Feb 15
Web Directions North, the story
2007 at 07.09 pm posted by Veerle
Web Directions North is over and I am still sick, but at least I now had the doctor coming over and he prescribed me some medication. When we arrived in Canada we hang out with Jeremy Keith and Dave Shea and enjoyed the local coffee art as you’ll see when I upload my pictures. It’s really cool what they do with the milk. You got to see them doing it to better grasp it but they wouldn’t let us film it.
The conference and my session.
One big disadvantage of having to speak on the last day is that you don’t get to see the sessions because you use the extra time to prepare and rehearse. It’s in my nature to try to make things as perfect as possible. From what I saw and from what Geert told me the conference was very well organized and everything started on time. John, Maxine, Derek and Dave did a great job in making this a success. One of the more fascinating things that Geert told me is a new way of embedding Flash into a webpage via CSS. It’s something that Aaron Gustafson came up with and I’m sure we will hear about it a lot in the coming weeks. I’ve always known Aaron was a really smart guy :)
Before it was our turn I felt that my energy level was way too low and I felt tired. I had this feeling the day before too. I had trouble concentrating and such, a headache, trouble sleeping etc. I thought OK, this is just a jetlag. So at lunch before I got to speak I forced myself to eat something more then just a salad and hoped that this would do the trick. I kept saying to myself, “you’re gonna do fine”. The first part of our talking worried me since I had to speak for a while and I had trouble remembering all the sentences while I was rehearsing. I though OK, if I have my notes with me I’ll be fine. That was such stupid mistake. I should have just kept keywords and bullet lists with me not the full notes. The first part didn’t go well at all, the 2nd part did and I enjoyed that part. I didn’t rehearse any of that, for me this was easy and it was entertaining I think. There was some laughter now and then. Guess I learned my lesson not to try too hard or it blows up in your face. The 3rd part was also OK and the 4th part...we’ll we never got to the 4th part. People were asking questions in between and that broke our schedule totally. I got the feeling I only said 50% of what I prepared. I’m still not sure how I feel about it all to be honest. Lots of people came to me they really enjoyed our session so I’m happy to hear this. I’m hard on myself, I’m a perfectionist :) I try to remember part 2, the Geeky Chix part which was fun. Dave being the client and I the designer. I hope to launch the site pretty soon (before I leave for SXSW).
The final session of Jared Spool was the only session I saw and it was really unbelievable. Man is he an entertaining speaker and even when I was already half sick I still managed to hear all of it.
Skiing
On Friday Geert and I did a half day of skiing so that was nice and I was glad that I still had it in me after all those years. I had a terribly headache but I forgot about it when I was at the very top of Whistler mountain, skiing down with the iPod earplugs in. Geert waited for me in the mid station so I was on my own skiing my own speed. I was following signs but then it appeared I wasn’t following the right ones and I had to ask directions. A couple handed me a map since they could miss one. I was going in the wrong direction but thanks to the map I made it back just fine. I just skied a bit faster to make sure Geert wasn’t worried. It’s really a long way up to the very top and a long trip down, which is wonderful. Geert did pretty well too for his second time. Whistler is nice but just too bad it was foggy and grey. I really would have liked to see some blue skies and sun. After the skiing we went to the Microsoft lounge to eat and talk. They did a great job in making us feel comfortable and supply us with everything we needed. That’s when I started to feel that my voice was going completely away and my throat was really soar. I did loose my voice for a bit already at the party the evening before but I thought that was just because of the music and trying to talk above it. I also had this terribly headache that wouldn’t go away. I just thought it was because I was tired but apparently there was more going on. I stayed in the lounge the rest of the afternoon since I wasn’t up for anymore skiing. It just took all my energy already.
Being sick in foreign country
The next day was the worst day in my life so far. My head and throat did hurt so much that even moving on another side in the bed was too much. I couldn’t get out of bed, I cried because of the pain and also because Geert needed to wake up at 6 am to return the ski boots. He was already starting to feel the same thing only he thought he could make it through the day and didn’t want to bother someone else with all the returning hassle. Since then the story is that we both stayed in bed as much as possible to get better for our long trip back home. It’s on those occasions you suddenly realize that all those other countries may be bigger but that they could learn a lot from our healthcare system. In Belgium the Doctor is only a phone call away no matter if you stay in a hotel or not and that’s what is really missing here. I feel for so many other friends who are now suffering from the same thing too. It’s like a virus that invaded the conference in one hard swoop.
The journey home and another British Airways delay
On our last day we tried to rest as much as possible to store enough energy for the long journey home. I felt a little bit better. After a hectic taxi ride during rush hour we arrived at the airport ready to drop our bags off. Only minutes later we learned that our flight was delayed from 20.30 till 21.45. Another delay that screws up our connecting flight from Heathrow to Brussels. So the same horror story as before when we finally arrived in London.
British Airways commercials on the plane shows an air hostess picking up a little doll dropped by a child telling you they care about you the passenger. Too bad reality is more like an air hostess with an attitude that says “nothing mush we can do about it” when I told her in a friendly way that it was like a horror story repeating itself. Or a person behind flight connections that does sigh everytime she needs to get up or promises us that they will let the airport taxi know we are not coming. We finally arrived at home at 22.15 because you already guessed it BA didn’t let the airport taxi know. Now we are still both sick as a dog and the doctor just said we have the flue. Now I am going back to bed so that I’ll be my old self as soon as possible.
40served
1
Was great to see you Veerle. Sorry to hear about the sickness everyone came down with...Scary stuff. I’m glad I was able to avoid it. I hope it didn’t outweigh any fun you had!
Hope you feel better soon!!
2
Sorry to hear your sick. Thanks for visiting The Great White North, my homeland :P
3
Well, now your country has Canada’s flu!! :)
4
Hope that you get better soon!
And start blogging again..:)
5
Get well Veerle and Geert.
6
Veerle,
I wish I could have gone to WDN, it sounds like it was great. Whistler is nice though. I have skied there myself - I’m from a little town about two hours northeast from there.
I have to say you are wrong about the healthcare though. I now live in the USA, and let me tell you, you don’t want to be getting sick down here.
Thanks for the post! I do hope you are feeling better!
7
Maybe it was a preplanned attempt to take out some of the worlds best designers in one foul swoop! Watch your back!
Unlucky about the trip though. Sounds like you went through it all.
8
I enjoyed your session a lot. I just wish it had been longer--it seems like you both had much more to say :)
Sorry you got ill...I did, too. Traveling will do that, I think.
9
Hope the two of you get well soon, and that you dispite getting the flue, enjoyed Canada.
10
I was wondering why American speakers and participants reported about the conference already yesterday and you only today, but now I see. Recover swiftly!
11
Get well soon, Veerle!!!
12
Wow Veerle, I am so sorry to hear about your illness. I thought you did a good job presenting, although I wish we had more time, as I think the more interesting stuff was saved for last (and I have always wanted to ask questions such as: How much do you ask for upfront from a client? How do you approach the financial aspect of adding work to an existing project half-way though? etc)
But I still enjoyed your presentation.
Get well soon, Veerle, I’ll keep you in my prayers.
- jon
13
Awww, I’m glad you had fun, and hope you feel better! Hopefully I’ll be able to actually see you guys present at a conference sometime - it sounds incredibly awesome.
Take care of yourself!
14
I’m sorry to hear you had to suffer through all that. I know what it’s like being sick in a foreign country, and you have my sympathies.
I thought you were great at the conference though. You stumbled a tiny bit at the very beginning, but I don’t think it was bad at all. I was more concerned about the content of the session than the delivery of it anyway. And you and Dave did a great job! It was my favorite session of the whole conference!
Can’t wait to see the real geaky chix website, it was kind of hard to see at the conference with the resolution that it was displayed at. It was too big. Is it going to be a functional site that you’ll be managing?
Get well soon!
15
Veerle sounds like you caught the Flu that has been spreading through the city for the past two weeks. Unfortunately for you the flu season which is Nov/Dec was delayed this year to late Jan/Feb. Blame global warming -;). Hopefully you were able to enjoy some of your time in Lotus Land. Ciao
16
V,
Sorry I missed the conference - I was looking forward to meeting you and hearing your session, but I had to choose between Canada and Australia - guess which one I chose? Sorry you got sick that is unfortunate - hope you get rested and feel better soon.
About your preparation you did the right thing - you ALWAYS want to over-prepare your material meaning have more, just in case material, so based on how your audience is responding you know when to leave-out or just rearrange content when you feels its appropriate. The last thing you want is to stand there with nothing more to say and 53 minutes to fill when people (who are design/blog fans) want download your brain. Preaching to the choir, but don’t be too hard on yourself about your session. Most people don’t know mistakes when they hear them, they think its either your perky/quirky personality or its just part of the show. I am sure you did good!
Hopefully, I will get to meet up with you and Geert at SXSW. Take care - plenty of fluids!
17
Wow, it seems like you had it pretty rough. At least you got some skiing done.:D
18
Ouch, what a rotten way to end your time in Canada. :/ Especially being sick on that Saturday, which was the only day with glorious weather that there’d been all week (I didn’t go to Whistler, but did spend it in the snow up on Grouse Mountain).
I didn’t get to see your talk, unfortunately (spent all my time in ballroom 2 for the developer-oriented talks; that last session was the hardest choice to make, but mapping apps had to win out), but I’m glad I had a chance to meet you shortly after Jared’s talk.
19
Veerle, you are right to think that less practice yields a better talk. If you practice too much, you tend to focus on the sentences and the words, instead of on the things you wish to get across. In my experience, you should practice once or twice, and then jot down the correct list of keywords you wish to talk about on the notes of each slide.
When I got to the part where you told how you tired to eat a bit more than a salad, I thought the clue would be that it had made its way back out :-) Luckily I did not find any reference to that.
Get better soon. Flue is striking Belgium too, it seems. I am not in favour of shots, but this year, I’m happy I got myself one.
20
Wow… I can barely imagine how that must have felt. I just hope you’ll both get better soon.
21
Well, sounds like the next Webdirections conference will be held in Belgium. And I will for sure attend to that occasion!
But it’s good anyway that you were there to get your story out to the world, now they all know Veerle Pieters.
I hope you get well soon!
Ciao, Mark
22
Get well soon veerle, and geert also ;-)
23
Get well soon, Veerle xx :)
24
Hey Veerle,
Everyone at the conference agreed that you rocked!!! We could all see that you were nervous, but as I said to you at the Media Temple party, this just made you more real to us, a normal down to earth girl.
You earn’t loads of respect for sticking with it, I look forward to your next presentation.
Best regards,
Adam & Sage
25
Hope you get well soon!
Glad you felt like writing a bit, as it is indeed a well written story :o)
26
Take care. I think that 50 percent of the Belgian citizens are having the flue at this moment :)
To bad not all your parts of your talking went the way you wanted to, but luckally you had some good parts aswell. .. :)
27
I really enjoyed your session. It was by far my favorite of the entire conference. I just wish it was longer… maybe next year!
28
Please get well Veerle, I’ve been missing your posts. I’m feeling your dissapointment about healthcare in North America.
29
Veerle, your session at WDN was great! You’re so charming and your accent is so cool. (I have what us american’s call “accent envy”.) It was very interesting to hear your perspective on everything during your session…
I got the exact same cold/flu that you got, as well. It’s awful…
Get better!
30
I’m sorry to hear you got worse Veerle, I hope I didn’t give it to you. It was great getting to hang out with you a bit more and I can’t wait to see you and Geert @ SXSW again.
PS - I will be in touch about the Flash from CSS thing.
31
I am sorry to hear you are still battling the flu. It seems to take forever to get rid of this bug. Hang in there. You will be better before you know it. I sure did miss your post. Take care of yourself and get plenty of rest.
32
It was great to see you and Geert again, Veerle. So sorry to hear about the flu though! Hope you both get well soon.
33
You are so gifted, and healthy or not, a real inspiration to me. I was so pleased to attend your session at wdn07 - thanks so much!
34
Hey Veerle, I hope you get better soon. I hate the flu with a passion, but sometimes you just can’t avoid it.
As for WDN, I’m sure you did great, though I couldn’t be there myself.
35
Nice to read about your conference trip. And I feel for you in your travails in combating flu. I know how it feels. But the only medicine which I take in those times is plenty of bed rest and nothing else. No medicines. Your body immune mechanism itself will fight the attack and you will be alright in a couple of days.
36
I would love to learn more about the flash via css technique. Is this classified information? :)
Hope you’re feeling better Verlee!
37
hi veerle,
as we say in austria: shared pain means half the pain - don’t know if that saying exists in english as well.
what i would like to tell you is: i got sick as well coming home from wdn. it must have happened on my flight back to europe, as they had some troubles with the a/c on the plane. anyways, i got stuck in bed the whole last week.
additionally, i had a little accident up on the slopes in whistler while skiing. i slipped on on one of these icy blocks that were lying on one of the slopes. the result: bruised thumb & shoulder and a nice looking black-and-blue eye after hurting my orbit. you can read the whole story here.
I felt so bad when the accident happened and the pain started to grow. I went to a walk-in clinic in vancouver to be sure that everything is fine (meaning, nothings broken).
it was terrible, feeling that way in a foreign country, but you know what: what does not kill you, only makes you stronger. i feel much better now, the flu is almost gone and i can feel my health coming back again.
it was so nice to meet you in person, really enjoyed your session with dave and as the others had put it: being nervous just made you lovelier and more human to the audience. we all respect you and love you for the work that you do, you geeky chick :-) i truly hope to have the chance to listen to another presentation of yours some time soon.
feel better soon,
klaus
38
Hi Veerle,
You were the reason I signed up for the conference, and I thought you did fine. Don’t be too hard on yourself. I was sick the entire week as well, hanging out in the back, coughing and sneezing. I avoided all the social stuff for fear of passing it on, but I’m afraid I probably did anyway. I totally agree about the ridiculous hotel charges for Internet access. Hopefully the conference organizers will factor that in next time when shopping for a site.
All things considered, I thought the conference was great, and I certainly learned a lot. I can’t wait to see how long it takes for my new tricks to become “crimes.” Not long, I suspect.
39
DeaPeaJay said:
It’s a real project and I hope to launch it soon but with all my backlog of work now I’m not going to make my self imposed deadline of SXSW.
40
You are definitely not the only one who brought back the flu from WDN. I was horribly sick for a good week. I hope you are feeling better by now!
It was great to meet you and Geert. Love your work and your presentation!