Network: Web Design - Online chat over a Thai red curry

I'M STANDING in the middle of the Toronto Convention Centre, mentally preparing to deliver my first lecture, in which I will have to convince a crowd of hardened Web developers that frames are not inherently evil.

I'm giving this talk, along with two others, at the NewMedia99 Conference and trade show. Now in its eighth year, it bills itself as "Canada's leading international multimedia showcase". I got this gig through Tari Akpodiete, whom I met through the Net and interviewed for an early column (Network, 24 May).

This isn't my first Internet/multimedia conference, but it's the first I've been invited to speak at, and I am both excited and nervous. People expect a lot from you when you open your mouth and claim to be an expert.

My frames lecture does not go particularly well. The combination of a bad cold and strong cold medicine causes me to rush through everything. I end up telling website war stories just to fill out my hour and a half.

Afterwards, several people come up to talk to me. One guy in particular starts asking me specific questions, and we exchange cards while chatting about the finer points of Web design. His name is Brad, and he compliments me on the lecture. I think he must have come in late.

Later I meet up with Alex to explore the show. Alex is a volunteer at the conference and picked me up at the airport yesterday. He is in his early thirties, and has worked in television. We started chatting in the car, and I learned he was working on his masters degree in Web design. Why Web design? Like many people in the industry, he tells me, it's because "you get to use both sides of your brain. You always have to be striking a balance between the beauty of creation and the discipline of well-structured site architecture." I can't argue with that. It's the constantly shifting nature of this medium that keeps me interested as well.

Alex and I run into Brad at the Wacom booth and strike up a conversation, which leads to dinner at an upscale Thai restaurant in the Bohemian section of Toronto. It turns out that Brad is a lead designer for a company that specialises in agribusiness sites - a big business in Canada. We talk about our industry, what's wrong with Web design, what's great about Web design, and make a few jabs at Microsoft.

I ask Brad what he thinks is missing at this conference. "What is this stuff for, that's what I want to know? There are so many lectures here telling me how to do this stuff. I need to know what it is actually good for. The rest I can get from a book or online." This makes me think, and I go back to my hotel room rework my presentations till 3am.

The next day I'm ready, and my lecture on Cascading Style Sheets goes much better than the frames one. I still talk about the "how tos", but I spend the last half-hour discussing what CSS is good for. Everyone seems satisfied, and a few people even come up afterwards to ask me to sign copies of my book.

I have about two hours before my next lecture. Tari, who I finally get to meet in real life after years of e-mail correspondence, has come to my lecture and hangs around to talk afterwards. We decide to head upstairs and check out the show one last time.

This time I make it all the way across the floor to the MetaTools booth. MetaTools makes some truly fascinating software, and today they are demo- ing something that seems to come straight out of Blade Runner. Canoma allows you to take a single two-dimensional photo and render it into three dimensions. I am floored.

My final lecture, on Dynamic HTML, goes off without a hitch and is the last of the conference, so I get a petty good turnout. Afterwards I talk to various members of the audience, exchange cards, and listen to the fears and concerns of Web developers from the US and Canada. This is what Internet conferences are all about. Not lectures, booths, software demos or even freebies. Conferences like this allow us to get together and see each other's faces.

The Web is a fabulous medium, but no matter how good the resolution, no screen can completely replace human contact.

jason@webbed

environments.com