Editor’s note: This is a contributed post by Chris Jackson, who writes about web design trends for DesignCrowd, an online design jobs marketplace for freelance web and graphic designers. They have recently launched a design jobs marketplace in Singapore.
One of the highlights of the year for any serious web designer or developer is often the Web Conference. Every year there are more and more amazing events taking place all over the globe, from events all over the US such as the An Event Apart series to SxSW in Austin, Texas, to the Edge Of The Web conference in Australia to events like jQuery Europe and DLD in Germany.
There is something for everyone no matter where you are from. We take a look at some of these amazing web conferences and they may have for you. If you have any other conferences to add to the list, let your voice be heard in the comments section.
Note: Most of these events occur on an annual basis (sometimes a few times a year) so be sure to check their sites for details if you want to paticipate in any of them.
New Adventures In Web Design
New Adventures in Web Design is a focused, single-track design conference in the historic English city of Nottingham. Alongside the lineup of great speakers for 2013, there are three masterclass workshops on offer from industry legends Sarah Parmenter, Andy Clarke and Steph Hay.
Industry is the brainchild of conference veteran Gavin Elliott, organiser of the incredibly popular DIBI Conference in 2010 and 2011. The event will feature 8 diverse web professionals giving practical talks and giving you the tools to use what you learn from the conference in your own work.
Altitude is a unique event set in a unqiue location: 100 meters above sea level in Portsmouth’s Spinnaker Tower! Web entrepreneur Paul Boag interviews 4 leading figures from four different disciplines – development, design, accesibility, and iOS design – giving conference-goers a broad and insightful view of the industry.
Port80 is organised by Joel Hughes and is Wales’ first web design conference (in 2013). Alongside the yearly main event, there are Localhost events, low-cost evenings that happen three times a year.
SxSW is one of the most well-known conferences anywhere in the world, featuring cutting edge music, film and digitil/interactive technologies year on year. Its scale and scope can be daunting to the newcomer, and the handy First Timer’s Guide is a good place to start for the uninitiated.
Converge promises a conference for "designers and developers who want to explore the mysteries of the web" – which it does through intensive half- and full-day sessions, in multiple venues all across Columbia. In 2013, participants heard inspirational talks from Chris Coyier, Grey Hoy and James White.
Le Web London
Le Web London is back for the year 2013 with the concept of Digital "Hippies" – people creating a global marketplace where ideas and creations are shared openly, without the usual focus on money.
IUI Conf
The first IUI Conference, all the way back in 1997, was conceived as a highly selective program focusing on quality. After all these years, the focus remains the same, and the program of excellent speakers will help to inspire the next wave of research into Intelligent User Interfaces.
Interaction
Toronto is Canada’s largest center for design, and is the perfect place to host the Interactionconference. Already breaching 10 years since the founding of IxDA, the web conference celebrates the interaction design community with various workshops, sessions, panel discussions, "Idea Markets", and more.
An Event Apart
An Event Apart was founded by Eric Meyer and Jeffrey Zeldman, and is dedicated to the idea that creators of great web experiences deserve a great learning experience. Every event, happening all over the US, promises to be just that – with a range of speakers and sessions all happening in the one room.
Mobile+Web DevCon
This mobile conference is split over three days, with the main conference happening over two. Prior to the conference, atendees can take part in the Labs, where they can learn a range of skills from mobile design and client/server iOS apps, to getting your teeth into JavaScript (for any designers who have previous steered clear!)
WebVisions
WebVisions looks to the future. Over 4 events (three in the US, one in Europe), the conference explores business strategy, user experience and content creation and how these things are constantly changing.
WorldCamp events are informal, community-organised gatherings put together by WordPress enthusiasts all over the world. Every conference brings together a great mix of industry professionals, lead developers and casual users to share ideas, inspire and learn from each other.
Digital-Life-Design is a global network focused on innovation, science, digitization and culture. The conference will bring together 150 speakers and 800 attendees to discuss the interconnection of business and technology.
TakeOff Conf
TakeOff focuses on what the trending topics will be for the coming year, covering everything from pure front end development and design to new web frameworks and languages, to look at how the web will evolve in our near furture, and what we can do along the way.
The Design Of Understanding
The more people can understand an idea, and the easier that understanding comes, the greater the idea. Design Of Understanding conference focuses on this point, beginning with Information Design and looking beyond into related fields, with speakers from media, sport, defence and literature as well as technology.
Jfokus
Jfokus (as the name suggests) focuses on JavaScript, and is arranged together with Javaforum, a Swedish developer community and an official Java User Group. Speakers at the Jfokus conference come from all across the world, from leading universities to cutting-edge software companies, whose talks center on system development with JS and the surrounding technologies.
