An Event Apart Boston Day 2 - it was rough getting out of bed that early again, but thinking about the lineup of excellent speakers got me motivated to get on the road and down to Boston.

lineup and themes

the morning of the second day was a bit code-heavy, but i hope the designers managed to get through it because there was a lot of valuable information for everyone.

Eric Meyer kicked off the code crunching with an examination of reset stylesheets, and how you can use custom stylesheets (combined with the power of CSS level 3) to debug your web pages.

Ethan Marcotte (aka beep) used examples of designer/developer miscommunication from his own experiences, to demonstrate how they (and we) could enhance our workflow, to better communicate and perform.

Peter-Paul Koch (ppk) gave a lively presentation on unobtrusive javascript; how you should separate your javascript from your HTML like you separate CSS from HTML.

Kimberly Blessing spoke from great experience of implementing standards in large organizations; both the why, and the how.

Andy Budd recounted experiences from hospitality and other industries as examples of consistent, well-designed user experiences, and how we could use their example to create better websites for our clients (and their customers).

Jeffrey Veen wrapped up the speaking itinerary by talking about data visualization, and what the next generation of web applications should draw from.

the bonus: critique

the final session was interesting; Jeffrey Zeldman picked at random, six attendee websites (self-submitted) to critique live in front of the audience. but don’t think that they submitted themselves for potential humiliation without great reward — Adobe supplied copies of Creative Suite as recompense.

the comments, once the critiqued parties eased into the idea, were valuable for us all. i think they demonstrated something very powerful: when we’re so wrapped up in a project, it’s difficult to to objectively look at our work for what it is. and how small tweaks to something that’s already good - can make it great.

reflections

first of all, don’t just take my word for it. other people have posted great reactions and i think it would be good to get their perspectives as well. the audience is a mix of design, development, and management professionals, and we each took something different way from the event. a short list of other reactions, including from the speakers themselves:

• Jeffrey Zeldman’s roundup of session notes
• i also enjoyed Ethan Marcotte’s perspective
• Peter-Paul Koch has impressions of speaking at this event and great insight on event “potlach”

my own perspective

as i’ve already played this trumpet; i’ve been in the web game for a long time. but the beauty of these events is how even experienced attendees can still learn so much (even the speakers’ reflections outline what they took away from the event). the industry is so broad that no individual can obtain a depth of knowledge in as many areas, as the aggregated speaker lineup possesses.

a few things that really stuck out in my mind, in no particular order:

ethan marcotte’s work, even down to his slides, is incredible. i am humbled by seeing what he produces.

jeff veen and andy budd possess the ability to tell incredible engaging stories. so much so, that you don’t realize until the end that you’ve learned an awful lot in the process. they are worth the cost of attending the conference, alone.

with folks like jeffrey zeldman and jason santa maria on staff, happy cog studios must be a really interesting place to work.

i’ve always enjoyed PPK’s writing, but i never realized how much energy he had in person. also, it’s as if the english language has too much overhead, and is holding him back; i wish i could hear him (and understand him) speaking his native tongue.

jeff veen and doug bowman provided very different perspectives of google. respectively: the brilliant, high-minded idealism that drives product innovation and pursues ideals, versus the knowledgeable pragmatist who pores over every decision and every design choice, knowing that they will have an enormous impact on both users, and infrastructure.

chris fahey and jason santa maria reminded me that we’re not necessarily solving new problems; communication, and designing the medium thereof, is something that’s gone on from the dawn of time. instead of a cave wall, or a stone tablet, or a printed page, or a radio wave - the web is our medium. the style with which we tell our story can either enhance the message, or obscure it.

the conclusion

in the end, it was definitely worth it. since i’m not billing conferences to an employer anymore, i need to chose them with a greater scrutiny. An Event Apart delivers great value and i’m glad i attended. if you’re in the web profession and i’ve swayed you, there are still two more AEA conferences this year: AEA San Francisco in August, and AEA Chicago in October.

as an attendee i don’t have any financial incentive to offer, but if you choose to read one of the excellent bloggers they choose to sponsor from time to time, you might find a coupon that makes it even easier to justify attending!