You may have attended and supported a number of conferences already, so you probably know what to expect from a web conference. The good ol’ suspects: the talks, the party, the break-out area, the bag insert, the mention on the main stage. For SmashingConf, we’d love to go beyond that. We love exploring interesting new options and opportunities to help you achieve your goals and exceed your expectations.
What's SmashingConf Like?
SmashingConfs are friendly, inclusive events which are focused on real-world problems and solutions. That’s why many sessions cover case-studies, insights from actual projects and products, failures, successes and lessons learned as well as skills, techniques and strategies required to help professionals get to better results, faster.
The main reason why they exist in the first place is because from the early days of Smashing Magazine, we’ve believed in sharing, and we always care about bringing people together. This explains the very practical side of our events. No fancy suits, no rigid schedules, no halls with thousands of people — just practical quality content, delivered by experts working on real-life projects, in an open-minded and welcoming environment.
Two days, one track, 14 speakers and 300–500 knowledgeable attendees around the world. No fluff, no fillers, no multi-track experience and no large hotel halls. Instead, thoroughly curated speakers, sessions and hands-on workshops in a friendly and inspiring setting. In fact, sessions and workshops are circling primarily around front-end and UX,but we cover pretty much everything web, be it interface design or machine learning. That means that attendees are open-minded to explore new topics, techniques and tools as long as they provide actionable insights and improvements for their work.
Starting from mid-2018, we are exploring a new conference format which was extremely well received in Toronto in June 2018. Speakers aren’t allowed to use any slides — be it Powerpoint, Keynote, Reveal.js or anything in-between. Instead, they show how they work — their setup, techniques and shortcuts for getting work done in live interactive sessions with the audience. So for our 2019 events, expect everything from refactoring and debugging to sketching and redesign, live. Some speakers — Sara Soueidan and Dan Mall, for example — were very fond of their experiences.
Smashing Speakers
We design the conference experience with a line-up of diverse, friendly and approachable presenters in mind. We take inclusivity to our very heart, respecting gender and cultural origins as well as we providing the stage both to well-respected designers and developers as well as new voices in the industry. We’re immensely proud of having over 300 speakers who have spoken at over 25 SmashingConfs over all these years, with wonderful members of the community such as Jessica Hische, Stefan Sagmeister, Susan Weinschenk, Cassie McDaniel, Jason Fried and Luke Wroblewski, among many others.
What's SmashingConf Like?
Conference Format
Smashing Speakers
What To Expect At SmashingConf?