Note: To avoid confusion i'll refer to Paul Stanton as just Stanton in this blog. Any other reference to the name Paul is Paul Boag. 

So the big day finally arrived, Saturday 20th October 2007, the recording of the 100th boagworld podcast LIVE! in London at the Ye Old Cock Tavern.

- The Ye Old Cock Tavern, London

What’s boagworld? Shame on you for having to ask, head over to the site www.boagworld.com to find out.

For those of you who are avid listeners and supporters of Paul and Marcus and whom couldn't attend the event, maybe because of the rugby or the tube closures or if an international flight wasn't possible, you'll be pleased to know that we recorded the whole podcast! All... but the final 4 minutes, so I apologies to the final speaker, a man from Yahoo! I believe, who gets cut off, I ran out of battery life. I'm sorry. :-(

Stanton and I jumped in the car and travelled 200 miles south from Leeds to attend the event. And what an event it was. For our efforts, Paul Boag has rewarded each of us with a 1 year subscription to .net magazine, thank you Paul.

It's quite a surreal experience meeting people whom you've listened to every week for months and I recall turning to Stanton when Marcus arrived, whispering:

Ryan: "Paul, Paul, That's Marcus Lillington!"

Stanton: "Are you sure?"

Ryan: "No"

Stanton: "...Wait till he says something."

So we strained to hear him order a pint at the bar. In hind sight the multiple bags and recording equipment should have been a clear give away. :-S

Next to arrive was a young 6th former called Anna who looked like a lost lamb when she first arrived, Stanton and I dutifully took her under our wing (or adopted her as Paul has called it in his blog) and she became the star of the show when she presented Paul with a homemade, 100th podcast cake for which she has won a CSS For Beginners course, and she's over the moon.

- Anna's 100th podcast cake.

With a free bar to fuel us, we headed straight into recording the podcast. Stanton, Anna and myself had front row seats near Cath (Paul Boags' wife), a lovely person who should definitely be on more podcasts if only too heckle Paul, watch out Paul we'll be signing a petition next! ;-)

So let's get on with the show, we started, instead of the normal news section, with a discussion on the five biggest news stories since the show kicked off in August 2005:

After 20 minutes of news related dicussion, we swiftly moved onto Marcus' section which kicked off into a group discussion on nightmare clients:

Instead of the "Ask an expert" section we finished off with an "Ask Paul and Marcus anything we like" section. This went on for nearly an hour, so put the kettle on and get comfy. Both Stanton and myself asked questions in this section so watch out for them. :-)

For those of you who have a particular interested in the discussion relating to careers, and whether or not you need a degree, you may find Annas Blog entitled Planning Your Career, University vs. Training on the Job? an interesting discussion.

When the podcast offically finished, Stanton and myself began to mingle. We had the opportunity to speak to some great people who we hope to keep in touch with.

For inexplicable reasons the Ye Old Cock Tavern kicked us all out and was closed by 10pm. So we moved to another pub round the corner. In the second pub, Paul did his celebrity bit, signing autographs and posing for pictures.

- Paul Boag signing an autograph.

- Me and Paul Boag

- Paul Stanton and Paul Boag

We sat around and chatted for a while longer before the group finally dispersed and me and Stanton, after making sure we had escorted Anna to the train station safely, disappeared into the Center of London in search for more beer... :-|

It was only when we saw this picture:

- Me with dirty pizza.

That we vaguely recalled haggling for that pizza at 4am in the only take away we could find that was open... Oh the hang overs. 

Final Words

Finally we would just like to say from ourselves, and on behalf of the boagworld community, a big thank you to Paul Boag and Marcus Lillington for all the hard work they put into the podcast and for hosting such great event.

We hope that the podcast will live on till way past its 200th episode, and we'll be there propping up the bar. :-) 

Cheers Paul and Marcus!

For more pictures of the event see these links:

• Paul Stantons Flickr Pictures
• Ryan Taylors Flickr Pictures
• Other Flickr Pictures