The DDD South West Team is delighted to announce that DDD South West 4 will be held at UWE, Bristol, on Saturday 26th May 2012. There will be all the usual DDD South West fun and games along with the usual 4 regular technical tracks, the return of the "+1" Repeat Track (back by popular demand), the Balloon Debate and the Getting Started In .NET Track. There will be a call for speakers and as usual we will be looking for lunch time grok talks from new speakers and micro-presentations from experienced speakers.

Note that this weekend is not a bank holiday weekend. The usual May bank holiday has been put back one week to coincide with the Queen's Golden Jubilee.

At DDD South West 3 we ran a competition to find the best photo of an "I Was There" sticker. The competition is closed now and out of the 28 entries The DDD South West Team chose this entry from @surlydev as the winner:-

Congratulations and tanks for the excellent pic. Honourable mentions (but no actual prize) go to John Albrecht for the buoy on Normandy beach on D Day:-

And to Paul Stack for this Welcome sign in Ireland:-

And finally to this PhotoShopped (so we couldn't include it) picture from @surlydev of one of our speakers:-

Thanks to everyone for all of your photos. See you at DDD South West 4.

DDD South West is run by a team of people. It has to be because it takes a whole heap of work. We were very pleased with the result of DDD South West 3 and now after 3 years and 3 DDD South Wests Jose Simas, our graphics and printing wizard, has decided to move on.

For those of you who don't know Jose he is the quiet one, the George Harrison of DDD South West, but he has been fabulous for the last 3 years - balanced, incredibly efficient and superb with graphics. Thanks, Jose, you were excellent and we really appreciate all of the hard work you put in over the last 3 years.

DDD South West 3 was held on Saturday 11th June 2011 in Bristol and I think it went fairly well. There were 257 attendees, 6 simultaneous tracks and 25 speakers. You can see the full set of statistics here. The day went mostly without problems. We learnt some lessons from last year and the queues for food and drink were much shorter this time and the wifi worked much better (but not perfectly). The feedback we received was invaluable as always. For the question on "What did you like most about DDD South West 3 ?" the top answers were:-

• the food
• the speakers and the sessions
• it was free

For the questions on "What did you like least about DDD South West 3 ?" the top answers were:-

• some rooms were hot and did not have air-conditioning
• the food
• the wifi

Another statistic I find interesting is that 27% of attendees had not been to a DDD event previously. This means after 3 years of DDD South West (not to mention the 9 DDD Events in Reading) we are still reaching developers that are new to this format.

The last statistic I think is worth highlight is the increase in word-of-mouth recommendations over the last 3 years. In the question "How did you find out about DDD South West ?" the answer "Friend/Colleague" was 11% at DDD South West 1, 16% at DDD South West 2 and now 26% at DDD South West 3. That's a lot of people spreading a lot of good information on our behalf - thanks, everyone!

Like previous years the highlight of the day was the speakers and the quality of their sessions. I would like to say a huge thanks to all of our speakers and congratulations to our Top Speakers By Knowledge of Subject:-

1. Steve Sanderson (Getting Started In ASP.NET MVC) 8.88
2. Richard Campbell (Why Web Performance Matters) 8.85
3. Richard Parker (Getting Started In The .NET Framework) 8.56

and to our Top Speakers By Presentation Skills:-

1. Richard Campbell (Why Web Performance Matters) 8.73
2. Richard Parker (Getting Started In The .NET Framework) 8.33
3. Steve Sanderson (Getting Started In ASP.NET MVC) 8.30

One of the features of 'regional' DDDs is that they allow the different DDD teams to innovate and try out new ideas. One of the ideas we tried out at DDD South West 3 was lunchtime micro-presentations. It is a long running theme of DDD events that the lunchtime is spent listening to grok talks (10 minute presentations). We followed this approach at DDD South West 3 as we did at previous DDD South West events but this year we asked presenters to give micro-presentations instead of grok talks. Micro-presentations (aka pecha kucha, aka 20/20, aka lightning talks) are 20 slides of 20 seconds each. They are a particularly tough presentation format but I think it can be safely said that our speakers took the challenge and were superb. You can watch videos (slides with the live audio) of these presentations:-

• Gary Short - Asymptotes and Algorithms
• Richard Costall - 20 Sliders In 20 Seconds (video not available yet)
• Phil Collins - Build Radiators
• Mark Rendle - Kaizen For Coders
• Benjamin Arroyo - NCrunch (video not available yet)
• Ross Scott - How I Made Pocket DDD

Another idea we tried out was the "+1" Repeat Track wherein the most popular sessions get repeated. This is an attempt to mitigate the 'problem' of having so many great sessions. The repeated sessions were determined by the public voting on which sessions to repeat after seeing the agenda for the other 5 tracks. The feedback on this track was that it was a good idea and much welcomed. Thanks to all of the speakers who repeated their sessions (not only for repeating them but also for missing out on seeing other presenters sessions twice).

Yet another idea was the re-interpretation of the Speaker Room. In general the idea that attendees had a place where they could find the speakers and could sit and chat worked quite well. I think we still need to do a bit more in terms of breaking down attendees' resistance that speakers 'should not be disturbed' but it is something to work on.

At DDD South West 2 we introduced the "Getting Started In .NET" track which was an attempt to help non-.NET developers get into the community and get started in .NET for free. It was back again this year and like last year it was well attended and well liked. Thanks to the trainers who provided their services for free again.

You can catch up with what others have blogged about DDD South West 3 below:-

• Phil Jones: http://psjones.co.uk/post/dddsw-3-thoughts.aspx
• Duncan Smart: http://blog.dotsmart.net/2011/06/13/dddsw-hecklegate/
• Amy Kate: http://www.amykate.co.uk/?p=266
• John Nolan: http://johnnosnose.blogspot.com/2011/06/dddsw-3-re-rewrite-session.html
• Gary Park: http://www.gep13.co.uk/blog/?p=278
• Nathan Gloyn: http://designcoderelease.blogspot.com/2011/06/dddsw-3.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
• The Filter: http://blog.thefilter.com/index.php/2011/06/14/the-filter-at-ddd-southwest/

As I am sure you know DDD South West is a free event and I am sure people have heard me say many times before "free means someone else pays". And specifically this means our fabulous sponsors. Thank you to our platinum sponsors AspDotNetStoreFront, UWE, Microsoft and Telerik and to all of the sponsors who made this event possible and who gave us such great swag to give away to attendees (60+ quality pieces of swag valued at over £9000). And the swag fest isn't over yet. If you attended DDD South West 3 you will have found in your attendee bag a DDD South West 3 "I Was There" sticker. We are running a competition to find the best photo of this sticker stuck somewhere. The winner wins a Kinect (thanks, Microsoft). Details are here. The competition ends at midnight on 31st July 2011.

So finally I would like to thank the army of people who made this event possible: room monitors, helpers, speakers, sponsors, catering staff, attendees, everyone. One of my enduring memories of DDD South West 3 and previous DDD South West events is the large number of people who came up to me throughout the whole day and said "can I do anything to help ?". The UK .NET community does indeed rock.

And very finally DDD South west is run by a team of people: Martyn Fewtrell, Chris Myhill, Ross Scott, Jose Simas and myself. A massive thanks to my team mates who don't stand centre stage but nonetheless do a ton of work that doesn't typically get seen but has to happen somehow.

You can see photos of DDD South West 3 from Jose Simas here and Craig Murphy here.

Recently I have been showing the Emotiv EPOC neuroheadset in a presentation called "Mind Control Your Computer In C#". The neuroheadset scans brain waves and interprets facial expressions (Expressiv), emotions (Affectiv) and cognitive thought (Cognitiv). During my presentation I show all three of these but demonstrating emotions live is quite difficult because it is tough to force yourself to be interested or excited on demand. Listening to recorded music doesn't produce a significant emotional response from me either. So I seized an opportunity at the weekend. I attended a music festival and recorded the Affectiv output whilst listening to two different types of music.

The first is a slow blues by Patrick Smet. I like slow blues and I like Patrick Smet's performances but you can see the effect that the slow blues has on me as the piece progresses. In particular watch the black line (Instantaneous Excitement) and the red line (Engagement/Boredom). After 2 minutes you will see a considerable drop and a stability in both lines. Also note that the red line starts around 0.8 and drops to around 0.6 or lower for most of the piece.

The second piece is a fast boogie by Big John Carter. I like fast boogie and I like Big John Carter's performances. Again watch the red and black lines. In particular notice them after about 1 minute 40 seconds. The red line (Engagement/Boredom) averages around 0.8 often peaking at 0.9. The black line (Instantaneous Excitement) frequently hits 1.0. Also note the plummeting of the black line at the end of the piece.

I found this experiment very interesting. Clearly it is not without its flaws. For example you can't see what I was looking at whilst I made this recording and this would have an effect on the fluctuating emotional levels. I also can't explain why my Frustration levels (the blue line) go up sometimes when I'm clearly enjoying the music.

This coming Wednesday (22nd June 2011) and next Friday (1st July 2011) I will presenting a new session at VBUG Bristol and Fest '11 respectively:-

• Mind Control Your Computer In C#
  No, really. This isn't some clever session title. I'm really talking about controlling your computer with your mind. I'm not making this stuff up. This is real. Today. You put on a headset, you use a C# SDK and you control your computer with your thoughts. Yes, you are reading this right - you mind control your computer. It is a reality and it is possible today. Once you've gotten over your disbelief consider the applications. Applications for the physically impaired alone are a whole revolution. Not to mention the possibilities for gaming. Want to be shocked and amazed ? Come and see this session.

This session uses the Emotiv EPOC neuroheadset to control a PC by thought. I am delighted that I live in a world where it is possible to do this and where it is within an individual's affordable price range.

Please note: for the record, this presentation is all about the Emotiv EPOC neuroheadset. I do not work for Emotiv, nor do I have any financial interest in this company or any of its associates. I present this subject solely because I am delighted that it is possible to do this.

Chris Myhill and I started The .NET Developer Network (aka #DotNetDevNet) four years ago on St. George's Day 2007. On Monday 13th June 2011 we held our fiftieth meeting. I was delighted to have a very special speaker for this meeting, none other than .NET Rocks co-host Richard Campbell. I was also particularly pleased because he was giving a session I had seen twice before and felt was one of the best presentations I have seen.

In these 50 meetings we have witnessed some very fine presentations and I have always felt that great speakers deserve recognition for their great performances. So here are the top 10 speakers over these first 50 meetings by Knowledge Of Subject and then by Presentation Skills.

Congratulations to Richard Campbell for a truly fabulous presentation on Monday and congratulations to everyone on these lists - you are stars and heroes.

Going to DDD South West 3 on Saturday ? In your attendee bag you will find an "I Was There" sticker. We are running a competition to find the best photo of a DDD South West 3 sticker stuck on to something. Travelling somewhere ? Take the sticker with you and photograph the sticker stuck on a famous place. Going to DDD Sydney on 3rd July ? Take the sticker with you and photograph it stuck on a DDD Sydney banner. Here's what you need to know:-

• You must be a DDD South West 3 attendee.
• Either Tweet your photo using the hashtag #dddswpic or email it to admin at dddsouthwest.com.
• The competition closes at midnight (GMT) on Sunday 31st July 2011.
• The judges decision is final.
• The winner will be notified by Friday 5th August 2011.
• The winner will receive an XBox Kinect (postage paid inside the UK only).

Thanks to Microsoft for donating the Kinect to a very worthy cause.

Even if you are not a speaker you may be aware that most conferences have a Speaker Room. The purpose of a Speaker Room is a matter for some debate. Most speakers will explain to anyone naive enough to listen that it is absolutely essential that speakers have somewhere to go, away from the attendees so that they may prepare their session. Of course, this is simply a facade. It is nothing of the sort. Instead most people think that the Speaker Room is a place where speakers can hang out with other speakers safe in the knowledge that the attendees cannot just come up to them and ask them a question or engage them in conversation. At the first two DDD South Wests we did not provide a Speaker Room because DDD events are community events and having a place where speakers can hide from the very people who have come there to meet them is anti-community. Instead we provided counselling services and darkened rooms where speakers could retire if an attendee had approached them, talked directly at them and even touched them in the guise of "shaking hands" (I'll stop now as speakers of a more nervous persuasion might stop reading). But for DDD South West 3 we are going to do something different. For DDD South West 3 we are going to use a Speaker Room for the one true purpose which all Speaker Rooms should be used for: to meet the speakers. Room 3Q83 is the Speakers Room at DDD South West 3. Speakers will go there specifically to talk to attendees. We encourage all attendees to go there to and avail themselves of the speakers therein. Also we might put some chocolate bars in that room.

One final point of note: we have reached an agreement with all conference organisers the whole world over that from here on all Speaker Rooms will be places where you can go and meet speakers and we would encourage you to forcefully resist security staff everywhere and stand up for your rights as attendees to engage speakers in conversations wherever they may be.

DDD South West 3 (Saturday 11th June 2011) is blessed in having not one but two apps for mobile phones.

• For Windows Phone 7 you can download the free app (including the agenda) from the MarketPlace on your phone. Search on "DDD". Thanks to Chris Myhill for his excellent creation and to Mike Hole for publishing it. (If you have downloaded the first version you need to do a refresh to get the agenda).
• For Android, iOS, FireFox 4, IE 9 (not IE 8), Chrome 11 and Safari you can download the free app (including the agenda) from http://www.pocketddd.com/dddsw3. Thanks to Ross Scott for his excellent creation.

See you there.