Dear future Update attendee, Hello! My name's Aral and I'm curator and conference organiser of Update 2011. As you can probably already tell from the tone of this letter to you, Update is not a stuffy, corporate conference. It's a bunch of passionate people who are great at what they do getting together to share ideas and inspiration (with many excuses to meet new people and kick... [read more]

Dear future Update attendee, Hello! My name's Aral and I'm curator and conference organiser of Update 2011. As you can probably already tell from the tone of this letter to you, Update is not a stuffy, corporate conference. It's a bunch of passionate people who are great at what they do getting together to share ideas and inspiration (with many excuses to meet new people and kick back and have a few drinks). Logistically, Update is a one-day conference followed by two days of in-depth and hands-on workshops. The Agenda On the 5th, you will spend a day at the beautiful Brighton Dome venue taking part in an inspirational celebration of excellence in user experience, design, and development on the iOS platform and beyond. With inspiring keynotes, short "tech-beats", and panel discussions we will start conversations and explore questions about platforms, tools, and technologies. I hope this intense, passionate roller-coaster ride through the present and future of our mobile world will leave you inspired, excited, and eager to go forth and make beautiful things, and give you an even better appreciation for the important that role we play as the makers of the new everyday things. I also hope that after the inspirational conference day, you will be eager to get your hands dirty and take part in one of the handful of hands-on workshops we have planned for the second and third days. (In case you weren't keeping count, I managed to say "hand" three times in that sentence.) The workshop topics range from iOS Design to HTML5 and even onto quite specialised areas in native iOS development like Core Animation, Core Data, and OpenGL ES. Each of the workshops is taught by a leading, world-famous designer or developer. Speakers We have a stellar line-up of speakers from the worlds of iOS, Web, User Experience, and beyond whom I am lucky enough to call friends. (Did I mention that Update is going to be a warm and friendly affair?) Who are these fine folks, you ask? (Oh come on, humour me, ask!) Ah, perfect! Well, let me tell you… Brendan Dawes, co-founder of Beep Industries and Executive Creative Director for magneticNorth, a digital design company based in Manchester, UK. A prolific digital artist, two of Brendan's pieces are in the permanent MoMA collection and his works have been featured in too many journals to name here, including idN, Creative Review, MacUser, Computer Arts, Create, Wired, Eye, The Guardian, The Times, and Communications Arts. I'm honoured to have Brendan