Juggling thoughts and inspiration – #btconf25

Coming back home from the beyond tellerrand conference in Düsseldorf has always been like being energized and exhausted at the same time. But this year I feel like this effect is even stronger.

Back in 2015 when I attended #btconf for the first time I went there on my very own – on purpose. I was sure that if I would take a colleague or a friend of mine with me, it would prevent me from getting in touch with others. And it worked! I met new people in 2015 and I did so every year. Over time a feeling of #Klassenfahrt evolved. So I was very much looking forward to seeing all the lovely people again and (of course) meet new ones – spoiler: It worked!

The atmosphere at beyond tellerrand is unique. As soon as you arrive at the location you can feel the positive vibe of this event and the love Marc puts into every single detail. It’s the artwork, the music (live performed by Tobi Lessnow) and so on. In the exhibition you can not only find the sponsors and their booths, but also information about projects for a good cause like skate-aid.

Quite a lot of people attend beyond tellerrand regularly. Over the years you get to know each other and it’s always a pleasure to meet again. But as in 2015, I always try to make new contacts and talk to interesting people. Especially when I meet someone I only knew as avatar from social media or other online communities so far. And I no longer shy away from approaching the speakers and exchanging a few words with them. Which brings me to the …

I don’t pay too much attention to the list of speakers and what they will talk about before the event. Marc has always had a good feeling for which speakers he invites and how to create a great schedule. In this way it’s kind of a surprise for me. I would like to highlight a few of the talks from this year which I like the most.

Opening the event is not easy, but Paula Zuccotti did a great job with her talk “Every Thing We Touch“. As part of this project she met interesting people from all over the world who live very different lives. She asked them to bring all the things with them which they touch on a daily basis and arranged it for a nice photo. The talk left me thinking about wich things would be on my photo and if there are other things I would like to use more often!?

Léonie Watson dealt with the use of AI and all its facets, and also took a critical look at the negative aspects with her talk “There Is No Spoon“. If you are familiar with the first Matrix movie, you probably know which spoon she was talking about. From an accessibility point of view AI can definitely be a game changer, especially for blind people like her because image recognition has made a huge process in the last time.

“Less Thinkering More Tinkering“ was the last talk of day one and it was like a ride in a (pink) rollercoaster. Gavin Strange is a designer and director who works at Aardman – the company behind Wallace & Gromit. His energy level and his level of excitement was unbelievable. He showed some of his work and it was so inspiring to see him bringing his stupid (in a very positive way!) ideas to live. If you have an idea and want it to become reality – do it!

Matthias Ott kicks off day two with “Painting With the Web“. His calm manner was almost exactly the opposite of how the day before ended. Nevertheless it was very inspiring and a great reminder to use the cool new feature CSS offers. He encourages designers to bypass the limitations of current design tools and instead work directly in the browser when appropriate. It is often sufficient to implement certain functions as a prototype. But developers should also not shy away from dealing with Design and thus increasing the intersection between the disciplines. I know Matthias for some time now and was very much looking forward to seeing him on stage. Very well done, Matthias!

If you know Smashing Magazine or anything else from the Smashing Universe, Vitaly Friedman is a name you already heard for sure. He showed an excerpt of his giant presentation “Inclusive Design Patterns“ (with over a thousand slides!) and talked about aspects of accessibility which you might not think about in the first place. His enthusiasm for the topic was clear to see, and not just because he stretched the time frame a little and was hard to get off the stage.

For more impressions you should have a look at the website of Florian Ziegler and the beyond tellerand collection of his photo blog. A few photos are already online. Usually there will be an update some days after the event.

It’s hard to organize conferences like beyond tellerrand these days. If you follow Marc on social media you might have noticed already. But just like the independent web or the indie music scene we should try to support independent conferences, too. So do yourself a favor and meet me and the #Klassenfahrt gang next year in Düsseldorf – or grab a ticket for the Berlin edition in November!

Until then, I’ll try to sort all the thoughts and inspiration of the last days which I am still juggling in my head …