Aral Balkan

I believe that there was a time when I didn't have my future planned out months in advance. I know it involved a lot of skateboarding and hanging out with friends! :)

Looking at my schedule for the next month or so, I feel like I'm in the calm before the storm.

Things are kicking off this weekend with FITC Amsterdam. I'm presenting a session there and our band, Phlash5, is performing at the after party.

After FITC, I'm back in Brighton for two days, before I fly off to Ireland to attend a one-day WebCamp on Social Network Portability and the blogger's talk dinner.

Unfortunately, I can't stay for the whole Blog Talk conference as I'm meeting Colin and a bunch of Flash/Flex developers at an informal chat at the BBC before flying off to Austin to attend my very first SXSW. I'm thinking of popping over to San Fran for a quick chat with my friends at Adobe afterwards (note to self: you may want to arrange flights for that, Aral!) Depending on how long I stay in San Fran, I may or may not get to attend Then, it's back to Brighton for BarCampBrighton2 on March 15th. I really do want to attend, not least because Singularity is sponsoring the first day's breakfast.

After I return from SXSW, I'm going to be teaching a one-day Introduction to Flex course on the 21st of March and finishing off this mini-conference spree with the talk I'm giving in Scotland titled Bare-naked Flash: Dispelling myths and building bridges at the Highland Fling conference at the start of April. I'm really psyched at presenting there as it means I'm also going to get the chance to hang out with my friends Paul Boag, Christian Heilmann, Chris Mills, Simon Willison, and Gareth Rushgrove (whom I very recently met at Andy's lovely housewarming party).

I have no conferences planned for April and May and I hope to keep it that way as development for Singularity will be in full swing at that point and the only other conference I'm currently confirmed to speak at at the moment is Scotch on the Rocks which isn't until June.

(And there I was thinking that organizing an online web conference would mean that I would travel less this year! Go figure!) :)

And with that, I'm off to London to attend this evening's Second Chance Tuesday with Niklas Zenntröm.

Update: Just made some changes to my schedule. Namely, I'm canceling the Flex course (not enough interest and not enough time) and I'm not going to attend Plugg (though Dave's still going to represent Pistach.io) so I can focus my energies fully on Singularity.

Comments

• Dimitri and Ronny, just to let you know Aral IS coming to Multi-Mania 08 in Belgium at May 23th and we are VERY proud of it ! Stay tuned to the multi-mania website because in upcoming weeks we will go live and announce more names...

  by koen de weggheleire on 2008-02-20 23:14:01

• Nice Info Thanks

  by شات on 2008-06-13 03:42:17

• Cool shit :D Looking forward to it :)

  by Ronny on 2008-02-20 23:48:56

• @Kenny - that would make a very interesting essay/blog post, the connection b/w skateboarding and webdev. I'm neither a skater nor a developer (okay, I dabble a wee bit in web design) and I'd love to read it! @Aral - You're going to SXSW?! That's awesome! I'm going back this year for my second and can't wait. Now I can also look forward to meeting you there.

  by communicatrix on 2008-02-19 18:13:06

• Wait a sec... you sk8ed? It seems like a lot of guys in the web dev/design community come from a sk8board background. My friend Eric and I talk about this off and on, since most of our creative and analytical thinking stems from the way that sport cultivated your thinking. I wonder sometimes how many people in our field have this to relate to. If I attend another conference you are at, we should chat or better yet sk8. I've been sk8ing (though obviously not much now) for 20 years. When I lived in Cali, I'd wake up at 10am and sk8 until about 2am everyday.

  by Kenny Bunch on 2008-02-19 15:49:34

• To that note... something you can appreciate http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ4CtbpUT7Q

  by Kenny Bunch on 2008-02-19 15:57:42

• Once a skateboarder always a skateboarde. Maybe we should organise a skater-come-Flashdev skate event? I'm up for it. Note to self: go skating once the ice melts. No, you're not too old. Check out my crew from Germany who are still rockin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nuycY4Kx6I Or let's see if Aral's blog allows embeds... Sorry, gone off topic now. :-)

  by Stefan on 2008-02-19 20:10:36

• no embeds, ah well :-)

  by Stefan on 2008-02-19 20:11:34

• @Kenny: You're right, it does look like there are a lot of skaters in the Flash world :) I guess you'd have 100% coverage of Flash developers if you drew up a list of musicians and skaters. DOPE looks cool :) @communicatrix: Cool, looking forward to meeting you there! :) @Kurt: Thanks for the heads-up. You're right, Austin to SF doesn't look like the easiest route. In fact, I'm thinking it might be easier (and cheaper, even, go figure) to go to SF a little later from London. @Stefan: Very cool :) @Dimitri & @Ronny: Nope, it doesn't mean that at all; I just haven't heard anything about it yet. Of course I'll speak at Multi-Mania if I'm invited to; I love you guys :) But I also know that it's a small conference and they may want to get some new blood in which I'm also very cool with. Regardless, Multi-Mania and my lovely friends in Kortrijk always hold a special place in my heart.

  by Aral on 2008-02-20 11:00:01

• Looking forward to that!

  by Dimitri on 2008-02-20 23:42:34

• Aral, On your pop over to SF....be sure to check on flights for that leg. I'm from the Bay Area and found that the only direct flights were into San Jose from Austin except for one uber expensive flight into SFO. In addition there will be a mass of people flying from Austin -> Bay Area around that time, so just a heads up...the sooner the better. -Kurt

  by Kurt Brockett on 2008-02-19 18:20:47

• ...I have no conferences planned for April and May and I hope to keep it that way...

  Does that mean your not speaking at 2M08? ;'( speaking of conferences, FOSDEM08 kicks of saturday for the 8th time! I'm only attending on saturday because I dont want to miss a second of FITC. :-) See everyone in Amsterdam and hopefully also in Kortrijk for 2M08!

  by Dimitri on 2008-02-19 23:44:28

• Aral & Skateboarding... To be honest: I wasn't surprised when I first heard you were a singer, and I wasn't surprised when I've heard all the other cool stuff you've done... But skateboarding? I'm blown away :D I'm with Stetan: We should organize a skate-webdeveloper meeting :) And then I'm with Dimitri: you seem not to be coming to Multi-Mania 2008? Damn sad, was looking forward to seeing you there :) Anyway: good luck in Amsterdam, and have fun traveling! :)

  by Ronny on 2008-02-20 00:55:58