Ashley Baxter

I'm a 23 year old Director from the West Coast of Scotland. I run a small business, play a lot of video games, eat scones with jam, and wonder why I'm not obese.

I’m Going To FOWA – Are You?

I’m Going To FOWA – Are You?

Tomorrow is the Edinburgh leg of the Future of Web Apps road trip. I toyed with the idea of going, and even though I’ll most definitely feel like an impostor (I’m an Internet Marketing Manager, not a developer… Yet), I ended up getting a ticket. I say ‘getting’ a ticket as opposed to ‘buying’ a ticket because I have the fortunate advantage of labeling it a business expense. Yaldi!

I’ll be giving the morning workshop a miss, so I’ll likely be turning up between one and half one for registration. I’ll also be avoiding the speed dating for geeks speed networking, but will definitely make it along for post conference drinks.

The line-up itself looks awesome, but I’m also excited about meeting people in the field of web apps, purely because I can pick their brains about the area I plan on steering my work into in the future, and also because they will likely be geeky. A bit like myself.

So, I think I’m just about sorted. I have some non-smudgy pens (a must have for a lefty like myself), a notepad (unfortunately my fancy Field Notes haven’t arrived), a fully charged iPhone, my Canon, and… No business cards. But what exactly would I have on my business card anyway? “Hey, I’m Ashley. Hire me to beat Mile High Club for you”.

I’ll definitely be taking some pictures, not to mention writing about my experience at FOWA, so check back soon.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 at 11:04 am and is filed under Work.
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4 Responses to “I’m Going To FOWA – Are You?”

  1. Kyle Says:

    May 26th, 2009 at 5:45 pm

    I’m so bummed I can’t make it to this FOWA :( hope you have a good time though!

    oh and if you want business cards try http://uk.moo.com/en/ they apparently do really nice ones for /quite/ cheap. I’ve ordered a [free] sample from them to see how my design turns out I’ll let you know if they are turn out (I ordered the paper environmentally friendly paper ones – not the laminated style ones). Why do I need a business card? I don’t. But I wanted some since they were free for a sample! I just did a pretty simple design, front page is just google with my name and back is a list of interests. so it’s not even really a business card. but oh well. enough about that!

  2. admin Says:

    May 26th, 2009 at 6:30 pm

    Exams come first at this point in your life ;) Plenty of other opportunities.

    I’ve used Moo before for business cards, printing on the same environmentally friendly paper you chose. They turned out good, but I rarely use ‘em (they’re for my work).

  3. Mike Robinson Says:

    May 26th, 2009 at 11:30 pm

    If I was still up in Scotland I would totally be there. Being a developer, FOWA is right up my street, though I went to FOWD this year because I like to be in touch with the design side of things. Oh well, I will be at Oxford Geek Night instead :D

    While at FOWD I felt a bit bad not having business cards (they got delivered too late, coincidentally by Moo) because people were giving me theirs and all I could do was either tell them my twitter username or email address, hoping they would remember by the time they got home! Of course, if your business isn’t going to be too relevant to anyone there then I guess it makes sense not to have some, but even tasteful personal cards go down a treat. I definitely won’t be without some at my next conference, I’ll hand-craft them if I have to!

    The evening drink session is fun, but can seem a little cliquey. A good tip is to just walk to up anyone you want to talk to and just…talk! Even if they are particularly well-known and/or constantly swarmed by people.

    Have a good time, I look forward to your post and photos :)

  4. Matt Says:

    June 4th, 2009 at 2:41 pm

    I went to the Cambridge leg of the tour and was pretty much in the same boat as you (although I’m just a student so even worse!)

    It was very cool though and some of the talks were entertaining.

    Did you try the speed-networking?

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