Posted on: May 2nd, 2011 by Daniel Welcome! If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
So after waffling on if/when to buy the conference pass, I finally bit the bullet. I’ll be attending An Event Apart Atlanta 2011. If you are a web professional of any persuasion and don’t know what AEA is, the website describes it as: An Event Apart is an intensely educational two-day conference for passionate practitioners of standards-based web design. If you care about code as well as content, usability as well as design, An Event Apart is the conference you’ve been waiting for.
This is the conference I attended back in 2005, and I credit it with inspiring me to keep with the career path that I’m on right now. My last job was already starting to suck the life out of me and I felt like there was no way that I’d be doing proper web development much longer. Boy was I wrong.
Unlike ‘Southby‘ (which admittedly, I’ve never been to and would love to attend but for different reasons than my desire to go to AEA), which has a reputation for being more about the parties than the half-assed presentations, An Event Apart has gained a reputation for being THE conference to attend if you’re serious about honing your craft. After attending back in 2005 at the 755 Club, I left inspired, focused, educated and ready to really take on standards-based development. There’s something about being around like-minded folks who share the same passion that really sends you home with a renewed desire to get back to work.
I’m at a point right now where my motivational tank could use a refill, and my knowledge about emerging front end web technologies could definitely use a bit of a bump. I’m thinking this two day session will do the trick. My friend Michael just came back from the PHP Community Conference and he had a similar experience.
He booked a hotel and tickets and went out of town on his own to go to this event, and feels like he’s got a whole new perspective on how to do things now. I find myself amazed sometimes when workplaces won’t invest in their employees by sending them to these events – the return on investment is huge. Morale and motivation is not a commodity to treat lightly, but thankfully many dedicated people will invest in themselves even if their workplace will not.
What really gets me excited about this year is seeing a few folks I really admire talk about subjects I want to get better at working with. Seeing Luke Wroblewski, Ethan Marcotte, and Andy Clarke talk about mobile, responsive design and CSS3 animations on top of so many other amazing nerdy topics get me really fired up, as these topics will shape my future in this industry. I’d be lying if I said the parties aren’t something I’m also looking forward to – I hope to say hi to some of the folks who have shaped my professional life so much.
Oh, and beer. So if you’re going to be at AEA Atlanta, send me a tweet or look for me and we can get a beer or something.