I don’t remember how I first became aware of Milton Keynes Geek Night but, three years ago, I turned up in a room above a converted bus station to see what this new event would be like. 13 Geek Nights later (plus a special Geek Mental Health event too) and I haven’t missed a single night*, being described as a “groupie” by one of the founders. I even brought my wife along once…

In the early days, I used to blog about the topics of discussion. More recently I’ve struggled to find the time but the audio from the talks is on SoundCloud (well, all of the talks from Geek Night 3 onwards, that is).

Last night’s MK Geek Night lived up to expectations. Not being a designer or a developer, I tend to find that some of the talks are a little beyond my knowledge but still good for an IT architect to understand at a conceptual level.

I thought that, as MK Geek Night celebrates its third birthday, now would be a good time to look back on some of my favourite talks:

• Developer talks:
  • Dave Addey (@DaveAddey): What makes a good mobile app?
  • Drew McLellan (@DrewM): Back to front website performance.
  • Ben Seymour (@bseymour): Practical responsive images.
• Communicating:
  • Christian Senior (@senior): Managing client expectations.
  • Christian Payne (@documentally): Storymaking.
  • Andrew Clarke (@Malarkey): Take your stinking paws off my design you damn dirty developers.
  • Mark McCulloch (@WeAreSpectaculr): Are you speaking Scottish in Tokyo?
  • Sarah Richards (@escmum): Content strategy when the audience is everybody.
• Lessons in life:
  • Aral Balkan (@Aral): The high cost of free.
  • Simon Collison (@colly): I have no idea what I’m doing!
  • Ben Seymour: Are you sitting comfortably? Healthy working habits.

…and then there are Ben Foxall (@BenjaminBenBen)’s talks which are in a category of their own – they need to be on YouTube not SoundCloud! I just cant do them justice in words but how he gets 200 people to join in on their devices and illustrate some amazing functionality inside a browser I do not know. Similarly, Sii Cockerill (@siicockerill)’s dynamic art based on maths/environmental considerations was incredibly visual but you can at least see the results on the web.

I’ll sign off with massive congratulations and a huge thank you to Richard Wiggins (@RichardWiggins) and David Hughes (@DavidHughes) who organise and MC these events – and to all of the sponsors (without whom they wouldn’t be able to take place) – and of course to the speakers too! Here’s to many more years of #MKGN.

*There was also an MKGN All-Dayer which I was unable to join but hey, that’s not a “geek night” is it?!