DRIFTING OFF

I jolted awake in the middle of the keynote. Nobody noticed. Thankfully I didn't make any noises; sometimes when that happens, I hear myself snorting like a St Bernard. I'm not sure the keynote speaker would have appreciated that.

I couldn't have been the only one drifting off, after last night's beach party. A quick scroll through twitter showed a few people had definitely been living the high life in the early hours, long after the tide had rolled in and the rest of us had gone back to the campus. There were a few bleary eyes around this morning.

It's been an OK conference I suppose - lots to think about. I'm still amazed that some people are just brilliant speakers and presenters... and some people selected for these things just don't have a clue. In one session today, a presenter waffled through a series of anecdotes which all seemed to finish with the words, "... it was fantastic!" which was both inaccurate and grating. That was a shame really - especially when others had been so good.

Still, I've learned a lot, despite not being a developer or a product manager. How much change I can make when I go back to work, I don't know. I'm a cog in the machine and some changes can only be made by people trusted with the buttons and levers. Perhaps we can only hope that they'll get it if we go on about it enough, or perhaps they'll give us a button or two to push to shut us up. My fellow engineers are a little more cynical than me though.

We rocketed up the A30, flying past the wind turbines and rolling hills of Cornwall. It's a beautiful county, by all accounts, though I don't know what I'd know about it: I was asleep by the time we got to the border, drooling over my Kindle like a seat-belted St Bernard.