FOWD.

Another week, another trip to London and this time, for FOWD! Which involved waking up at 6AM, getting the train to Liverpool street for 7.40 and meeting Rob at what I thought was 9AM, (we’ll get on to that later). Oh, and my hat.

As I pulled in to Liverpool Street, I was greeted by a lovely poster with massive text saying “SWINE FLU HITS LONDON” Shitters. What a great start to the day? Feeling terrible, I went and got a 3rd cup of tea, which did wonders, thankfully. Because I thought I had time to spare, I sat down and watched the London rush hour pass by, so many different people I didn’t even know existed, Humanity is insane. Suddenly - “Robert Day is calling” I answered. After a quick chat, it seemed he got in early and was waiting for me at Baker Street, (and had been for some time) I hopped on the Circle (or Yellow!) line and headed on over. While at Edgeware road, I got a phone call again from Rob, telling me he was at Kensington waiting for me there instead, so I stayed on the tube and met him besides the ticket gates. Quickly (and with great excitement) we headed on over to FOWD.

As we walked in, we were greeted by some lovely Carsonified helpers, who ticked off our names, got us badges, gave us a ticket for a free drink later (with some weird looks about my age too) and pointed us over to where we could grab some food. We walked around for a bit, dropped off our coats and bags at the cloak room and started talking about Twitter. As usual. Out the corner of my eye, I see Ryan Carson walking towards me, Surely he can’t want to speak to me? “Hey Lewis” - he said. (at this point I was in shock and disbelief) “Ryan! How are you?!” “Good thanks, yourself?” “Not too bad thanks” - Now I’m not going to write the whole conversation out, but basically, He’d seen our conference (Teens in Tech Conference UK) and was really interested in the idea, if he’s free on the day, he’s looking into helping out.

A fantastic start to the day. After he was dragged away for final preparations, we went to the GoodBarry booth, resulting in me spamming my twitter feed with “Cake” and “Kimono” for a free shirt, (which is very nice and was well worth it!)

Another booth was being run by Microsoft and had the Surface in all it’s glory. After a short wait, we got a turn and I was instantly impressed. This thing is really good.

After that, we headed into the conference hall. On every single seat there was a box, and a Carsonified bag.  Inside the box, was a Carsonified Journal, a pencil and a sharpener.

Again, really brilliant stuff, that must have cost them bloody loads! This year, the speakers included Jim Coudal, Meagan Fisher, Brett Welch, Mark Boulton, Mike Kus, Molly Holzschlag and many more. All were fantastic and the videos will be up on the Carsonified events site when they’ve been edited and uploaded.

Lots of speakers, swapping of wifi networks and business cards along with many talks about twitter over, it was time for Lunch. Me, @robday and @grantbell (who had just appeared) headed to M&S where they had a take-away style Gourmet Burger place, and, after a little wait, arrived and was very nice!

Back to the conference, We sat at the tables at the back and as I got up to get a drink I hear “Lewis?!” To my surprise, @reyes was there. We had a quick chat about the conference, and we both seemed to be enjoying it. Going to get my drink, I was stopped again by @kassy4 who thought it’d be nice to say hello and I was very thankful for her doing so. It seemed that because I went to SMC and got more of a one on one with these guys, they recognised me. Which was neat. So if there is a BarCamp coming up near you, I’d highly recommend going to boost your contacts.

Finally, getting my drink, I sat down with Rob and Grant to start brainstorming ideas for the Teens in Tech Conference. Grant could possibly be the best thing that happens to us in the next few weeks and months as he has a plethora of knowledge, contacts and ideas, he listens, he contributes. Fantastic man. I can’t say what we spoke about, but it’s exciting and it’s coming your way very shortly.

Back to the ending speech, and we all clapped, got our coats and bags, said our final fair-wells and parted ways with Grant. Rob and I headed for the tube, with what seemed like 20 bags of stuff between us. Like that, Rob was gone, and I was left on my own to get back to Liverpool Street.

Being the Twitter bug that I am, I continued to try to send an update from the tube (which isn’t clever seeing it’s underground and there is no signal) “This is Liverpool street” Shit, Grabbing 3 bags of stuff, my hat and my coat I rushed for the door, jumping through at the last second to find myself on the station where I nearly crushed a small child. Nothing of the sort happened, it was all okay.

On my power-walk style jog through the station, I got on a train early, got a seat and managed to get some work done on the train, arriving in Bishop’s Stortford at 8PM.

Overall, a fantastic day and if you’ve never to been to an events of these sorts, I highly recommend it, I’ve met so many fantastic people, got many more contacts, cards and shirts it seems. Over the past two weeks, I’ve been so inspired, so I, @robday and @grantbell are starting our own conference called the Teens in Tech Conference UK.

Enjoy this post? Follow me on twitter and I’ll be posting many new photos, video and updates from the conferences, including Teens in Tech and what happens. You’ll also be in the winning for getting a few early bird tickets. Not bad!