UXLIBSII… in 50 photos

I’m a little addicted to taking photos, especially when recording a trip or an event and UXLibsII was no exception. Here are 50 incredibly carefully selected photos which sum up my personal experience of the conference. This is a Brexit-free post cos I’ve covered that nightmare already. So, without any further ado here’s a pictorial round-up of those two (and a bit) very full days in Manchester…

1. OK, so this is not actually at UXLibsII but the 24 hours spent with the Matts just beforehand was super important (and fun) especially the moment we decided to greet Ned with hastily and poorly made placards. A rude word may have been spelled out on the backs.

2: The first of several trolley loads full of UXLibs goodness outside the venue on the Wednesday afternoon. I love Matt’s fake nonchalance as he waits to be delivered.

3. THAT book! 18 months after we started it and 2 publishers later. It was great to finally mess around with real live copies at Cane & Grain. Joining Matt and I are chapter authors: Murphy, Reidsma, Lanclos and Asher. Available in all good bookshops now (and some bad ones).

4. Donna ‘f**king’ Lanclos: “I s**t you not – this is how little they’re paying me”. One of the photos from my abandoned Day 2 Welcome. Note: slide still intentionally left blank.

5. In a quirk of fate Reidsma finds himself introducing his nemeses: Dre and Josephine from a competing University.

6. The Studio toilets sign evoke discussion. ‘Why does the woman need the loo more than the man?’ ask I. ‘Because they tend to have to queue for longer’ says David Clover sagely.

7. One of our most innovative posters. A postcard to the love letter method.

8. Delegates enjoying each other’s company: Paul and Chloe from Modern Human, Libby Tilley, David Marshall, Frankie Wilson and Angus Brown.

9. Shame the 7 dwarves were listed on the wall in alphabetical order. My old mates from BLA days: Emma Thompson and Alison Sharman.

10. Yay – all the way from Singapore: Sufyan and Edward. See you again in September guys.

11. The Alterline boys in da house: meet Ben and Ed.

12. Two amazing human beings – Borg and Potter – thanks for sharing the journey with me. Looking forward to planning III with you.

13. ‘Teeny Tiny Ange’ TM boxing above her weight and height as usual. I’m only disappointed that she wasn’t sporting a little Sylvanian Families felt jacket.

14. Towering over Ange. But secretly still scared of her superior fighting skills.

15. Eva Jirjahlke presenting as part of Nailed Failed Derailed. Eva did a great job sharing her experience of conducting a diary study during the welcome week at LSE and won the runner-up presentation prize.

16. Ned Potter drunk on power as he introduces the advocacy challenge. Those powerpoint curtains will never be forgotten.

17. A slide that formed part of the advocacy challenge info. We didn’t know Ned could hear us talking abut him.

18. Chaos as delegates try to find their teams. Very funny to watch. M!?! R3!!! C5??!?!

19. Bryony Ramsden and team discussing how to recruit students for UX projects.

20. Lorna Dodd: “But there ARE my sensible shoes!”

21. Matt (adorned with a special baby pink lanyard) describing how he freaked out when a delegate had the audacity to adapt their delegate badge to suit their needs.

22. Ned’s personalised badge with some very telling content about me  – I advised him not to tackle customising the timetables in all the badges. He insisted. And they worked brilliantly. But they took him 6 months to produce, possibly longer.

23. Let it Shiiiiiiiine! Take That lyrics enhanced by ever-vital sticky notes.

24. A coquettish pose from Mr Heath: ‘paint me like one of your French girls’

25. Soren Davidsen and friends working on the team challenge. I didn’t interrupt them regularly to steal flipchart paper. No.

26. Wearing the EBSCO sunglasses so very stylishly – Rose, James, Phil, Kathy et al – on the Studio balcony during the team challenge.

27. Tom Kistell has a contact lens malfunction at the wrong moment. Rest of team look beautiful.

28. Georgiana (Darcy) Cronin waiting to greet delegates at the Midland Hotel. We didn’t steal any champagne from the posher function downstairs. No.

29. Donna and Andrew Alexander’s #shoetweet. Andrew comfortably won the Gala Dinner ‘Best Shoes Worn By a Male’ competition.

30. Ingela Wahlgren flies past, high on her Nailed Failed Derailed victory, effortlessly photo-bombing the Table 8 selfie.

31. Reservoir UXLibbers.

32. Ok, so I lied about not mentioning Brexit again. Here are Georgina, Alison, Lawrie, Donna, Soren, Carl, Andrew and Martin optimistic about the Remain vote – note the Remain flyer – the night before.

33. Last minute team preparation for Carl, Deirdre, Shelley, Rod, Emma, Kat and co.

34. Bethany Sherwood wows the audience during the challenge heats with her uncannily accurate impersonation of an undergraduate student. Bethany would repeat the performance to the wild applause of all delegates later in the afternoon after it was revealed that her team won the ‘recruitment’ task. An academy award surely beckons. Sharon Nangle played the librarian interviewer.

35. Another #shoetweet, this time of my shoes. My 8-year-old son was not at all convinced that I should be buying these shoes: “But Daddy, they have pink laces and bottoms!” “Ah, but it’s UXLibs pink, John”. “Oh,” he said, decidedly unconvinced.

36. Donna hands our prizes to the delighted Marketing Upwards winners

37. ‘Don’t Cry for me Manchester’- Andrew Alexander employing impressive arm gestures as part of the winning Collaboration team.

38. Lawrie expresses dismay at the number of people in the winning Collaboration team: ‘Where did you all come from?’

39. Non-librarian (gasp!) Karin Tusting from Lancaster singularly fails to keep a low profile as one of the members of the winning Recruitment team.

40. Ivan is rather happy with his prize. ‘Look Mom, I won!’

41. Brainstorming quietly and individually (cos its more effective) as part of my cultural probes workshop, just after I rudely told Jessica to stop talking only to discover she was simply briefing a latecomer. Oops.

42. ‘I know you’re talking but I’m too tired to take it in’ Lorna Dodd not really listening to Paul-Jervis Heath.

43. Simon and Stefan get crafty.

44. An astonishingly good cultural probe research project for undergraduates.

45. Ingela and Kathy choose art supplies for their probe.

46. Alison and Shelley aren’t sure.

47. Georgina, Christophe and Jo put the finishing touches to their probe.

48. Question Time with (from right to left) Matthew Reidsma, Donna Lanclos, Lawrie Phipps, Andrew Asher, and, er, that funny Scottish lady. What’s she called again? Rhona? Susan? Anyway, her.

49. With your host Matt Borg (whose head bobbed beautifully to the title music).

50. Time’s up. How about we all get together in early June 2017? When? Oh, right, when the big hand is after the blue knob and the little hand is at the orange knob. Got it? Good.