An Event Apart – Seattle, WA

Of all the conferences I’ve attended, An Event Apart Seattle 2012 was by far the best conference to date. I always get all fired up after attending a conference but usually there’s a presentation or a workshop session that bores me. Not this time. This time around even Jon Tan’s presentation, Big Type, Little Type, had my full attention… and I’m not a type nerd!

I tend to blah blah blah when I write, so I’ll get to the point and just say a lil somfin somfin about each speaker.

Content First! (Jeffrey Zeldman)

“Design in the absence of content is not design, it’s decoration.” Good reminder of what’s important. Content!

Big Type, Little Type (Jon Tan)

I’m not a type nerd, but Jon’s presentation was AWESOME! Good reminder that type has emotional value.

Silo-Busting with Scenarios? (Kim Goodwin)

Something I’m guilty of, so it was refreshing to hear techniques on how to better communicate with other teams.

The Five Most Dangerous Ideas? (Scott Berkun)

Came back to work with a higher expectation of myself. knowing I have the power as the subject matter expert gives my more confidence. Thank you Scott!

Adapting Ourselves to Adaptive Content (Karen McGrane)

“We designers must own the content as a design element.” “Don’t put print design on the web!” Lesson learned! “CMS is the enterprise software that UX forgot.” “Use mobile as a wedge to outdated design strategies.”

Rolling Up Our Responsive Sleeves (Ethan Marcotte)

I felt like I was in church. I wanted to stand up and yell AMEN! Great presentation!

The Future is Now (Eric Meyer)

Learned that I can have 100% control of my CSS.

A Philosophy of Restraint (Simon Collison)

First time I’ve ever heard of Simon and I feel like I’ve been missing something great! Will be following him closely from now on.

Touch Events (Peter-Paul Koch)

Being a mobile web designer and developer, this presentation, although not pretty, we very useful to myself and I’m sure most attendees.

Mobile to the Future (Luke Wroblewski)

Luke was amazing as always. A true blessing to get to see him present live!

What’s Your Problem? Putting Purpose Back into Your Projects (Whitney Hess)

Talented and beautiful! Problem solving techniques that are simple and realistic. “Leave the desk to find the problem. The problem is not at your desk or in your computer.” “Problem setting must PRECEDE problem solving.”

The Curious Properties of Intuitive Web Pages (Jared Spool)

Wow! If you weren’t laughing during his presentation, then you don’t have a sense of humor what-so-ever! Great way to end the conference!

In summary, I almost want to see more code, but the design aspect was more refreshing to me. As a developer, not coding for 3 days was a HUGE eye opener to the UX side of things; something that developers easily forget. Food was great! Speakers were very friendly and approachable.