Hello,
I am a web designer and sometimes developer in the Milwaukee area. I created beautiful, standards compliant webpages that are not only usable, but deliciously delightful. Check out my portfolio.
April 3rd, 2011
I’m still reeling from Seattle’s Event Apart 2011, and even though it hasn’t been a week yet, I can’t wait until the next one I am able to attend. I went to AEA Seattle last year, and I’m just as, if not more, impressed this year. Which got me thinking – last year around this time, there were some people in the twitterverse complaining that conferences like AEA provided no more benefit than reading a blog or webpage on the subject (if you’re wondering, they weren’t conference attendees).
As I’ve processed what I’ve learned at the 2010 AEA over the past year, I’ve often thought about this argument. And there is some truth to it. A lot, if not all the information is available online. Many of the speakers are active in both their own blogs as well as on twitter and other social media sites. Much of what they said they’ve already said or someone else is saying.
However, that’s not the point.
Having gone to two An Event Apart conferences now, I can say I’ve come back from each one with more know how and skills than I’d gather on my own over any given year. The reason? Inspiration. When you go to these things, you have the industries leaders showing you real world scenarios of how they approach things, and how you too can approach them. You have them all collecting information, refining it, and sharing the most important bits with the conference goers. And because they are the best of the best, they know just what lives in our geek hearts and how to reach everyone.
On top of that, you have many like minded individuals who either fought bosses, budgets and/or stagnation to go, or saved their own pretty pennies to attend an conference that isn’t cheap. And why? Because they love everything web. This creates a unique opportunity to share experiences with other like-minded individuals that most individuals won’t find in their normal circle of peers, and learn from each other. Not only are you learning from the speaker, now you have each other talking about what was presented, challenging each other, arguing about or agreeing with some very interesting topics you just don’t get the opportunity to otherwise. I remember last year having a serious debate about whether or not HTML5 was a good idea over one lunch. People were passionate on both sides of the issue, and I revealed in the chance to talk with people who also eat, live and breath web.
I sat at a table with Jeffy Zeldman my second day at AEA. This isn’t to name drop, I promise its relevant – one of the designers there asked – what is the skew of people going to An Event Apart, agency vs independent vs in house corporate. Zeldman revealed it was about 70% in-house corporate. Which shocked a few people. That was strange, said the asker, because he assumed that most people in-house are going to be stuck in their position, not really interested in learning new things, staying at the same place for years, etc . . . Yes, that’s probably true, said Zeldman (I’m paraphrasing), but those aren’t the ones interesting in going, they’re not the ones fighting with their bosses or paying out of their pockets. It’s the ones that are really true interested in Web Design and Development that are pushing to go.
I should point out, its not just inspiration – (though I’m going to have to fight the urge to go back to my job and demand we *change* everything) – There is so much knowledge sharing going on that it really blows my mind. People share thoughts about what is going on with both their neighbors and with each other on twitter. At lunches and dinners, you learn even more as you talk about what you have in common. I ran into someone I met last year from Microsoft, and ended up meeting a few more current and previous MS employees, and learned a few very important things about a current project I have – things I may never have found out otherwise because it’s not really my purview. And I had access to the speakers after hours, and picked a few brains.
An Event Apart was amazing. Would I still do my job and do my best to learn new things without AEA? Sure. But its a badly needed injection of knowledge and inspiration I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. That inspiration ripples out; just like last year I’ll be explaining to my coworkers and peers all the cool new things I learned, and new issues we all face, which got everyone thinking about how they can address and adapt to these new challenges. As it is, my boss has said we’re only going to go every other year from now on, and I’m determine that I’ll need to figure a way to fund going myself next year.
I recommend for anyone at all who is interested in Web Design to attend by any means necessary, whether you have to beg, borrow or steal to get there. Because the inspiration you gain will translate into becoming the passionate design professional that you need to be to succeed.
Also, seeing some of the speakers do Karaoke was worth the price of admission alone, but that’s another story…
Posted In: Coding and Markup, Conferences, Design, Inspiration | No Comments »
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Copyright © 2011 Tami Weiss