So @media 2007 is over and, after a little breather, here’s a short breakdown of what I saw, in chronological order, along with links to presentations where possible.

There were lots of great, inspiring ideas, which should spin out into a few more posts in the near future.

Beyond Ajax (Jesse James Garrett)

Not, as I thought, a technical talk about web applications, rather a look at how we make sure that applications work for the user. Paraphrasing slightly, he said that the success of Web 2.0 was in hiding technology from the user, rather than showing it off.

The Broken World (Molly E Holzschlag)

With a subheading of ‘Solving the Browser Problem Once and for All’, again I was expecting code examples to fix cross-browser incompatibilities. Instead, this promoted communication between browser vendors, standards committees, and end users.

High Performance Web Sites (Nate Koechley)

In contrast to the previous presentations, perhaps a little too technical. 12 steps to speeding up your web pages, from using image sprites to doing something on the server that is beyond my comprehension level.

Interface Design Juggling (Dan Cederholm)

Tips on colour, design, typography, and implementing Microformats on your site. Really interesting, practical stuff, which I’ll be putting to good use very shortly.

5 Simple Steps to Better Typography (Mark Boulton)

Another practical presentation, with plenty of good advice on making your sites easier to read. I’d read much of this in slides from a previous presentation, but still good to have the message reinforced.

When Web Accessibility is Not Your Problem (Joe Clark)

I missed the beginning of this presentation owing to an emergency at work, and the rest was hampered by muffled sound. Still interesting, though; what you should do to make your pages more accessible, and what isn’t your responsibility.

How to be a Creative Sponge (Jon Hicks)

Practical and inspirational; where to get ideas from, how to look at life with a designer’s eye, and how to store and reference your ideas.

For Example… [Slides One] [Slides Two] (Hannah Donovan & Simon Willison)

Case studies of last.fm and lawrence.com; interesting, although not directly relevant to me at this moment.

One Web, Acid 2 and CSS 3 (Håkon Wium Lie)

My favourite of the whole expo. The importance of open standards on the web, the state of modern browsers and looking forward to the future of front-end development. I wrote a little more about this on CSS3.info. Also got a chance to see the $100 laptop — it’s tiny, but I guess you’d expect that of something aimed at children!

Royale With Cheese (Andy Clarke)

The most open-ended of the presentations, but none the worse for that. How much — if at all — do cultural differences inform web design, and is the globalised model the best to follow?

There was an interesting Hot Topics Panel at the end of the event, which I recommend you listen to if it’s podcasted later. All in all, it was two days very well spent.

Update: All of the events slides and podcasts are available now.