Key Takeaways from An Event Apart

Zeldman on Choosing Clients

I’ve attended An Event Apart four years running now. It is, hands-down, the finest web conference around, and if you work on the web at all, whether you’re a designer, developer, copywriter, or client-services, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Reviewing my notes from previous conferences, I noticed that there were some running themes. Each year, I’ve come to expect that Jeffrey Zeldman will discuss how to manage relationships with clients who sometimes have little or no respect for what we do. Eric Meyer will talk about a currently hot topic in the CSS arena (usually one he is at the forefront of), and a bevvy of talented designers, copywriters, usability experts and other roles will share their insights.

So, here is my take on the running themes of the conference, as well as my individual key takeaways from each year. Naturally, these reflect my interest in front-end code, so you might have gotten more from different speakers than I did, but I think it will still help give you an idea of what you can expect from An Event Apart. Continue reading

An Event Apart Seattle 2009

An Event Apart Seattle Title

The night before An Event Apart, I was at a party with some college friends. When they found out I was in town for a conference, they wanted to know what it was about. I said it was a web conference, and they said “Aren’t those usually held on the web?”

Eventually, I explained it like this: You know how in every industry, there are the A-List people? The real movers and shakers who influence everyone? In the web design world, those people are Eric Meyer and Jeffrey Zeldman, and An Event Apart is their conference.

This was my fourth time, and it just gets better every time. The quality of the speakers, and the breadth of the material being presented simply blows away every other web conference. If you are at all involved in the web industry, whether as a designer, a developer, a copywriter, or even a project manager, I cannot recommend An Event Apart strongly enough. Guaranteed, you will learn a lot, and come back recharged about your work.

I was going to write a huge post with details about all the speakers, but to be honest, the very idea exhausts me — and if I don’t want to write it, there’s no way you’ll want to read it. Instead, if you’re interested in reading more, Russ from Think Brownstone wrote a review perfectly summarizing why An Event Apart is the best web conference available. He also shares my opinion that single-track conferences are better than multi-track ones.

Note: This was originally posted on my work blog, and I’m re-posting it here for archival purposes.

An Event Apart San Francisco 2008

Columbus Tower

I’ve managed to attend An Event Apart every year so far, and this year was particularly exciting because the nearest location was in San Francisco. I went to Seattle the last two times, which was fine, but I know Seattle pretty well, so the opportunity to play tourist in a new city was very appealing to me. Luckily, my coworker Libby was coming with me, and she used to work in “the City” so I had the advantage of a guide.

Continue reading

The Survey for People Who Make Websites 2008

The guys over at A List Apart have posted the Survey for People Who Make Websites 2008. Despite the awkward name, this survey is worth your time if your job has anything whatsoever to do with the web. The results from last year’s survey were really interesting, and now that they’ve refined the questions a bit, this year’s should be even more informative.

Calling all designers, developers, information architects, project managers, writers, editors, marketers, and everyone else who makes websites. It is time once again to pool our information so as to begin sketching a true picture of the way our profession is practiced worldwide.

This year’s survey corrects many of last year’s mistakes, with more detailed and numerous questions for freelance contractors and owners of (or partners in) small web businesses. There are also better international categories, and many other improvements recommended by those who took the survey last year.

The Email Standards Project

In 1998, Jeffrey Zeldman co-founded the Web Standards Project to fight for better support of web standards from the browser manufacturers and web developers. It was a success, if for no other reason than it provided a flag to rally behind.

This year, the Email Standards Project was founded to rally support for web standards in email clients.

The Email Standards Project is about working with email client developers and the design community to improve web standards support and accessibility in email. The project was formed out of frustration with the inconsistent rendering of HTML emails in major email clients.

Our mission is to drive the use and support of web standards in email, working with email client developers to ensure that emails render consistently. This is a community effort to improve the email experience for designers and readers, and we’d love your help.

Given Microsoft’s recent slide backwards on this front in Outlook 2007, the need for a group like this has never been higher. Let’s hope they’re able to get the kind of results the Web Standards Project eventually got.