Many months ago, a group of creatives came up with an idea for a creative ‘meeting of minds’ under the rather mystical name, The Fantastic Tavern. Like many good ideas, it sat dormant, waiting for the right moment to be realised.

Later conversations touched on similar themes. At ReMIX UK, friends discussed if we could nurture a creative community that met to explore and discuss things we were passionate about – not to a great agenda – just to share? A serendipitous discussion with friends at DoubleClick about how they could support the creative community followed. With intent and a sponsor The Fantastic Tavern breathed into life.

Last night, 41 of us met at The George in Borough. This historic pub played stage for two presentations and lots of beer-fuelled chat. We knew many of the guests; EMC Conchango IM’ers prevailed of course, joined by people from a wider creative community.

First up was DoubleClick, event sponsors, to discuss the creative possibilities of rich media digital marketing collateral – banners, page takeovers, expands etc. Sue Hunt and Ronni Boadi talked us through the relationships between the creative agencies, media planners and buyers and the media owners. Clearly, the closer all three can work together and collaborate to deliver the best creative idea, the better.

What was apparent was that the banner (too simple a term) is far from ‘dead’ but that the performance of this media and the way it can be measured is evolving. More dynamic content and ‘live’ data can be integrated into banners and the interactions people can experience are richer and rewarding – at the point of the page, not a click through. If you’re searching for property, whey cannot banks and building societies offer me mortgage calculators ‘in page’, on a banner? Just like the ‘back of an envelope’, the information I need could be ‘pushed’ contextually to me. Car sites? Loan calculator. Holiday sites? Flight booking applications.

After a display of the very best of rich media executions in DoubleClick ‘new to arrive’ portfolio website, we broke for a stampede to the bar and hot food.

On our return – hic – I attempted to contextualise the significance of Microsoft’s Surface device before Hiljamari Immonen, Hiia to you and I, described the work she and the EMC Conchango team have been doing recently on the award winning FAST Search Application, recently demonstrated at FASTforward in Vegas.  
Much has been written about this ground-breaking enterprise search application but Hiia chose instead to focus on the new ways that designers will work delivering creative to a new device.  What I loved most about this session was the passion that Hiia had for this new frontier. Of course, the challenges of designing great websites remains but Surface brings with it fresh and exciting challenges.

No grid? For years the grid was the foundation of great graphic design and latterly, templating pages. But in (or on?) Surface, there is no fixed ‘display’, the users determine ‘layouts’ as they interact. And questions like “Where am I?” (typical of hierarchical, indexed web experiences) become “ wheres that gone?” or “Where did I put that?” as the user moves through tasks.  Phrases like ‘recoverability’ added to with phrases more family with gaming perhaps – like ‘play-ability” – is this ‘fun enough’?

What was clear with both presentations was that the world of digital is indeed getting richer and as a result, the role of the creative, designer or developer, is evolving too. Interaction design never went away but now perhaps its significance is making resurgence and as a result, challenging us to consider the ways we design and the roles in our teams.

And what of the future of The Fantastic Tavern. Well, there will be one. Another clandestine location will be chosen for us to meet. We may well adapt the format too, so that there is more discussion and debate. While the inaugural presentations were great, The Fantastic Tavern is about the gathering of creative minds and expression. We’ll work on that.