Luckily, I myself – as far as I know – never suffered any (mental) health problems since I started working. On the Web and before. But I know quite a number of people who did or do and sometimes I'm really astonished and surprised that this person really has or had to deal with mental health issues. It's hard to imagine what kind of issues someone has to deal with and how they actually become noticeable. I am pretty sure, that sometimes, people having problems even don't know they really have. For those examples I know of, the variety of where it led to ranges from “just” being tired and having to take a break up to the point that someone nearly killed him-/herself.
Next week, starting on October 3rd 2016, this year's Geek Mental Help Week is taking place. It is a week-long series of blog posts and articles, of conversations and podcasts, and also events, like the MK Geek Mental Help Night, all across the Web. Topics are covering mental health issues, but also how to help people who suffer.
And even if you are not affected, you are able to help and drive attention to the topic. Follow @geekmentalhelp and visit the Website to stay tuned. Oh, and spread the word, please … thanks.
Today I updated my Tweetbot desktop app on Mac to version 2.4.2. This update supports the lately introduced update to Twitter, which allows to post tweets without URLs or images counted into the 140 characters of Twitter.
I had the honour of speaking at From the Front, an event for designers and developers, which was held yearly in Bologna, a beautiful town in Italy. I enjoyed every minute of it and had the rare chance to bring my wife and my youngest daughter with me as my other two kids had been aways with their school.
I gave a talk in Bristol earlier this year, which went pretty well and was about the “The Human Side of Event Organisation”. I am not speaking very often, therefore I was quite nervous. Especially as my talk contained some very personal stuff to underline the core idea I had with it. But from the feedback I got after the talk and in the bar later as well as what I read on Twitter, people seem to have liked it.
More importantly, and the actual reason for writing this post, I wanted to thank the people behind the event. Marco, Rocco, Emanuala, Franceso and everybody who’s name I did not mention (so sorry!). I know how hard it is to put up such an event and to have an eye for the details and take care of the people you invite to come – the attendees and the speakers. I am very sad that – hopefully only for now – From the Front came to an end with this year’s edition. We need events like this, where people care about things. Thanks to all of you and hopefully see you soon!
As I promised yesterday, here is my set of photos from Smashing Conference 2016 in Freiburg. After ten years of running Smashing Magazine, it was time to throw some cake and cupcakes, not to forget the very addictive chocolate fountain.
Back from a two-week trip via Cologne, Brighton, Freiburg and Bologna. Now I finally found time to select a few photos which you can find on Flickr. I had a great time at all events and my talk in Bologna went pretty well, I think.
Before I upload the Smashing Conference Freiburg photos, here are the shots from Reasons To in Brighton. I hope they summarise what a great time I had at the tenth event, formerly known as Flash on the Beach.
In about 3 hours I am going to leave for the third edition of NightlyBuild. I’m looking forward to meet a lot of people there. I haven’t seen Bruce for a while and, man, it must be ages ago since I’ve had dinner with Stephen in Amsterdam, which was the last time I’ve seen him.
I gonna take my camera with me to capture the vibe and moment at the event and you can later see what you have missed, when you visit my Flickr account.
At the end of June, Marco Cedaro asked me, if I'd like to come and speak at From The Front in Bologna, Italy. I knew that this talk would take place during a time that is hectic already and not only because beyond tellerrand // BERLIN is close, but also because I attend quite a few events in September. But I always wanted to attend From The Front anyways and never made it. So I used this chance to be part of this event, even though I am now speaking and not only attending.
I planned to write my talk early, but it proved again, that I need this certain kind of pressure to get productive and therefore I just started working on the presentation beginning of this week. As I start to travel on Friday from Cologne to Brighton to Freiburg to Bologne, there is not much time left other than this week to finish it.
Marco said:
The conference topic is related to change and for us it would be really interesting for you to share your experience in organising tech events.
I gave a talk, where I spoke about insights of running my beyond tellerrand events at ConfConf, but felt like this would be too much detail for the talk in Bologna. Therefore I called my presentation “Change” and try to focus on the “why” and the motivation of running the events. It – of course – has something to do with the community we work in/for/with. But it also was my wish to change something in my life, when I started thinking of running the event.
This is the description of the talk:
Change
Have you ever felt this strange feeling in your gut that tells you that a job offer you got is one you should better not accept? Or when you had a job interview, that you thought, you’d be quite happy when you are out of it again? Maybe also if you are in a position, where you feel good in general, but from time to time you think about changing something. Maybe because small things in your daily business start to annoy you, maybe, because you always wanted to do a certain thing … maybe it is time to change something an follow your inner voice.
This talk is about a personal story and how it led to somethings that I highly enjoy doing. Every day. But is also is about the importance of community and meeting people in real life.
If you want to join me on this little journey, grab a ticket and come to Bologna.
10 years ago my friend John Davey started his event called Flash on the Beach. By that time, I was running the Flashforum Konferenz (FFK in short) as a spin of from and the member of the German Flash community Flashforum. Sascha Wolter was speaking at this event and had a +1 to give away, which he gave to me. And I am glad he did, since i met one of my best friends these days, who was organising this event.
The moment John and I met and exchanged ideas and experiences of running an event and especially of running our events was, when John and I recognised that we are thinking the same way a lot. We spoke more often, he came to my events, I went to his (and I only missed one event in New York so far!) and we even started to travel around the world, attending other events to meet people and to somehow educate us. You learn a lot, when visiting other events - in a positive and negative way. It got to a point that it felt we were spending more time together than with our own family and people also attending or speaking at events assumed that when I was at an event, John would be there as well and vice vera.
John had, I think I can say this, the most famous and successful event of the “Flash world”. Around 1200 people attended his 3-day 3-theater festival of creative minds from various fields. Highly technical talks, mixed with amazingly creative session, this was what made a fantastic mix in terms of the content, but also the people coming to this event where always truly special. During those ten years, I met so many fantastic people at reasons and made a lot of friends and I always was and always am very much looking forward to the time of the year, when I travel to Brighton.
John made the decision of changing the name of the event from Flash on the Beach to Reasons to be Creative and Reasons To now. And what changed content wise? Not much I have to say and that is good! The focus of John always was on finding creative people and creativity has no limits and is not only reserved or present in the Graphic Design industry or the Design industry in General. People like Mario Klingemann, Jared Tarbell, Joshua Davis and André Michelle (just to mention a few of the long list) have shown and proven this. Sure, nowadays Flash might not be the tool of their choice, but it is not about tools anyways, but about technology someone chooses to express his/her ideas. So yes, the name of this event has changed, but the heart and the idea has not.
I myself always leave this event pumped with new ideas and inspiration. With new energy to try something different and to look into something I never thought of before. I always leave also with good memories about the conversations I had and the people I had these conversations with. And this is, when I think, I can say this is a great event.
Congrats, John, for a fantastic event and thanks for running this event for already ten years for us!
I made the mistake and started watching Stranger Things on Netflix. Of course I had to watch all 8 episodes nearly in one go. Don’t know exactly what it is, but this series somehow caught me. It reminds me of movies from the 80’s like ET, Back to the Future, Goonies or a Stephen King novel. Not only the way it is filmed and written, but also how the actors play, the dialogues, the typography and the overall feeling. Guess I was exactly their target group somehow.
