After five years at Codeworks as Copywriter & PR manager, the very talented Mr. Lewis Harrison, is moving on. Lewis is off to write copy for Aviva (Britain’s largest insurance provider) at York.

I first met Lewis about 2 1/2 years ago at the first Thinking Digital Conference, part of which we hosted at BALTIC, shortly after which he asked if i’d be interested in writing a guest piece in the Journal, a year later he asked if i’d like to write a follow up, and 8 columns later he’s still correcting my poor grammer and spelling and managing to make my random ramblings look good in print. I guess i’m going to have to get around to fixing my spellcheck and reading “Eats, Shoots & Leaves”, now then.

In many ways while Herb kim is the face of Codeworks, Lewis has been the voice of Codeworks, writing much of their copy, Tweeting under the Codeworks banner, working with the press and editing (as well as writing) the Technotes column in the Journal.

Lewis I for one will miss reading your rather witty technotes columns. Best wishes in the new job, it been an absolute pleasure to have worked (and been for the odd beer) with you.

Editors Note. Quite why anyone would want to leave a position writing about technology to write about insurance, I really don’t know, but i guess someone has to do it!

By now, most of you probably know that the Thinking Digital Conference does a great job, bringing some of the greatest speakers, thinkers and doers in technology to the North East (of England). The conference is fast becoming the leading conference of its kind and getting an out standing reputation both locally and globally, but unfortunately not everyone can manage to get to the conference, so following in TED’s footsteps Codeworks (the organizer) have decided that content as good as this, is something that everyone should be able to access, its just too good not to share!

Thinking Digital 2009 Speakers video’s

Its not quite the same as being at the conference, as you don’t quite get the same sense of scale, or the electric atmosphere you get when you but 500 of the most energetic, forward thinking people in technology, social media, enterprise and entertainment in the same room, but it certainly gives you a flavour of the event.

As any readers of my blog will already know i’m a big fan of TDC, i just find these keynotes, fantastically inspiring, and could watch them over and over again.

Here are a few of my favourites:

Johnny Chung Lee,  Johnny is a researcher into interface technology, currently working at Microsoft, he’s done some amazing things with wii motes and this talk will blow you away with talk of audio interfaces that actually enable you to feel 3d models of objects.

Thinking Digital 2009 Talks: Johnny Chung Lee – Research into Interface Technology from Herb Kim on Vimeo.

Caleb Chung, Caleb is the man behind the Pleo and the furby, in this video he gives an insight into what it takes to creator these crazy creatures. Who could resist watching a mix of cute cuddly creatures and electronics.

Thinking Digital 2009 Talks: Caleb Chung – Beauty and Magic from Herb Kim on Vimeo.

Dan Lyons, aka the fake steve jobs, this is just one of the funniest talks i have seen, it literally had be in stitches at this years TDC.

Dan Lyons @ Thinking Digital 09 from Herb Kim on Vimeo.

Sancho plan, what can i say these guys were just awesome

Thinking Digital 2009: Sancho Plan Live Performance from Herb Kim on Vimeo.

Looking at the list of speakers its actually really hard to pick a handful of favourites as they are all so good, Tara Hunt (miss rouge) as always was fantastic, as was the talk on Particle physiscs, the pirates dilema,  to name but a few. But take a look for yourself and see which you pick as your favourites.

A few years ago, Codeworks set up a modest one day conference at Sage Gateshead. This first conference  ‘360’, showcased new and emerging technologies to web design and digital companies in the North East, with keynotes on BT’s 21century network and IP convergence, but it had ambitions of becoming something much, much bigger.

I was invited by local IT supplier ITPS to attend that first conference, and was introduced to the codeworks team, and there began a long and happy relationship.

The following year it was rebranded as “Thinking Digital” and evolved into a 3 day conference, with a growing national and international reputation, but it still had ambitions of becoming even bigger and even better. I’d attended the conference last year and frankly, could not see how they could improve on last year…

But Herb and the team managed to pull it off yet again!

This year’s conference built on the Wednesday workshops, with the ‘Thinking Digital University”. BALTIC was lucky enough to play host to one of these sessions, entitled Practical Wisdom, chaired by author, mentor, public speaker and ft columnist Mike Southern, and speakers from the ethical superstore, bootlaw and broadband computer company.

It’s quite hard to put your finger on what made this years conference, the best to date; the content of last years conference was just as good, the speakers of the same excellent calibre and the organisation of the event just as professional, it just seemed to flow better this year. That is what comes of experience, grouping the session into subtle themes, and arranging the themes so that they work together and blending them so you get just the right mix of learning, laughter, excitement and drama. Adding the music of The Sancho Plan, Oonagh Cassidy, and Rob Colling work perfectly.

As blogger steve clayton, points out on his geek in disguise site, there were things that could be improved, time did over run my over an hour and it is difficult to see delegates name badges, and there could have been more power. But these things are really minor and they are the kind of things that can be put right.

Another thing that makes this conference stand out for me, is the general quality of the delegates, with a mix of top academics, entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and creatives. Over the course of the conference I met some of the most interesting people,  some of which I’ve already pencilled in meetings with post conference. I found myself sitting next to people like Microsoft evangelist and award winning blogger Steve Clayton, interface guru Jonny Lee Chung, BBC backstage’s Ian Forrester, and codeworks media office Lewis Harrison.

So what did I learn this year? In a typical thinking digital way, I learned some practical skills like how to network, and do an elevator pitch , I discovered more details  of some things I was already familiar with (like the latest touch screen and laser cut technologies), I also learned some things that were entirely new to me, things including what the smallest particles are made of, and  what some of the largest things look like (what you can when you look though  the world wide telescope), how to use our sense of smell,  and what it takes to be a toymaker. I learnt about what is going on around the world , but also what is happening on my door step.

Codework’s Herb Kim, announced that next year’s Thinking Digital Conference with be part of a week long festival in conjunction with Gateshead council. Booking is already open for next year (this years delegates get a special super early bird discount) Head to www.thinkingdigital.co.uk/tdc2010 and enter TDC_class2009 into the promotional code area. Available until 29 May, 2009.

What I took away from this years the conference, wasn’t  just the goodie bag, (and a few lolly wrappers), but was something that is much harder to but a value on; better understanding of what is happening outside of my organisation, new contacts and friendships (that could come in very useful in the future), renewed passion for what I do, motivation to go and play with new technologies, and hopefully a contagious enthusiasm  that will spread all to all of my colleagues and our visitors ……….

I’d like to wind up by thanking the entire Codeworks team,  the volunteers,  the speakers and the delegates for pulling out all the stops and making TDC a fantastic conference again this year.