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| Ian Bullock - Photo from IanBullock.ca |
London, Canada is successfully attracting, training and retaining talented digital interactive professionals who often have one thing in common: they have attended the DIG conference.
I had the opportunity to chat with one local web developer
who relocated to London for school, found a rewarding career in his field and
is thriving in the city.
Ian Bullock, web developer
extraordinaire at Digital Echidna and I talked about about life, internet and...
well... DIG of course. Ian’s life is an
open book; he is active on twitter (@ian_bullock) and generally posts most of his secrets on the feed. A lesser known interesting
fact about Ian is that he was a goal tender in hockey for 13 years, playing in small across Ontario towns such as St.
George and Paris. Maybe this info is on Twitter somewhere, but it’s published
here now for your trivia pleasure.
Ian was born in London, moved away, then came back and
stayed (#YAY). He studied at Western and Fanshawe: Multi media Design and Production at F-shawe coupled with a degree in MIT at Western. I feel like I can use the abbrev. “F-Shawe”... being a very proud
Alumni of the college and all. Ian has worked at 3 agencies in London in both
front and back end development, which grants both the inner artist and
programmer the opportunity to shine. Bravo internet soldier.
Ian knew from an early age that his career would focus
around graphic design, with interests in photography and painting Ian gets to
express himself in his chosen career. Having a strong parental influence in
computer science and visual arts, web development proved to be the perfect fit. My homeboy Ian and I bonded over our love of the
craft and if you ask us, Code is Art.
Ian’s first web project was a re-design of the Club Phoenix
site in college a mere 5-6 years ago. Now he is working on large projects with
Echidna for organizations like WOTCH and has witnessed his skill set evolve from
the table-design and image-based text in HTML used 5 years ago to the CMS’s of
today. The web development world is rapidly evolving and changing, you have to
remain ahead of the curve as new technologies challenge the skill set of a
developer daily. Ian will not have to fret this November 2012; we have him
covered at DIG.
From networking with fellow web developers and friends I
have learned that we all have a certain way of computing. With 8 browser tabs
open,
grooveshark playing Ska and Dubstep and art supplies handy Ian is ready to work, or be stranded on a dessert island
in peace. Although Ian was not sure how he felt about Dubstep, I reassured him
that “haters are going to hate” and that it is fine to Lub the Dub.
Thanks to Ian Bullock
for meeting with me! I leave you with this clip from our interview where I ask,
“What is the best part about being a developer in London, Canada” and hear
about Ian’s experience at the DIG Conference.
Katie
Wilhelm is a Marketing and Communications Coordinator at the London Economic
Development Corporation. The top 3 things she is good at are The Internet,
Photoshop and listening to Eddie Murphy’s “Party all the Time.” Follow her on twitter today: @KatieWilhelm
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