I had a fantastic time in Orlando at Refresh 06, my first web conference. I simply must go to more conferences! Yep, I’m officially addicted. Let’s see if I can recall everything by Day:

Tuesday

In the hotel lounge, I was picking up my passport (because they were holding it hostage over a silly confirmation issue…). I turned around and noticed Jeremy, Andy, and Paul entering the lobby. It was fun to finally meet them in person, and I joined them for drinks at the hotel bar and then for dinner, in which we also celebrated Dan’s birthday upon his arrival.

Wednesday

I went with Dan to Disney World, which was my first time visit. That night I met Garrett (who is tall enough to make me feel like a hobbit) among many others, and a very large group of us went to Tu Tu Tango’s (one of my favorite places we tried in Orlando) for dinner and drinks. Afterwards I met Faruk, and Dan and I took him to Denny’s (classy!) for dinner and milkshakes.

Thursday

The conference went well. It was too bad that this day’s sessions were not recorded. It just goes to show how much you really should have been there.

I enjoyed all of the sessions, especially Paul’s keynote, “Pragmatic Web Design” and his second session on maintaining and nurturing active online communities. I also particularly enjoyed Andy’s presentation, “How to Be a Web Design Superhero”. (I had my Batman hoodie on!).

That night, I met Cameron, but unfortunately he wasn’t able to join us for dinner. The rest of us all went out for sushi, where I played a nice little prank on Jeremy by telling the server that it was his birthday. That went so much better than I expected! Afterwards was a really fun and night at Howl at the Moon.

Friday

This day also had great sessions, and this time (I think) they got it recorded. Jeremy gave a really excellent talk on “Getting Microformats”, and as you can see by this post, I am now using structured blogging. Lunch with Dan, Faruk, and Garrett was yummy, and the walk back was… interesting. Cameron’s “Fundamental UI Design Practices” was fantastic, and I really enjoyed his well-designed slides.

We all went out for dinner, which Bryan crashed. He’s a lot of fun. Afterwards, a few of us hung out at the hotel’s bar for a bit, then called it a night.

Saturday

I attended the last few sessions, then headed to the airport with Stephen, Garrett, and Jackson, thanks to Phil (I think that was his name?). I had lunch with Jackson at the Macaroni Grill inside the airport, then I left for home.

There’s my super-fast run-down of my time in Orlando. Some other great people I met and would love to meet again would definitely have to be Cindy and Patrick. I’ve left out a ton of people in this post, but only because I’m running out of time. I’d have gone into more detail, but unfortunately I have work to do. I hope to see everyone at SxSW. Ciao.