I am back from NSConference 5 that took place in Leicester last week. The event was incredible, and I have never come back so tired from a conference.

The talks were of very high quality. Thanks to Scotty’s organization, they were also varied in topics and varied in lengths. I had never been to NSConference before, but it seems that blitz talks were separate from the main talks in the past. This year, “blitz” talks (15 mins) were nicely interspersed between “full” talks (40 mins), which resulted in well-balanced sessions. The result: time seemed to fly.

The evenings were also fun and a great occasion to meet new people and drink beer. Between the intense days full of inspiring talks and the engaging nights, I did not get a lot of sleep. As an extra, I managed to catch some kind of virus before the trip to the UK. The coughing and sore throat did not help with the sleeping.

The icing on the cake was that I was selected for a blitz talk on Wednesday morning. The loud talking and the coughing had the unfortunate result of leaving me voiceless on the morning of my talk, but with enough medication and a good microphone, it was not as bad as I had feared. In case you are curious, the talk was called ‘Rethinking Syncing’. I presented the approach we are currently taking for Dropbox-based syncing in a new app in development. I am making the slides available in two formats:

• Rethinking Syncing – Keynote file
• Rethinking Syncing – Movie file (click for transitions)