. I found it a little difficult to find people, even though I knew they were there, as there were so many folks milling about during the breaks.

Here are a few photos I took during the event:

[Above] Aleks Krotoski on Playing the Web: how gaming makes the internet (and the world) a better place. Listen to the audio (mp3).

[Left] Joshua Porter talks about Leveraging Cognitive Bias in Social Design. Listen to the audio (mp3).

Daniel Burka [below] talked about Designing For Interaction. Listen to the audio (mp3).

Next up was Tantek Çelik, talking at length about Social Network Portability and how Microformats can help you to take your friends with you to a new network. Listen to the audio (mp3).

The two Matts, Biddulph and Jones, [below] did a two-handed presentation called Designing For The Coral Reef. They talked about “delighters” – little things which are present in design which can really make the difference to the user experience. Listen to the audio (mp3).

Clearlefter Jeremy Keith wrapped up the event with a thought-provoking session entitled The System Of The World. There doesn’t seem to be an adio transcript of that available.

I’ve been in a dilemma for the past few days. Ever since finding out that d.Construct2007 and BarCampBrighton are scheduled for 7th, 8th & 9th of September, it’s posed me a problem. Which is that it’s the exact same dates that the Rugby World Cup starts in France, and the opening games with France vs Argentina and then England vs USA are the ones I want to go to.

So, there’s been some weighing up of pro’s and con’s, and I’ve just booked the rugby trip! I figured that, even though I had a great time at last year’s d.Construct, since it’s an annual event, there’s always 2008 – whereas World Cups only come round once every four years – and the next one is in New Zealand – hardly a convenient hop across the channel!

The worse-case scenario would have been me prevaricating for so long that tickets to both events had sold out. So I thought it best to jump now and forever hold my peace

Otherwise known as the dConstruct Party…

But first, I’d like to say what a great time I had at the conference. Some really informed and informative speakers; nice venue (apart from the pokey seats) and plenty of subjects to get the braincells working. And of courese, plently of opportunity to meet like-minded geeks for beer, chat and crazy golf!

Here’s some of my pictures taken around the after-party.

[Sunset over the wreckage of the West Pier]

[Bright On Neon. OK, bad pun]

[Ross and his Paps on the crazy golf circuit]

[Who ate all the pies? A conference-goer wishes to remain anonymous]

You can see all my d.Construct/Brighton images at Flickr.

I met some great people, amongst whom were:

• Ian Forrester
• Jeffrey Veen
• Jeremy Keith
• Olly Hodgson
• Robert Lee-Cann
• Ross Bruniges
• Sheila Farrell

The other great thing about the conference was the excellent backnetwork site – no problems if you forgot to get someone’s card; just look them up later, or read their aggregated blog posts and view their Flickr pictures, all in one place. Every con’ should have one!

Lastly, here’s a cheeky little desktop which I spotted during the first session of the day – great to stop the Over The Shoulder Snoopers?

[Stop Looking At My Screen!]