FOWA08
Open Talk at FOWA08, originally uploaded by JonnyMoss.
It’s been a hectic but excellent week, and still a day to go!
I’m attending the Future of Web Apps in London, at Excel, Docklands, and it has been an excellent first day. The week started coming down to London on good old Hull trains which was manageable and then headed into the city to meet with a good friend who has an amazing place just round the corner from Leicester Square. We managed to get to the Monmouth Street Coffee Shop and had a good catch up.
From there it was up to North London to stay with Anand, and we had some amazing Indian food, all home cooked by his wonderful wife. (I always look forward to the food!).
Tuesday morning compounded my view that London is great to visit but not to live in. A sweaty, crowded tube journey into Tottenham Court Road from North London, was more akin to a third world country. Awful. Anyone commuting on the tube every day, I truly pity you.
Tuesday day was an all day client meeting, and this was a bit of an eye opener. Old school DM, PR and agency strategy is alive and well, believe me. Had to bite my tongue on a number of occasions and was dismayed at some truly dreadful push, push, push tactics. It was then a private car down to Docklands to the Britannia International Hotel, which provides sedatives for when you enter your room and are greeted by a rainbow of bad colours and decor. Poor old Ian didn’t get down to London to late, so we did a midnight run the West End to his offices and had a late dinner in the excellent Wagamammas and then a hot choccy from Bar Italia.
After a somewhat awful sleep (Ian is a snoring world record holder), we headed to Excel to check out the exhibition build of FOWA. Having made the mistake of following a shocking night’s sleep with zero breakfast, we collapsed into All Bar One on Regent Street for a full English, juice and coffee. Ian scooted back to Docklands and I managed to have some most excellent relaxation at Libertys, where I found Murdocks. A traditional men’s barber, Murdocks, was just superb and I had a haircut and a wet shave. The last time I had a proper wet shave was over 14 years ago at the Harrods Barber shop.
From here, it was to the shrine for some worshiping and a small purchase. Then home, another run to the West End, dinner in South Kensington and a late return. Sum of all of this? Shattered!
Then today it was the first full day of FOWA, kicked off my the big Keynote from Digg’s Kevin Rose. This was hugely dissapointing to be honest. Short, and rather basic. Sorry Kevin, I was expecting so much more! The rest of the day’s speakers were ok, nothing brilliant, and I am now back at the hotel using the lobby WiFi. (I got the train from Excel to Canary Wharf and went to the Canada Squre shopping place for some dinner).
I did get to talk to Ted and Crick from Ribbit today which was great. I blogged about them a while ago and they then featured me on their blog. I am expecting great things of them!
Night all, time for some sleep! (and dreaming about a 10″ MacBook Air!).
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