Logically, the next step after perusing through the excellent FOWA London archive was to travel forward in time and view the Future of Web Design – New York 2008 videos.

At first I felt disappointed in the ammount of materials available. After a quick check it turns out that I liked 25% of the materials vs. the 10% of really excellent talks in the previous conference. Quality vs. quantity I guess. Each are good depending on your mood.

Of the New York talks, I found the following to be the most useful.

• Web Design Fundamentals: Learning from the past to better the future by Patrick Haney
• Educating clients to say yes by Paul Boag

Of course, Paul Boag really steals the show here and rightly so. His presentation is jam packed with a metric butt ton of valuable insight into dealing with and educating clients.

You would think this is one of those rare once in a conference speaches but honestly, he does an amazing job on almost every time he opens his mouth. I highly recommend you take a auditory gander at the Boagworld Web Design Podcast if  you work in the web industry. Always excellent education, insightful interviews and amusing banter too.

I’ve been pretty busy and productive in the last few months. New rental condo, furniture procurement, learning new tech, spending more time with family and very recently, purchasing a new (used) car.

Now that things are more in order I find I am able to choose were to spend my time. Frequently this involves thinking about previous initiatives that were placed on hold since they were not crucial either my wife or myself.

One such goal was to peruse all the free videos from last year’s Future of Web Apps – London 2008 conference.

Of all the London talks, I found the following to be the most useful.

• The Fear Factor by Tim Bray
• Technology & Psychology by Suw Charman-Anderson
• Future Mobile by Stefan Fountain (I recommend skipping the self advertising in the middle unless you really like Knight Rider)
• How to grow and nurture your community by Kathy Sierra
• How to build a desktop app from your web app by Jeremy Baines

I truly appreciate Carsonified for posting these materials. I am also proud to say I will be attending their upcoming FOWA Miami event on February 24th as a paying customer.