So the conference is over and I’m finally getting a chance to collect my thoughts and write something about the Highland Fling 2007.

By all standards (excuse the pun) the conference was an unmitigated success, with the day itself going surprisingly smoothly and without a hitch.

So, here are some of the day’s highlights for me.

Jeremy Keith kicked things off with a brilliant keynote examining the origins of progressive enhancement, covering not only the historical and technical perspective but esoteric and linguistic aspects as well. Jeremy is a great speaker, and I could honestly listen to the guy all day, so it was a perfect way to start the conference.

Andy Budd stepped up with a great insight into the future of CSS. I regard myself as being pretty nifty at CSS, but Andy presented loads of great ideas and tips, which if nothing else, solidified the idea that we can’t simply keep building for the lowest common denominator. Let’s stretch our legs use the full power of CSS and force the inferior browsers to get their act together.

Chris Heilmann and James Edwards presented back to back with arguments on the power and pitfalls of AJAX. Both essentially said the same thing: AJAX can be used for good, but often it’s unnecessary and if you are going to use it, then you better do it properly. A good point and something we’ve got to take on board at FreeAgent Central, where we’ve been oft-tempted to go AJAX slap happy. James Edwards is a really funny guy too and would have to win my top bloke of the conference award.

Andy Clarke ended things off in his own unique style with a very different sort of talk on what it means to be a progressive designer from a personal and business level. It really was a breath of fresh air to turn the discussion away from strictly technical details to a broader perspective and look at the wider context we all have to work in. Great stuff.

We even got a sneak peek at the upcoming Stuff and Nonsense site, and mighty sweet it looked too.

More than words

Personally for me, I found the conference to be about much more than the talks. We’re pretty short on web events here in Scotland, so it was just good to get together with lots of like minded people and realise we’re not all working in a vacuum.

I ended up missing the Refresh event put on by Matt Riggott and John Sutherland, which was a real shame, as I hear it was a great event, but I still got a chance to meet a bunch of great people.

I really hope the event kick starts more collaboration in Scotland. We don’t have to feel isolated or see others as competition. There’s enough work for all of us and if we start pulling together, I believe we’ll achieve more. Anyway, here’s looking forward to the future.

If anyone else was there, I’d love to hear your thoughts.