Natalie's best events of 2011

This was the first conference we attended after launching Lanyrd (we had been travelling) - it was great to test some theories and do some user interviews.

The conference itself was also interesting, some of the sessions were a bit beyond my understanding of 'big data' but it was thoughoughly enjoyable none-the-less.

There were some fabulous corridor conversations too, and an unofficial 'big data' after party in Rainbow Mansions hosted by Shevek where favourite algorithms were discussed and demonstrated on a whiteboard, and someone made me my first 'Old Fashioned' cocktail.

This was fab! A great crowd and some interesting sessions. We were living in Mountain View doing YCombinator (W2011) at the time so it was just down the road, it was also nice to meet people who lived and worked nearby. Simons Zepplin talk rocked, of course :)

This was epic!

I had never been to SXSW having had a startup before, the emotional rollercoaster gets condensed! We barely slept at all!

Our homecoming to England. After travelling round Europe and North Africa, building Lanyrd, travelling round South Africa and then moving to Mountain View USA for the three months of YCombinator, this was when we saw a lot of our friends from home again.

This was quite something for us, we were one of about 30 companies looking to recruit. As we were looking for our first employees we were the smallest company there!

There was a good buzz of people and it was fab to chat to some of the other startups about recruiting.

Always a good event, it's predecessor (2005) was the first conference I attended.

This was my first foo camp, it was really incredible. So much information was crammed into my head over a lovely weekend camping with smart people

I wish I had gone this year, I couldn't make it unfortunately. I've been before and it was amazing, that's why it is on this list.

Unbelievably brilliant! The science of eggs!

This was a really interesting event for event organisers, some revealing discussions and a good group of people.

A big party full of lovely people, face painting, moo stickers, wine, cupcakes and burritos.

Another homecoming style event for us at Lanyrd, we launched a year ago at dConstruct 2010 whilst we were in Casablanca, Morocco. A suitably 'thinky' event, definately brain food.

A true spectacle of event! Only 5 mins in and there had been a musical number and the host's death scene. It was also a good mobile & UX event, of special interest to us at the time as we were entering into the new-to-us world of mobile design and development with an iOS app.

How could a tech event at Bletchley park not be awesome! It was quite humbling to be arround remnants of some of the greatest inventions in Computer Science whilst discussing and hacking on projects that wouldn't be possible without the people who worked at Bletchley Park. Sophie came too and was happily learning python cryptography at about 3am.

Simon and I gave a talk about Lanyrd, it was my first speaking gig for quite some time and we also launched our iPhone app the day before our talk (to coincide with the iOS5 launch) this was quite a tricky juggling act!

The event had a great vibe to it and there were some fascinating and varied sessions as well as a good amount of corridor conversation.

Barcamp London is always a classic. Bubbling over with energy and interesting & very diverse sessions. Being over Halloween this year and the theme it produced was a happy extra!

An off the wall event that delivered fascinating bite sized nuggets of intrigue and awoke bits of the brain that led to further 'thinky' conversations.

I had forgotten how much I had missed volunteering at events and Full Frontal in particular. For me this was the perfect conference this year, good mix of talks - funny and informative, interesting conversation in the corridors and the most welcoming host and hostess in Remy and Julie. A particularly special event this year.

Delightful in it's absurdity! Similar to 'interesting' but a quirky slant on it, such a lot of fun.

If you get chance to go to this event _do_! Brilliant.