As you may have seen on Twitter, last week we headed off to New Adventures in Web Design (NACONF), a conference we’ve sponsored since it began back in 2011.

Run by Simon Collison, New Adventures has always been an excellent source of inspiration for all kinds of web professionals, and it’s a firm favourite in the UK conference calendar. With thought-provoking talks from some of the industry’s most influential and successful designers, developers, typographers and writers, NACONF continued the trend of previous years by redefining inspiration and opening up a range of socialising and networking opportunities across the board.

The hall was absolutely packed, and it was a great (if busier than expected!) day, with plenty of extras around the scheduled talks – including the legendary cupcake tower by Swirls Bakery, the fab people who made our VPS cake back in November.

We spent the breaks chatting to people and giving out plenty of free stuff, including a poster version of our infographic, USB sticks, sweets, and The Periodic Table of Typefaces posters.

One of the things we love the most about conferences is meeting customers – it’s great to put faces to people we see on Twitter and Facebook, and chat about projects and talks without worrying about character limits. So many people came over beaming to chat about support and how much they appreciate the work the team puts in, which we’ve happily passed on to them!

We feel incredibly lucky to have had some fantastic conferences on our doorstep, and we thoroughly recommend investigating opportunities to attend workshops and similar events near you via Lanyrd. There are all kinds of events with something for everyone involved in the web industry, whether you’re looking for inspiration, socialising, networking, speaking opportunities, or a mix. Many smaller grassroots events are cheap or free to attend as well. You can check out some of the other events we sponsor on our Tour page, and if you’re Nottingham-based, you can often catch us at Second Wednesday.

If you’re looking for more New Adventures action, check out the rest of our conference photos on Flickr!