2010 was spent settling into life in Vancouver and enjoying all the ups and downs of moving to a new country. The photo above was taken on the way out of Tofino, which is on the west coast of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia. I chose the above photo to accompany this post as it’s how I have felt about blogging lately – when it comes to my free time, I haven’t wanted to sit down at a computer and work on developing good content, I usually prefer to get away from the web and enjoy the fresh air, and not to mention enjoy photographing some great views!

A few people have asked me why I don’t blog about the experience of moving to a new country and honestly, I just don’t want to. As much as my profession requires me to be almost always online, personally I prefer to unplug and enjoy some more personal experiences offline.

I’ve also been questioning what purpose this blog should serve. In my job, I am continuously asking clients why. Why do you want to be on social media? Why do you need a blog? Why must you have an iPhone app? What purpose does this content serve? I advise people not to skip the strategy phase and go straight to implementation but rather to ask themselves why. Yet, often it can be easy to avoid approaching my own projects like this, or in this case, this blog.

My reason for setting up this blog in the first place was to be able to write about my experiences on projects and to share insights from my work or digital media trends. Additionally, it seemed in recent years that if you worked in the digital media industry you had to have a blog or you would simply lose credibility and/ or not be able to compete for a job! However, I’ve found that I often simply don’t have the time to write a post or don’t want to post content if I don’t feel that it’s original or if I haven’t had the time to write well thought out content. I advise clients that good web content should be interesting, relevant, well written and current. And frankly, if I don’t have the time to do this properly myself ‘off the clock’ then I’m ok with not doing it at all.

This is my blog, I’ll blog when I feel like it. If I haven’t written to it in a while, then you’re much more likely to read about what I’m currently interested in or working on via my twitter channel. It is what it is, I can live with not blogging regularly. Now back to advising people that they should keep their content fresh and up to date. Perhaps doctors do make the worst patients!

January: For the first time since I entered the work force in 1996, I took some time off.

February: I attended the Future of Web Apps in Dublin and visited Berlin on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

March: I took part in “Cannonball Run”, a short-film competition in Dublin that is based on NYC’s Midnight, and our team won!

April: I visited Toronto, attended Flash in the Can (the design and technology conference in Toronto) and a design that I created was featured in a Smashing Magazine article “How to Create a Great Web Design Resume“.

May: I up-skilled to ActionScript 3.0 and was contracted by my old University department to help them with their website (a full re-design is due to launch soon).

June: I visited London, attended Wimbledon and learnt more about Augmented Reality at the first TEDxDublin.

July: I thought about starting Refresh Dublin (we’ll come back to that later) and received confirmation that my work permit for Canada was approved!

August: I took part in an arduino and flash workshop organised by the IxDA Ireland and worked on projects for a media production company and an interactive media agency.

September: I designed and developed the website for the “Stanley Kubrick : Taming Light” exhibition and took part in the Japfest photowalk at Mondello Park in Dublin.

October: I launched the first Refresh Dublin event in Dublin, which featured sessions on the topics of web design, web development, augmented reality, iPhone development and interactive media installations.

November: I completed a certificate in iPhone application development, spoke at an IxDA organised event, DEFUSE/ Design for Use, attended the first OFFSET (design conference in Dublin) and learned a lot more about media law and the use (or rather, misuse) of trademark law [Note: a good read on this very topic is Seth Godin's article "How to protect your ideas in the digital age".] Both Refresh Dublin and the site that I designed for the “Stanley Kubrick : Taming Light” exhibition were featured in a Smashing Magazine article: “Showcase of Web Design in Ireland.”

December: I finalised the plans for my move to Vancouver, spent Christmas with my family and flew to Canada on the 27th of December.

2010 – so far: I’m settling into my new home in Vancouver, enjoying exploring the city and setting up my new life in Canada. I’m currently looking for my next challenge so if you think I would be a good fit for your company/ organisation, or know of any good opportunities in the web and interactive media space in Vancouver, please get in touch. Want to see my profile on LinkedIn?

Happy New Year.

- Niamh.