I don’t even know how many conferences I’ve been to in the last decade, but it’s probably 30-40. In that time, maybe 2-3 conferences have really nailed the conference badge for attendees. Here’s what the ideal conference badge should look like, in my opinion:
I’ll walk you through the important features of this badge:
- Each attendee’s first name needs to be large and easily readable. When you’re walking up to someone and they look half-familiar, you want to be able to glance down at their badge and see a first name that will jog your memory or allow you to greet them. The last name and company name don’t matter as much, so they should be smaller to make more room for the first name.
- Make the badge big. Four inches by six inches maybe.
- At every conference, about half the people are walking around with their badge facing backwards so […]
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Written by on January 8th, 2009 with no comments.
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I have a pet theory that you can tell a lot about a city by paying attention to its signage. So I like to keep my eyes open when I’m in a new place and take pictures of things that strike me as especially interesting. When I was down in Los Angeles, here are a few of the signs that I saw:
Yes, you really can get plastic surgery on Rodeo Drive:
Here’s a 90210 sign:
What’s unusual about that? Well, I also saw an different 90210 ad with the letters sideways, but it looked like the actors had been photoshopped into the second ad with the same poses. Ah, here we are:
That’s just distracting. They could have at least changed the poses around a little bit. Let’s see, I also visited a book store in Los Angeles. When you buy a copy of Beowulf, you get a script book from the movie:
Fitness […]
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Written by on October 27th, 2008 with no comments.
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I’m not-in-California for a few days, so expect light posting. If you want to try to guess where I’m visiting, I may start posting “Where is Matt?” hints on my Twitter stream for people that want to play along.
While I’m gone, enjoy the Android coverage. Even though I love my iPhone, I think lots of people appreciate the concept of an open phone. To the people that point out potential flaws, I would mention Android’s software will only get better. And I love the ideas behind the Amazon music store where you can buy MP3s and listen to them on any device. If a Shazam-like application is coded for Android, I have a hunch that a lot of people will be impulse-buying music any time they hear a song they like.
Lastly, you should really check out Project 10^100. Also known as “May Those Who Help The Most Win,” it’s Google’s […]
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Written by on September 24th, 2008 with no comments.
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I’m up to my ears in email from last week, but I had a great time down in Los Angeles and at SIGGRAPH:
I’ll try to write up a little bit about the trip, but for now I’m gearing up for SES San Jose. Places to find me:
- I’ll be on a keynote panel on Tuesday. By the way, I don’t know who put my title as “Software Engineer Guru,” but it wasn’t me.
- I’ll be at the Google Dance on Tuesday night.
- I’ll be roaming the halls and attending sessions, especially on Tuesday and Wednesday.
If you see me, please walk up and say hello! I’d love to hear your thoughts about things that Google should be doing.
By the way, the LED cube in this image is this project.
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Written by on August 18th, 2008 with no comments.
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I’m going to be down in Los Angeles for the SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference next week, but I hope to have a little sightseeing free time. What would you recommend seeing or doing in Los Angeles?
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Written by on August 8th, 2008 with no comments.
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SES London was really fun last year, but in 2008 I’m mostly staying closer to home. If you’re attending SES London this week, please say hello to Adam Lasnik and Luisella Mazza. It also looks like Maile Ohye, Shuman Ghosemajumder, and several other Googlers will be speaking as well.
Here’s the places I plan on speaking in the first half of 2008:
February 26-28, 2008: Next week I will be doing a couple sessions for SMX West, including a Linking Q&A panel. What sounds even more fun is the trivia-quiz “Search Bowl” that I’m doing with fellow Googler Paul Haahr. It sounds like a fun, casual event to answer search trivia questions. Other search engines will field teams, plus an SEO team will play as well.
April 18-21, 2008: I’m speaking at the Domain Roundtable conference in San Francisco. I couldn’t pass up a chance to attend a conference about domain names when […]
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Written by on February 18th, 2008 with no comments.
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I won’t be doing many (any?) posts over Thanksgiving — my grandfather’s birthday is this weekend, and I’m spending the time visiting with family. On the bright side, I wrapped up my logistical project today, and I’m looking forward to blogging a little more after Thanksgiving. I also taped three videos when I visited the webmaster console team in Kirkland a few weeks ago, so we might be able to get those up too.
If you’re looking for fun things over the holiday weekend, here are some things I’ve enjoyed recently:
DVD:
- Ratatouille is excellent. It’s family-friendly, but it’s also very clever.
- I played soccer in high school, so I’m a sucker for fun soccer movies (Shaolin Soccer and Bend it Like Beckham come to mind). I really liked Gracie. It’s fascinating to read how the movie is grounded in real life. Gracie is one of the few movies where I’ve watched […]
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Written by on November 20th, 2007 with no comments.
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I’m booking my trip to Vegas for PubCon, which starts in a couple weeks. Does anyone know what hotels will have lots of webmasters hanging out late? Which hotel are you staying in?
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Written by on November 18th, 2007 with no comments.
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I just flew back from Kentucky, and boy are my arms tired. My brother is getting married in early September — woohoo!! — so on Friday my wife and I flew to Kentucky for a wedding shower. We flew back today. It was really nice to see lots of family and friends and wear my Ale-8 T-shirt with pride.
The only real downside (other than all that flying time) is that I’m several days behind on email now. Not the situation that I’d like when going into a multi-day search conference tomorrow, but such is life. If you see me at the conference, please say hello! Also be on the lookout for several other Googlers who will be presenting or hanging out at the webmaster tools booth.
Last but not least, here’s a really useful piece of advice. If you’re attending the Google Dance on Tuesday night at Google’s headquarters, don’t […]
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Written by on August 19th, 2007 with no comments.
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