AEA Seattle
Published 18 years, 2 weeks pastWith AEA Austin looming just ahead, it’s probably well past time for me to say something about AEA Seattle. Hey, what’s a couple of months between friends?
I’ve only been to Seattle once before, not counting a plane-to-car connection on my way to Vancouver, and that was four years ago for Web Design World. I didn’t get a lot of time to see the city back then, so I was glad to get in a day early for AEA and hang out with Jeffrey. As it turns out, we spent most of that Sunday exploring the Pike Street Market. You might think that wouldn’t be a particularly lengthy or interesting activity, but for Jeffrey and me, there were many and varied delights to be found in the nooks and crannies of the sprawling complex.
Also, we were there just at the height of the Fifth Annual Buskers’ Festival, so there was quite a variety of entertainment to be had. All in all, I had a great time drinking in some of the local flavor of Seattle, even if I passed on drinking coffee at the original Starbucks. We put some photos up on Flickr, though not so many of mine as of Jeffrey’s. There is also the usual event Flickr pool, if you’re in to that sort of thing.
The event itself was great. The venue, the Bell Harbor International Conference Center, was flat-out fantastic. I had no idea there was a venue possessing an entire auditorium filled with Aeron chairs and stable wifi, but there it was, and we were in it. Lights, sound, projection—everything was top-notch and seamless. For anyone who wants to do an event for 200 – 300 people, I’d definitely look at Bell Harbor. They have some smaller rooms as well, and while they might not be quite as sweet as the main auditorium, the professional service would be no different.
Our feedback indicates that people liked what they heard, except me during the critiques. Apparently, I came off as something of a jerk. I’d been aiming for humorously blunt, which in retrospect was a mis-step—not because it came off wrong, but because it’s a poor fit for my public demeanor, which is why it came off wrong. Live and learn.
So belated thanks to everyone who came down to the waterfront to see us do our thing, including one person from deep in my past… but that story will have to wait for another time.
Comments (7)
Next time we’ll have to go out to and grab some sushi. It’s wonderful here.
For what it’s worth, I thought you were hilarious, and understood that the “jerky” bits were sort of tongue-in-cheek.
I guess that means we are in a race to see which one of us is slowest to post that one photo. :-)
Hey Eric!
Yeah I got a few great laughs from your responses to the critiques. Seemed to me it was all friendly, but if one were not to get that sort of dry humor, it could be taken the wrong way.
sounds awesome! i hope to make it to AEA sometime soon. anything plans for coming around the carolinas?
tim
I thought your “humorously blunt” critiques were hilarious, and even more importantly they were all right on the mark. If people didn’t understand your humor then I feel sorry for them – but regaurdless your bluntness at the very least got some important points across. I know that I’m going to make sure more people from my company are in attendance next time AEA is near by.
One day at AEA Seattle was great, but two days would have been even better. Expanding AEA to two days is a good move. I’ll have to see if I can get my employer to pony up again at some point.
I have no recollection of you being jerky, excessively or even at all. In general, the work that was submitted for critique needed help — the whole point of a critique.
I personally thought that, if at all, you all erred slightly on the side of being excessively nice about the sites being critiqued.