Why ConfShop Matters

Published 17 April 2013

When Elliot and I sat down at the beginning of the year in one of the many great coffee shops in Bath we set ourselves the target of “shipping” three Viewport Industries projects in 2013. It’s no secret we really enjoyed our XMAS Special last December so repeating that in 2013 was a no-brainer – we’ll be back at The School of Life on December 16th.

Our second project is another print based endeavour and we think it’s going to be big, quite literally in fact — very big! More on that soon.

Our third and final project is called Insites: ConfShop. I blogged about the idea over on the Viewport Industries site last week but wanted to give a more personal take on why we think it’s an important day and why you should attend.

Inclusivity

ConfShop is small, only 110 tickets will be available. It’s small for a reason — we want to hear from everyone who attends. ConfShop is all about getting together and sharing our ideas, experiences and problems — every thought, experience  idea as valid as the next one.

It’s less about being taught something, more about sharing and learning from each other. If you are new to the industry or have been earning your crust using the web for many years we want you to join us.

We’ll get better at what we do by sharing, being open and inclusive.

Curators not Speakers

ConfShop is focussed around four “curated” groups. We are really pleased that Alex, Sarah, Drew and Rachel have agreed to help us out on the day. Along with Elliot and myself they will be helping keep the groups on track and ensuring that everyone is heard. Of course they will be happy to share their considerable experience too.

No Code, no Design

We’ll be doing some interesting show and tell in the breaks but ConfShop isn’t really about code and design. Rather it’s focus is more on the industry itself. Here’s what we’ll be discussing:

• Client work and products (how can we move from client focussed businesses to product focussed companies) — Curated by Rachel Andrew & Drew McLellan
• Business issues (VAT, tax, accounting, pitching, contracts, finding work and beyond) — Curated by Alex Hunter
• Side projects (how to find the time and create income streams) — Curated by Keir Whitaker & Elliot Jay Stocks
• Working in the industry (work/life balance, keeping up, learning and more) — Curated by Sarah Parmenter

Join Us

We know that ConfShop is a bit different and won’t appeal to everyone but that’s OK. For some it will be uncomfortable, let’s be honest not everyone likes to talk in front of others, but we encourage you to give it a go.

We think it’s going to be a great day and we’ll make you as welcome as we possibly can. As I said earlier I truly believe we’ll get better at what we do by sharing, being open and inclusive.

Learn more and register today »