From Bulgaria With Love
An Event Apart Boston 2007 was the best attended show since Mr Meyer and I founded our design conference scarcely sixteen months ago. Attendees came from as far away as Singapore and India. They hailed from Bulgaria (2), Canada (12), Estonia (1), Finland (2), India (1), Ireland (1), Latvia (1), Singapore (1), Sweden (1), the UK (3), and the US (510).
In all, 546 web artisans descended on Boston for our two-day event. The engagement and commitment of this audience were electric. Rather than waste pixels on my impressions of the show, I submit these third-party posts and artifacts:
Photos and slide shows
- Flickr Event Apart Boston 2007 photo pool
- Featuring swag, special effects, and the elusive decopus.
- Ethan Marcotte’s Event Apart slides
- Viewing slides without seeing the speaker’s live presentation is like trying to understand world events by looking at a photo of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Nonetheless, here are the slides from “Web Standards Stole My Truck!”
- Dan Cederholm’s Event Apart slides
- Beautiful slides (same disclaimer applies) plus a nice little post.
Posts and commentary
- Pelennor Fields Day One
- Pelennor Fields Day Two
- Matt Winckler’s quick summaries and reviews of the presentations. “The goal is to provide a few-sentence summary of each talk, followed by my quick rating on a scale of 1 to 10, followed again by my brief explanation of the rating.”
- stevekarsch.com: An Event Apart, Day One
- stevekarsch.com: An Event Apart, Day Two
- Steve Karsch’s notes make you feel as if you were there.
- Chausse.org: Thoughts from An Event Apart
- “An Event Apart Boston was a great experience. Whenever I’m at a conference, I get an insatiable urge to drop whatever I’m doing with my life and become an expert at whatever the speaker’s talking about. Anyway, a few notes.”
- An Event Apart Boston – from the Aten Blog
- Justin Toupin, co-founder and design lead for Aten Design Group, reviews the show: “The conference was amazing. Nine expert speakers presented on a range of topics from the conceptual to the practical. I’ve never been so happy to sit in one place for so long.”
- Ed’s Development Blog: Back from AEA
- Ed Higgins: “It was the first conference I’ve been to that I’ve been sad about it ending. Typically the last day of most conferences just drags… At AEA, every session was gold and I wish it could’ve lasted longer.”
- AEA Boston, Day One: Jeffrey Zeldman’s Writing the User Interface
- Cromulent Code: write-up of “Writing the User Interface,” my talk on Day One of An Event Apart Boston 2007. “How text contributes to a site/s usability and branding.”
- Grapefeed: An Event Apart
- Grapefeed’s experiences at An Event Apart Boston included a nerve-grinding, last-minute scramble to an alternate train station when the Back Bay station was sealed off because of a gas leak. (Same thing happened to me.)
- ivantohelpyou: Notes from An Event Apart, Boston, Day
- Blow by blow impressions.
- impending post explosion
- Stellargirl: “Just got back from An Event Apart Boston… I totally feel like the kid in that Far Side cartoon who says, ‘May I be excused? My brain is full.’”
- days without a job: An Event Apart – Boston
- “First day of a two day conference was great. We were told that there were more than 500 attendees!”
- Zeldman Gem of the Day
- Hardly a gem, but this excerpt captures part of the thrust of my talk on “Selling Design.”
- Cameron Moll: AEA Boston
- Highlights from the perspective of a (great) speaker.
- Adobe’s Scott Fegette: CS3 Launch at An Event Apart
- “I’ve been answering questions all day at An Event Apart about the new CS3 products. Even better, I gave away … three advance copies of CS3 Web Premium to three lucky attendees. An Event Apart is a really great mix of disciplines all centering on site design and development. I’ve talked to educators, government developers, indie web production shops, animators and video pros- just in the last hour alone.” (Adobe was a sponsor of An Event Apart Boston.)
- Meyerweb: After Boston
- Event Apart co-founder Eric Meyer: “I see the attendees at AEA as the craftsmen and women of the web. Sure, there are shops mass-producing sites, the way a factory churns out cheap clocks. That’s fine if you just want something to put on your nightstand. But if you want an elegant, finely tuned work of art that you’d hang in a prominent place, a clock that is as much a point of pride as a timepiece—you find a craftsman. And that’s who came to Boston. That’s who comes to An Event Apart.”
Tags: aneventapart, aeaboston07, aeaboston2007
Filed under: Accessibility, An Event Apart, Boston, Design, Standards, cities, development, events
Woo hoo! Two participants from Bulgaria. You knew that you’re big there right? When I was in Sofia last year I saw your Designing with Web Standards in the front window of a bookstore. I snapped a photo and put it on Flickr.
Awesome story (and photo), Thomas, thanks!
When The Wife and I visited Rome on our honeymoon, we saw the Italian translation of DWWS 1e in a bookstore window a couple of blocks from the Colliseum.
We hustled into the store, where Carrie tried to explain in English that I was the author of the book in their window. The shop folks spoke no English and we spoke no Italian. I believe they thought Carrie was saying, “Look, my funny-looking husband resembles the amusing man on the cover of that strange orange book.”
[...] Along with a couple dozen other folks, but still, woot! That can’t hurt for PageRank. Previously, my most high profile linkage was from Wonkette. Movin’ on up! [...]
Jeffrey, thank you SO MUCH for this breathtaking headline, you really made my day! :)) (…after making my whole week in Boston)
Bulgaria is a small country but we certainly have web standards enthusiasts here. If there is an AEA in Europe in the future, I hope that even more Bulgarians will attend.
Thanks again for the great conference and the so warm and friendly attitude of the speakers!
Best regards,
Dimo
Dimo, thanks for coming to AEA Boston. And thanks for the very kind words.
Wow, can’t wait for Seattle!
Jeffrey, I so enjoyed AEA in Boston. Your panel of speakers was outstanding and provided a wide spectrum of areas of inspirational web design and standards. I specially enjoyed your two segments, as a freelancer, you have to wear many hats and deal with many issues, and you addressed quite a few areas that I found beneficial.
BTW – I had lunch with you the first day and I spoke of an island in Maine that is the perfect remote family vacation getaway (20 years strong) http://www.flickr.com/photos/clark21/sets/72157600048703960/, also a few picks of one tough Shih Tzu.
Cheers – melissa
Hey Jeffrey, once again I have to say to you and EM, thanks for putting these events together. Honestly, to shake hands with the influential personalities in this space was inspirational. And seeing you speak for the first time was not only very entertaining, but also very insightful. You’ll see a nametag around my neck again soon enough.
Cheers!
I’m happy to see guys from BG attending and maybe next year will be one more :)
Truly agree with Dimo for the web standards enthusiasts here. I hope some they I will meet you around Europe. Greetings from Sofia!
Yet another bulgarian Designing with Web Standards cover remix on Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobydimitrov/447050933/
Two very drunk friends and firm web standards believers.
It was one of the most inspiring and reassuring events I’ve ever experienced. Thanks for the soul everyone put into it. Here’s to a bright future full of craftsmen and -women, and fewer cheap clock shops!
[...] Speaking of AEA, Jeffrey Zeldman links to several other blog reactions to AEA Boston, all pretty well-deserved in my opinion. They put on a good show out there. An Event Apart, blog, Boston, conference, Jeffrey Zeldman, networking, Nonprofit Technology Conference, technology web Bookmark: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
I have to say that AEA was indeed awesome. Thanks to you guys for putting on such a great event.
I’m actually attending another conference this week, focused on tech solutions for the nonprofit sector. I wish it were only half as engaging as AEA was. Damn you guys for spoiling me! ;)
Jeffrey thanks for AEA Boston! I am inspired!
The one from Estonia :-)
Hi Jeffrey!
First of all – thank you for a great AEA-show in Boston! Me and my colleague both took the trip all the way from Denmark, Europe (add that country to your list) just to attend the AEA and sitting here with your 2nd edition book – halfway through it – I can hardly wait for you to publish another. Like the book, the AEA-Boston was inspiring in many ways and has absolutely made me realize a thing or two regarding the entire approach to webdesign as a team. Obviously I now have a lot to pass on to my other colleagues here in Denmark (copy, designers, coding, QA-people and all the other guys and girls) with the vision, that we can constantly improve our creations and thoughts…
So from Denmark – thanks a lot – hope to see/hear you some other time again.
Best Regards,
Mads (playgrounds.dk)
[...] Speaking of AEA, Jeffrey Zeldman links to several other blog reactions to AEA Boston, all pretty well-deserved in my opinion. They put on a good show out there. Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
what about vienna?!?
vienna? but I think everything was said about it