Cyber Monday for Workshop Summits and In Control Orlando

By admin

Today is Cyber Monday, which is the “ceremonial kick-off of the holiday online shopping season”. 

While you are busying crossing off your holiday shopping list via Amazon.com, you might want to check out the following deals on Web design and development education that are only good for today:

50% off Individual Tickets for The Workshop Summits. For two days starting on January 14th, Molly E. Holzschlag, Emily Lewis, Aarron Walter and myself lead three-hour, virtual workshops each on HTML, Microformats, Findability and CSS3 respectively. Yes, it’s virtual so you can build your skill set without having to leave your computer. (Use the discount code CYBERMONDAY when registering.)

$200 off In Control Orlando Registration Fee. In Control Orlando Web Design Workshop Conference is a two-day event in late February that highlights some of the best training available in Web design and development while enjoying Winter in a warmer climate. Learn from a great line-up of 10 internationally recognized educators and industry leaders such as Kelly Goto, Derek Featherstone, Stephanie Sullivan, Ethan Marcotte, Jared Spool, and more. (Use the discount code CYBERMONDAY when registering.) 

I hope to see you at one of these events in the new year! 

P.S. If you are still on Amazon.com and in need of buying a small gift for the Web designer or two in your life, might I recommend a pre-order of CSS Cookbook, 3rd Edition?

The jQuery Summit

By admin

Do you like jQuery? Environments for Humans is running a one-day, online conference focusing on jQuery, which I will be emceeing. 

The conference will be on November 19th and will feature a number of prominent members of the jQuery community, including members of the jQuery team.

The following talks are slated for the jQuery Summit:

  • The State of jQuery — John Resig
  • Web Interface Essentials — Marc Grabanski
  • RIAs: Building for the Desktop with the Web — Jonathan Snook
  • Rich Interactivity, Simplified, with jQuery UI — Richard Worth
  • Refactoring jQuery — Mike Hostetler
  • JavaScript for Designers — David McFarland
  • Building Robust jQuery Plugins — Jörn Zaefferer
  • jQuery Anti-Patterns for Performance & Compression — Paul Irish

All attendees will be receiving a free copy of the upcoming jQuery Cookbook, from O’Reilly. Additionally a number of prizes will be given away to attendees (books, DVDs, etc.) during the event.

If you would like to attend this virtual conference, use my discount code, JQRYCHRISS, to get 10% off the overall price when ordering. A portion of the proceeds will be going directly to help fund the jQuery Foundation.

Announcing the In Control Orlando Web Design Workshop Conference

By admin

In Control Cincinnati Web Design Workshop Conference was a huge success. One of the best compliments we received was from an attendee who they felt that they were being overserved throughout the two nerd-filled days.

For 2010, we dcided to take the show on the road to Florida. In conjunction with AIGA Orlando, we’re having In Control take place on Feb. 22–23rd in, well, Orlando. 

I’m humbled to have such a great number of talented speakers for In Control Orlando:

While the surroundings may change, the formula for In Control hasn’t:

  • Longer sessions by speakers to dive deeper into the material
  • Wrap-up sessions each day with that day’s slate of speakers
  • One-track conference so everyone shares the same experience
  • Capping registrations to 100 people so not to have your voice drowned out
  • Comparitively priced to other conferences plus lunch and snacks throughout the day

And the last item to the formula is that In Control needs to be a conference I would not only would want to attend, but I would put down my hard-earned money to pay to see myself. 

The early bird discount makes it affordable–and if you are an AIGA member, you get an even better break on the price. If you want the discount code and are an AIGA member contact your local chapter’s board.

If you aren’t an AIGA member, feel free to use my discount code, INCSCHM, and save an additional $50.

(If you are a member of AIGA, you can get a separate, better additional discount, too. Be sure to contact your local AIGA board for the discount code!) 

Just like we did in June, we are going to have a great time this February in Orlando and I invite you to join us.

The DIY Summit Recap

By admin

The DIY Summit took place last week was a virtual conference that didn’t have the burden of travel time and costs, we had attendees from all over America and all over the world. 

It wasn’t just the attendees that were scattered around the globe, our speakers came from different locations. 

Matt Harris beamed in from San Francisco to talk about WordPress, while Kevin Lawver in Georgia taught about Ruby on Rails. 

All of our wonderful speakers including Brian Fling, Kelly Goto, Dan Rubin, Ryan Irelan, Mark Trammell, and Juliette Melton talked about aspects of one-person Web design team: whether it be usability, branding yourself, raising your design skills, improving your workflow, introduction into a new programming framework, or finally using Subversion.

Even with interruptions by Kanye, over 7 hours in total of Web design and development education were had by people who wouldn’t or couldn’t travel to a Web conference with leaders in the field in an era of budget cuts and busy work schedules.

And we hosted the event in Austin at the University of Texas’ McCombs School of Business (who were also in the middle of launching their new site design!). Since it was UT, throwing horns became both a way to symbolizing rocking out and support for the Longhorns. I love efficiencies!

Special thanks to MailChimp for sponsoring the event and PeachPit for the books as door prizes!

If you missed out on the DIY Summit, don’t worry! 

We have another Web design virtual conference coming up in November: jQuery Summit featuring Jonathan Snook, John Resig and more! 

Pick a Panel: Designing Our Way Through Bad Band Web Sites SXSW 2010

By admin

Vote for my PanelPicker Idea!

In addition to my SXSW Interactive panel, I have a SXSW Music panel up for your consideration.

Mark Trammell, Taylor McKnight and myself are presenting a panel called “Designing Our Way Through Bad Band Web Sites” that looks into how bands can make a better online presence with as least amount of work possible:

Having a presence online doesn’t mean just having a small Web site. It’s being 360 degrees from mobile to microblogging. But can we create a compelling, online Web presence with less than half a shoestring for a budget? Also, we will only mention Twitter by name during the presentation if someone in the audience brings it up first. Promise.

If would like to learn more about making a better band web site, then vote for Designing Our Way Through Bad Band Web Sites!

Pick a Panel: HTML5 and CSS3 SXSW 2010

By admin

Vote for my PanelPicker Idea!

Next year’s SXSW Interactive is still far away, however voting for panels that will comprise this 4‑day festival is very much underway. 

Molly Holzshlag, Stephanie Sullivan, Zoe Gillenwater, and myself (which compose half of The CSS Summit) are presenting a panel simply called “HTML5 and CSS3 Design” that dives in making these upcoming technologies approachable and usable:

As HTML5 and CSS3 gets written, browser vendors are already incorporating their new features allowing for greater design and functionality. However, some major browsers haven’t. How should developers build for a constantly moving target? This panel discusses dealing with those older browsers and embracing new Web design technologies with practical HTML5 and CSS3 demonstrations.

If would like to have these speakers at SXSW, then vote HTML5 and CSS3!

Announcing The DIY Summit

By admin

After the success of The CSS Summit, the virtual conference dedicated to the design technology, Environments for Humans is putting on a conference for the freelance Web designer.

It’s called The DIY Summit and we’ve lined up a number of great speakers and content for the freelancer or the in-house design team of one: 

The DIY Summit takes Septemeber 17th. Where? Online. 

That’s right. Online!

All you need is a modern browser, a broadband connection, and some undivided attention. No need to book expensive hotel rooms or air travel. 

Also, you will be doing Mother Earth some good. We estimated we saved 40,000lbs of CO2 by having The CSS Summit online through the Interwebs. 

Tickets for The DIY Summit are also relatively cheap compared to other conferences: $139.00 for a single ticket. 

If you are an organization or company wanting to project the conference in a meeting room, the ticket price is $439.00.

You can save $25 no matter which ticket you use by using my discount code, DIYCHRISS.

The DIY Summit should prove to be a shot of adrenalin-inspiration for those who build the Web single-handedly. I hope to see you there!

Nicole Sullivan Joins CSS Summit

By admin

I am pleased to announce the final addition to our lineup: Nicole Sullivan joins The CSS Summit to talk about Object Oriented CSS.

Not only does Nicole have a great deal of experience using this technique at Yahoo!, she has been presenting on this topic for the past several months, piquing the curiosity of designers and developers alike. 

She joins an already impressive line-up of speakers including Molly E. Holzschlag, Stephanie Sullivan, Jason Cranford Teague, Dave McFarland, and Zoe Mickley Gillenwater. 

The current price of the CSS Summit ticket is $139.

However, that ticket price goes up on July 3rd to $179.00

So, grab your ticket now and save $25 off that price by using my discount code, CSSCHRISS.