From Small CSS Tricks To Great Design Mysteries: SmashingConf Barcelona 2017

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Vitaly Friedman loves beautiful content and doesn’t like to give in easily. When he is not writing, he’s most probably running front-end & UX … More about Vitaly ↬

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Design workflow changes, and it isn’t easy to keep up with all those changes, and that’s where our community conferences come into place! We are looking forward to seeing you in Barcelona, and perhaps months after the conference is over, you’ll look back at your projects and at this very article realizing that it wasn’t far off after all.

In the brave new responsive web, previously established techniques are getting revised and abandoned. Design workflow changes. Front-end solutions adapt. Performance optimizations get refined and creative, holistic design thinking is required more than ever. It isn’t easy to keep up with all those changes, and that’s where our community conferences come into place. To the early-bird-tickets →.

$399 (ca. €365 incl. VAT)

To the tickets →
Only 50 Early-Birds available.

About The Conference

In Barcelona, we’ll explore new front-end challenges, UX strategies and design patterns that you can apply to your work right away. No fluff, no theory: just hands-on, practical and on point — things that worked well in real-life projects, with talks and workshops by practitioners from the industry.

Palau de la Musica — Just like last year, the SmashingConf flags will be blowing in the breeze from the Palau de la Música Catalana — an architectural jewel of Catalan Modernism. (Large view. Image credit: Alessio Carone).

Nothing obvious, nothing superficial: just actionable insights that you can apply to your projects right away. From visual design to front-end, from performance to UX to design systems. Think of it as a little playbook with handy rules of thumb: it doesn’t get more practical than this.

We also want to hear your stories and your experiences. We believe in sharing, and will invite you to speak at the meet-up before the event. The main conference will take place on October 17–18, right at the sunny Mediterranean seaside in the one-of-a-kind Palau de la Música Catalana. It’s an event that might keep you on your toes for quite some time. Seriously.

First Speakers

For this year’s line-up, we invited experts who have worked with both small as well as large companies, ranging from Clearleft to Nike, and Google. Get ready, set, go:

First Confirmed Speakers

Anton & Irene
Work/Life Balance in Agency Business
Chris Coyier
Front-End • CSS Tricks
Gemma O’Brien
Analogue Craft in a Digital Future
Brad Frost
Collaboration & Design Systems
Yuko Shimizu
Picking Your Clients
Paul Boag
Establishing a UX Culture
Alla Kholmatova
Modular Design Systems • Futurelearn
Jeremy Keith
Building Robust Websites • Clearleft
Sarah Drasner
Storytelling with Javascript
Denys Mishunov
Front-End, Perceived Performance
Monica Dinculescu
Performance, Rendering • Google
Mystery Speaker
(Someone you definitely know, and respect.)

Hands-On Workshops

We’ll also host hands-on full-day workshops with practical techniques and strategies taught by practitioners in the industry. So, if you are going to attend the conference, why not attend a workshop as well? In fact, if you book a workshop too, you’ll save $100 off the conference + workshop ticket price.

Workshops on Monday, October 16th

Modular Design by Alla Kholmatova Oct. 16th • In her new workshop, Alla Kholmatova, the interaction designer behind the open education platform FutureLearn, explores how we can design and build responsive interfaces that would stand the test of time. Read more…
Persuasive Design by Horace Dediu Oct. 16th • This full-day workshop will take you through the principles of persuasion using techniques of cinematography and visual storytelling. Whether one-on-one or in front of millions on TV, presentations are the primary means of persuasion in business. Read more…
Lettering Workshop by Gemma O’Brien Oct. 16th • This hands-on class will provide you with a series of short exercises to demonstrate key principles of letter construction, rhythm, contrast, composition, balance and techniques of letter customization (swashes, flourishes, decoration), and more! Read more…
Smart RWD Patterns & Front-end Techniques by Vitaly Friedman Oct. 16th • In this full-day workshop, Vitaly Friedman, editor-in-chief of Smashing Magazine, will present clever front-end tricks and strategies for building responsive websites with pattern libraries, SVG, Flexbox, CSS Grids, Accessibility, responsive images, performance tricks, service workers and HTTP/2. Yes, all of it. Read more…

Workshops on Thursday, October 19th

Concept, Create, And Sell! by Anton & Irene Oct. 19th • Where most digital agencies spend days, sometimes weeks crafting ideas and generating designs, Anton & Irene believe that the pressure of time gets the creative juices flowing and will make you come up with solutions you would never have considered had you been given more time to reflect. Read more…
Atomic Design: Process & Patterns by Brad Frost Oct. 19th • This full-day masterclass takes a deep dive into the world of responsive web design, covering everything including broad concepts, strategy, how responsive design affects process, responsive design patterns and principles, and more. Read more…
Advanced SVG Animation by Sarah Drasner Oct. 19th • In this full-day workshop, Sarah will teach you the basics of the SVG Animation development and the essentials needed to start using these techniques in production environments for animations both large and small. Read more…
Convincing Clients And Colleagues The Right Way by Paul Boag Oct. 19th • This full-day workshop offers practical guidance on the most critical skills you need in your career; the ability to persuade. Persuade colleagues and clients to take a risk, to step out of their comfort zones and embrace change. Read more…

$798 (ca. €731 incl. VAT)

To the tickets →
Save $100 on the regular price!

Why This Conference Could Be For You

This event focuses on the practical. You’ll learn many valuable techniques for your workflow, and you’ll meet fantastic, like-minded people from the industry. You’ll learn:

Strategies for building fast responsive websites,
Clever psychological techniques for smarter interfaces,
Techniques and guidelines for better mobile UX,
Guidelines for scalable CSS and JavaScript,
Techniques for better interaction design and typography,
How to optimize for performance and content delivery,
Gotchas and guidelines with SVG, CSS Grid, HTTP/2,
Mistakes and lessons learned from real-life projects,
Responsive design patterns for future-ready websites,
How to move away from generic solutions towards designs that exhibit soul and personality.

Download “Convince Your Boss” PDF

We also prepared a neat Convince Your Boss (PDF) (0.15 Mb) that you can use to convince your boss, colleagues, friends, neighbors, and total strangers to join you or send you to the event. We know that you will not be disappointed. Still not good enough? Well, tweet us @smashingconf — we can be quite convincing, too!

SmashingConf Barcelona: Convince Your Boss PDF — "Eight reasons why you should send your incredibly hard-working, deserving employee to the SmashingConf" (PDF). Quite self-explanatory, really.

We also welcome sponsors to help us create a truly unique, unforgettable conference experience. And you can be a major part of it. We have quite a number of attractive and creative sponsorship options for you, and we’d love to adjust them to your needs. So if you’re interested, please contact us via hello@smashingconf.com — we’d love for you to be involved!

$399 (ca. €365 incl. VAT)

To the tickets →
Only 50 Early-Birds available.

See You In Barcelona!

We are looking forward to seeing you in Barcelona, and who knows, perhaps months after the conference is over, you’ll look back at your workflow, at your projects and at this very article realizing that it wasn’t far off after all. After all, it’s a conference where anything can happen, right? See you there!