Going to @media 2005?
So, I just started looking at booking plane tickets and finding a decent but affordable hotel in London for the @media 2005 conference in June. Man, those hotels aren’t exactly cheap. Last time I went to London I think I got the plane ticket and a whole week of lodging for what one night at a hotel will cost me now. Groan.
Anyway, I was thinking it would be interesting to know who else is going. There will be a couple of official parties networking events, so there’s a chance to put a face to some names. I’ll need to brush up on my English before going though, or you’ll all think I’m the Swedish chef. Too bad I only write English every day – it’s much easier to spot an accent in speech than in writing.
Update: To make it a little bit easier for people to recognise me I have added a recent photo to this post. I’m wearing my normal, slightly sulky, expression. You should see me when I’m angry!
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Roger Johansson is a Swedish web professional specialising in web standards, accessibility, and usability. More about me and this site.
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Comments
I'll be there.
Great! I think I'll be able to recognise you from the nice sausage lunch pictures you were kind enough to post a while ago. Unless you shave and have a haircut ;-)
Damn it, you've discovered my plan! Even so I'll probably be the only guy there with a red logo (as opposed to blue) Gravatar t-shirt!
It will be good to meet you! :)
Excellent! Great to you hear that your coming - it'd be great to meet you!
Look forward to meeting you, Roger!
See you there Roger!
I might make it, not sure yet. Last time I was in london was 8 years ago, living on the floor in an aussie packed crib close to northern line. My accent made everyone think I was from Russia. Even the Swedish gay hairdresser close to Camden.
I wish. My boss wants me to pick a conference closer to home (Canada or USA), and the cost of airfare and accommodations is too much for me to shell out on my own.
I'm going. Sadly my company ignored my requests to be put up in a 5-star hotel, though, so I'll be at the Holiday Inn.
Gee, Roger, you write without an accent so don't worry. :)
I'll be there - I think a Swedish chef theme could really help you stand out from the crowd...
I've been having the same problems in finding a cheap hotel -- currently, I'm looking at the Days Hotel at Waterloo Station which is...well, it's under £100. Which isn't saying much, is it?
My boss said I could go, then the beancounters said I couldn't :(
I'd love to be there, but my or the company's funds won't stretch to a ticket, though I'm sure the enlightening Web related conversation and networking/party opportunites you mention will be great. Try Premier Travel Inn for a more reasonable priced hotel in London, the one's I've stayed in in Manchester aren't too bad. I'll look forward to reading about all the @Media 2005 happenings.
I'll be attending and it will be my first web type conference. I wonder how sad I am rated since I'm looking forward to it very much. :)
Get hold of a tube map and try finding a hotel further out. I live on the edge of London and its only an hour in. Plus all the prices for getting around on public transport are based on the middle of town so within Zone 1 is a rip off but zone 6 to zone 1 isn't too bad in comparison and you'll save a heap on the hotel. Failing that I can swap floor space for tickets :)
Hope to see you there, Roger. :)
As for hotels, Hilton isn't that expensive. I stayed at Hilton Gatwick three weeks ago. One night at a double-room 90£.
And since you live in Göteborg and the swedish plane-tickets are quite expensive, I would recommend you to get to Gardermoen, Norway and fly with Norwegian. Gardermoen -> Stansted costs aprox 300SEK (50$).
I WILL be going to London at the same time as @Media. Unfortunately I may only be able to attend the 'evening sessions'. I'm pretty sure I will bump into you at some point and I look forward to meeting you.
Astoundingly, my boss has granted me permission even though the whole of the rest of my team will be in Poland at the time and hence the office will be (gasp) empty (oh, apart from the other 25 people not in my team, that is). Looking forward to it after sighing enviously over all the excited posts about what fun everyone was having in Austin a couple of weeks back...
laterooms.com is often a good source of very cheap deals (more nearer the time), while visitengland.com is very good for finding nice B&Bs (though the layout breaks in Firefox).
Hi Roger,
It sure looks like @media is going to be fun. It'll be great to meet in the flesh some of the folks whose blogs I read each day.
As hotel chains go, Travelodge and Premier Travel Inn probably offer the most value for money if you're happy with their locations.
All the best,
-- Ian
Looks like I'll be able to meet a bunch of regular visitors to this place then :-) Thanks for the hotel and travel tips! I haven't decided on a hotel yet. (It will need to be decent as I'm bringing my girlfriend, so that pretty much rules out your offer for floor space, Rob ;-) )
Henrik: Actually plane tickets aren't that expensive here. Gothenburg -> Stansted is SEK 450 with Ryanair, so it would probably cost me more if I were to first go to Gardermoen (not to mention how much longer it would take).
Glad to hear you're going to be coming over, Roger. I'm really looking forward to meeting you. @media is shaping up to be a lot of fun.
Hi Roger, you can try this hotel: http://www.ukhotelnet.com/shakespeare-paddington-hotel-london.htm I stayed there for a night last year. It is not the Hilton but it is quite decent.
I asked my bosses if they can fund me to go to the event but I got a big no no. I still dont know if i can make it.
Have fun.
Ah, good.
Hilton is really descent, even the cheapest rooms are really well equipped, and hold a great overall standard. I highly recommend it.
Shame I can't come. Would love to. :(
Enjoy you stay in my country, Roger. You'll love london.
Roger - glad you're coming over. I'll see you there and we can talk about that liquid layout stuff (amongst other more interesting topics I'm sure).
Don't worry about the Swedish chef Roger, I actually like him, especially when he starts throwing stuff around :-P Glad to hear you come too. Looking forward to meet a 'turbo-writer' like you. I have always difficulties in catching up reading your blog :-D Your articles (and links) are just too good!
I may be there, coming back from an extended trip on the 10th or 11th. I won't be able to make the conference, but if there are any stragglers around I'd love to hook up...
So, the plane tickets aren't that hard to decide on since there are only a few options available... but the hotel. Uhh. There are like 20 million hotels in London, and I have no idea which are good and which aren't, and which neighbourhoods are less safe than others.
I looked at the Hilton hotels and they do look nice. Hilton London Euston seems like a good deal, but I'm not so sure about its location. A hotel closer to the venue is the Jolly St.ermins Hotel, which also looks very nice. Anyone happen to know if that would be a good place to stay?
Don't know either of the hotels but in terms of location I think you'd be better off at the Jolly St.ermines.
Don't know if you'll have any time for tourist stuff (and maybe you've done it all before), but you would be with in walking distance of Buck Pal, Westminster, Parliament, London Eye, and much of the West End.
As you point out, the conference would be closer too, although still a good 20 - 25 minutes walk I would guess - past Big Ben and over Westminster Bridge.
Euston ain't so nice to be honest (and probably a little less safe), although Waterloo (the venue) is only 6 stops south on the Northern Line. (12-13 mins). There's not much to see around their either.
Roger I am staying at an Express By Holiday Inn it is close to the venue located in Southwark Street. It is a hotel checked out by Patrick Griffiths one of organizers of @Media. You can find the url on the @Media website.
I somehow managed to reserve a room at the nearest Premier Travel Inn (County Hall) last night, which seems to have more rooms available than the Southwark one.
Anyway, happy to see how many familiar names are saying that they're going to be there.
Oh, and I've been pimping this everywhere else, so I may as well mention it again. There's an @media 2005 group on Flickr to give people (if they feel so inclined) the chance to put faces to names before going to the conference.
Look forward to seeing y'all there!
I'm going to be there :)
Also, I'll be staying at the Holiday Inn Express (Southwark) myself, so it seems I'll be seeing a few of the people here around there, too :)
Ok, I've finally made hotel reservations. I'll also be staying at the Southwark Holiday Inn. After looking at a few other higher rated hotels I decided that it's nice to be staying close to the venue. So I guess there's a good chance I'll run into Veerle and Faruk at breakfast ;-)
Ah, excellent! We should definitely meet up outside of the conference, then. I assume you're going to be checking in on the 8th at the hotel, too? And Veerle? Perhaps we could go for some dinner together :)
I'll be staying at that Holiday Inn too.
Hmmm... (starts thinking up some 'fixed or liquid' breakfast jokes for the Friday morning)
Oh come now, it's no fun if you're gonna be working off a list of prepared jokes ;)
I mean, yay, the more the merrier! :)
Googling for a "list" of people going there, I found this one. See you all there. Staying at the Southwark Holiday Inn. Guess I won't be alone for breakfast... ;-)
To all here (I know this is late, but... sorry):
I've compiled a list of people being present there -- feel free to add names to the list if you know of any! Having one large comprehensive list will make it easy for everyone to keep track of who all they are meeting for a first time :)
Well, I'm pleased to (finally) announce that I will definitely be there, and I can't wait to actually meet you! Looking forward to it
Matthew, Jan Tore: Seems like the Southwark Holiday Inn will be full of @media delegates.
Derek: Great!
All: To make it a little easier for you to recognise me if/when we meet, I have updated this post with a better photo of myself than the one on my About page.
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