A Day at the Final All Day Hey! Conference: Accessibility, AI, Browser Magic and Biscuits 🍪

On Thursday 8th May, I headed to Leeds for the final ever All Day Hey! conference, and what a genuinely brilliant day it turned out to be.

My alarm went off at 6:15am and, after a slightly groggy start, I made my way into Manchester for the train. Thankfully the TransPennine Express from Manchester Victoria at 8:30am was unusually calm: reserved seat, quiet carriage, entire row to myself. A rare commuter miracle.

I arrived in Leeds around 9:40am and immediately had one thought: Leeds rail station is huge! Am I going to make it in time? After a brief power walk through the station and Leeds Trinity, I found the venue: the Everyman Cinema.

I’d actually never been to an Everyman before, but I instantly understood the appeal. Sofas instead of stiff conference chairs? Tiny side tables? Warm lighting? Honestly, every tech conference should consider moving into cinemas immediately, as a person in her mid 30’s, I appreciated the comfort and ambience.

Most people had already checked in by the time I arrived, so there was no queue. I grabbed my lanyard, which conveniently had the full schedule printed on it, along with a bag of biscuits that would soon become one of the running themes of the day.

One thing I immediately appreciated was that the talks had live captions running in real time on the cinema screen. As someone who is hard of hearing, accessibility details like that make a huge difference, and it’s still something not every conference gets right.

As the cinema screen filled up, I found a seat near the middle on the far right and settled in. I was attending solo, which is always an interesting experience at conferences.

Saying Goodbye to All Day Hey!

All Day Hey! has been running for ten years, and this was its final event. 10 is quite a lovely number and what an achievement, it’s always good to go out on a high!

The conference was beautifully curated. Not just technically impressive, but thoughtful. Accessibility, AI, creativity, experimentation, introversion, animation, learning through play. It never felt like a conveyor belt of trend-chasing talks. There was a very human thread running through the entire day.

Ironically, I’d only discovered the conference this year after seeing posts shared by Phil Hawksworth and Jake Archibald online. The ticket pricing was refreshingly accessible too, which made it much easier to justify the trip with work support.

Bramus Van Damme: Cranking View Transitions Up to 11

Phil Hawksworth opened the day before introducing Bramus Van Damme, alongside the first biscuit pairing of the conference: a humble Malted Milk.

Bramus kicked things off with a deep dive into View Transitions, Scroll-Driven Animations and MutationObserver APIs, exploring just how far modern browser capabilities can be pushed beyond their intended use cases.

This was one of those talks where you leave with a camera roll absolutely full of slides and notes.

Normally forty minute talks can test my attention span slightly, but this flew by. Bramus has a really engaging way of explaining concepts through demos, gradually layering complexity without losing the audience. It felt less like a lecture and more like someone enthusiastically opening hidden doors inside the browser one by one.

I’ve since added several of his blog posts to my “must read” pile. Bramus

Léonie Watson: Do Androids Dream of Accessible Webs?

The next talk, paired with a delightful Custard Cream, was Léonie Watson’s Do Androids Dream of Accessible Webs?

This ended up being one of the most thought-provoking talks of the entire day.

Léonie explored agentic AI systems and accessibility through a deceptively simple question: when AI agents act on our behalf, who are they actually representing?

One of the strongest points throughout the talk was the distinction between preferences and constraints.

“Preferences can be traded, but constraints must not be broken.”

Léonie demonstrated scenarios where AI systems might technically complete tasks successfully, while still completely failing the actual human experience behind them. An agent might optimise for speed, efficiency or cost, but ignore contextual needs that matter deeply to the user.

The key issue wasn’t the AI model itself. It was the surrounding system design.

If accessibility requirements, personal needs, or contextual constraints are treated as vague optional preferences instead of structured, enforceable data, then they become negotiable. And for many people, those needs are not negotiable at all.

Which naturally raises another huge question: when should an AI agent stop and ask for clarification? This is one of the most important things in designing and building an ai-driven agent.

Léonie framed it perfectly:

“If confidence is high, act. If uncertainty is high, ask.”

It sounds obvious when phrased that simply, but it cuts directly to one of the biggest problems in AI-assisted systems right now: overconfidence.

Léonie also spoke about testing systems with people who “live outside of the probabilities”

Accessibility testing often reveals where systems break first, but those same failures frequently affect far more people than expected: temporary injuries, situational limitations, stress, fatigue, noisy environments, unfamiliar journeys.

As someone who is hard of hearing, neurodivergent and living with chronic fatigue, I always find talks like this fascinating because they reveal how differently people experience the world and the same digital systems.

One point that particularly stayed with me was Léonie explaining that while AI models are incredibly good at recognising patterns based on probabilities, the systems around them need to become far better at recognising human capabilities, lived experiences and human characteristics.

AI systems are not neutral.

We are the ones designing the systems, defining what matters, deciding what gets ignored and determining how agents behave. Those decisions belong to us.

Leonie closed with a powerful takeaway:

“So perhaps the question after all isnt: Do androids dream of accessible webs? But rather: Do we design for the people who are nobody’s probability?”

Anjana Vakil: Making Waves with the Web

Next came Anjana Vakil’s talk on audio synthesis and data sonification using the WebAudio API and Tone.js, paired perfectly with a Nice biscuit.

I’ll admit, before the talk started I was slightly apprehensive. As someone who struggles a little with certain frequencies and layered sounds, the idea of browser-generated synthesis and waveforms sounded potentially overwhelming.

Thankfully, Anjana was incredibly mindful throughout the demos.

The talk itself was fantastic.

Part technical deep-dive, part digital experiment, part live performance.

Using weather data to create evolving ambient soundscapes in the browser was such an imaginative and creative concept, and the entire thing was captivating to watch unfold. Anjana’s energy was absolutely infectious and she has that rare ability to make deeply technical topics feel playful, creative and approachable all at once.

Lunch, Conversations and Conference Energy

Lunch gave everyone a chance to decompress a little.

As I headed out, I briefly stopped to chat with Phil Hawksworth, who I’d previously met at Middlesbrough Front End Conference 2023 talking about rendering. The tech world gives us so many acronyms, rendering, perhaps takes the biscuit: SSR/CSR/SSG/DPR/DSG/ISR/ODB/SPA/MPA and Edge Rendering.

I’ve always admired Phil’s talks and writing online, and he’s every bit as friendly and easy to talk to in person as you’d expect.

One thing I really appreciated throughout the entire day was how thoughtfully the conference had been put together. The speaker lineup, pacing, themes and overall tone of the event all worked incredibly well together. There was a real sense of curiosity, creativity and care running through the entire programme.

Lightning Talks: Introverts, Browser Video and Bill & Ted

The afternoon shifted into a run of lightning talks.

Fiona Safari: The Art of Connection

Fiona Safari’s talk about thriving as an introvert resonated with me immediately.

Fiona referenced Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist who popularised the concepts of introversion and extroversion and archetypes.

One of the things she highlighted was that introversion has never been about shyness, social skills or confidence, but rather where people gain and expend energy. It was a really important distinction, especially in industries that often reward constant visibility and high-energy interaction.

An interesting concepts Fiona discussed was why introverts can feel drained of energy and the difference between the comfort zone, growth zone and panic zone.

Ultimately, growth doesn’t happen if we stay permanently comfortable, but equally, once we tip fully into overwhelm, learning stops.

I also loved her point that visibility does not require loudness. Introversion isn’t a flaw to fix. It’s simply a different way of managing energy.

I’ll end out this section for now with some of her wonderfully practical advice:

• Start small, design your growth zone, growth does not mean doing more

• Use small talk as a tool, its the bridge between silence and meaningful conversation, choose small talk topics you’re interested in

• Plan ahead, preparation is confidence. Uncertainty is what drains us

• Recharge intentionally, treat energy as a resource. If you spend time in the growth zone, you can return to the comfort zone.

• Redefine what “Being Seen” Looks like. Being visible does not mean being loud

Jake Archibald: Composing Video in the Browser

Jake Archibald’s lightning talk focused on assembling and encoding short-form video entirely in the browser.

Jake’s presentation style is always incredibly entertaining. Fast-paced, funny and technically dense without becoming inaccessible. Watching modern browser tooling evolve through talks like this makes frontend development feel endlessly creative.

Jake is also somewhat internet-famous in the frontend world, having worked across teams at Chrome, Shopify and now Firefox. I’d actually met him previously at Middlesbrough Frontend 2023, where he gave one of the standout talks of the conference on page transitions, and then bumped into him again the following year when he returned as a spectator.

Also, as a fellow Skunk Anansie fan, he’s automatically excellent in my books.

His biscuit pairing was a Jam Cream sandwich, which felt very fitting. Given Jake’s online handle is famously “jaffathecake”, I suspect the organisers wisely avoided reigniting the eternal is a Jaffa Cake actually a cake or a biscuit? debate. So perhaps the Jam Cream was the safest compromise.

Alistair Shepherd: Bill & Ted’s Accessibility Adventure

Alistair Shepherd delivered a wonderfully fun accessibility talk through the lens of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, while wearing an outfit vibrant enough to match the presentation itself.

His central point was simple but powerful:

Accessibility becomes easier to understand when developers experience it practically through testing, rather than only through guidelines and specifications.

Testing lets developers actually feel friction points themselves. It transforms accessibility from an abstract compliance exercise into something tangible and human.

That idea tied beautifully back into many of the broader themes running through the conference.

Cassie Evans: Game On!

By mid-afternoon, conference energy can sometimes dip slightly.

Cassie Evans absolutely annihilated that possibility.

Her live-coded GSAP game, built interactively from audience suggestions, was expertly orchestrated chaos. Set in an office environment, the audience helped shape the gameplay in real time, choosing things like ‘friendly coworker’ as a power-up and AI as the enemy while tackling Trello tickets and workplace admin tasks.

The entire thing evolved live on stage with an incredible amount of creativity, humour and technical skill. It looked wildly fun, but also highlighted just how much preparation and expertise goes into making something feel that effortless.

Phil had paired the talk with a cookie, describing it as:

“Bursting with creativity, bursting with surprises…it’s fun opening up the bag, never knowing the state of those, they might be crumbly, they might be intact, you never know…” British humour at its finest.

Cassie’s talk landed at exactly the right point in the schedule and completely re-energised the room.

Phil Hawksworth: Learning Along the Way

Finally came the closing talk from Phil Hawksworth himself, introduced by organiser Josh Nesbitt and paired, fittingly, with a good ol’ faithful and stable Chocolate Digestive.

Throughout the day, Phil had expertly threaded everything together as host, part MC and part biscuit connoisseur.

His closing talk focused on experimentation, curiosity, stepping out of your comfort zone and learning through doing.

One point that really stood out was the reminder that our work matters.

We may not be surgeons or world leaders, but the things we build shape experiences for real people every single day. The opinions, priorities and standards we embed into products genuinely have impact.

Phil also touched on something increasingly relevant in the AI era:
if thoughtful people don’t actively contribute their expertise and opinions into emerging tooling and systems, then lower-quality outputs inevitably fill the gap.

“We’re an informed bunch in our domain of expertise, and we’re an opinionated bunch as well. And being opinionated is going to matter more than ever. Because if the right opinions aren’t expressed and captured for the tools that are coming, then we’re gonna have the slop gun.”

That quote really tied together one of the strongest themes running throughout the entire conference: our input, opinions and our decisions matter.

The systems we build reflect human choices, priorities and values. Accessibility, AI, creativity, experimentation, usability, communication, confidence, empathy. Every talk approached it from a different angle, but they all came back to the same underlying idea: technology is ultimately about people.

Unfortunately, by this point my phone battery was hanging on for dear life, my notes had become slightly chaotic and the conference was running slightly over schedule. As it was nearing 5pm, I regrettably had to leave Phil’s talk early to catch my train home.

A slightly frantic sprint back to Leeds station later, I was heading back towards Manchester physically exhausted, but mentally inspired and energised from the day. The conference was definitely worth it, Im glad I made the trip.

Final Thoughts On The Day

By the time I got back to Manchester Victoria nearing 6:30pm, I was running almost entirely on caffeine, conference adrenaline and whatever crumbs of battery life my phone still had left.

But conferences like All Day Hey! remind me why I love this industry in the first place.

Thoughtful ideas. Creative experimentation. Accessibility. Curiosity. Playfulness. Human-centred design. People who genuinely care about building things well.

Not a bad way at all for a conference series to take its final bow.

Huge thank you to my boss, Stephen Rathod and CGI Agile Digital Services for supporting my learning and funding the trip.

Links:

Hey Presents 2026: Schedule

Hey Presents 2026: Speakers

Middlesbrough FE

As An Aside: A Thought for the North

There’s also something bittersweet about realising that both All Day Hey! and Middlesbrough Front End have now reached the end of their conference runs.

Two genuinely thoughtful, community-driven and accessible tech events in the North wrapping up within a year of each other.

Events like these really matter. They bring world-class speakers, ideas and inspiration closer to home, while helping shape a distinctly northern kind of tech culture: warm, welcoming, a little self-deprecating, deeply creative and driven far more by curiosity and people than corporate performance.

These weren’t conferences designed only for huge company budgets, senior leadership expense accounts or people who can casually drop four figures on tickets and travel. They felt open to all.

Affordable enough that individuals could attend. Easy enough to justify to smaller teams. Welcoming to juniors, students, independents and people simply curious to learn.

That access is important, because good ideas shouldn’t be gatekept behind prohibitively expensive events.

Again and again, the talks reinforced the idea that we need a wide range of perspectives to help shape the future of technology. In a world increasingly influenced by AI, algorithms and automation, we need diverse voices at the table more than ever.

The North deserves spaces like this. Places to learn. To experiment. To connect. To feel inspired. To help shape what comes next.

And hopefully this isn’t an ending so much as a reminder that these communities are still here. The appetite is still here, too.

So perhaps the next step is supporting the events, meetups and communities that continue to grow across the North, and maybe even encouraging new ones to emerge…