That was dConstruct 2022

dConstruct 2022 happened last Friday, September 9th.

And what an event it was! All eight talks were superb. To have eight speakers and not a single dud is pretty great. To have eight speakers and each one be absolutely brilliant is more than I could���ve hoped for.

Hidde has written a summary of the talks. I loved each and every one. I got to sit there in the front row of the beautiful Duke of York���s cinema and watch these supersmart people blow my mind.

With six of the eight speakers having spoken at previous dConstructs, there was a lot of nostalgia in the air on Friday.

It was the last dConstruct.

A lot of people seemed surprised by this even though I kept saying it was a one-off event. Really, the last dConstruct happened in 2015. This year���s event was a one-time-only anniversary event.

Obviously because the day was so great, people expressed sadness and disappointment that there wouldn���t be another. But like I said, if a band like The Velvet Underground reforms to do one last gig, that���s pretty cool; but if a band like The Velvet Underground reforms to go on endless tours, that���s kind of sad. It���s time to move on. Have one last blow-out and go out in style.

And who knows? Maybe there���ll be some other kind of dConstructy gathering in a different format. Perhaps an evening salon event is more suited to this kind of interdisciplinary mish-mash. But as a one-day conference, dConstruct is now officially over.

To be honest, there was never any doubt that dConstruct 2022 would be an excellent day of talks. I knew that each of the speakers would deliver the goods. I played it somewhat safe with the line-up. Because this was a kind of ���best of��� event, I could draw upon speakers from previous years who were guaranteed to be mesmerising.

In a weird way, that also highlights the biggest problem with this year���s dConstruct. Even though every individual talk was terrific, when you pull back and look at the line-up in aggregate, you can���t help but notice its lack of diversity.

That���s on me.

I could show you the list of people I tried to get. I could talk you through the spots that fell through. But all I���d be doing is giving you excuses. I could show that my intentions were good, but intentions don���t matter as much as actions. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and what we ate last Friday was wonderful but also sadly representative of dConstruct���s homogenous history. For that reason alone, it���s time to draw a line under dConstruct.

It was a bittersweet send-off. On the one hand, I got to enjoy a day of brilliant talks. On the other hand, I���m pretty disappointed in myself that the line-up wasn���t more diverse. I can make all the claims I want about valuing diversity, but they���re hollow without meaningful results.

So that���s enough looking to the past. I���m bidding farewell to dConstruct and setting my sights on the future, a future that features more and different voices.

If you came along to dConstruct 2022, thank you! If you enjoyed attending dConstruct just half as much as I enjoyed hosting it ���well, then I enjoyed it twice as much as you.