Maybe it was the people. Maybe it was the extraordinary speakers. Or the staff, who made everything hum and shine. Or the keenly focused film crew. Maybe it was the sponsors. Or that crazy party. Maybe it was just the king cakes.

Whatever it was, these two days of peace, love, and web design felt to me like our best show yet.

Thank you to everyone who joined us in New Orleans.

[tags]aeanola08 aneventapart webdesign conference conferences events neworleans[/tags]

• See Dave Shea, co-author, Zen of CSS Design, explore what makes sites flexible visually, experientially, and code-wise.
• See Jeff Veen, design manager, Google, explore how new thinking, born of creating the latest generation of web apps, is being infused into design practices.
• See Robert Hoekman Jr., author, Designing the Obvious, perform slam-bang, on-the-spot usability reviews of sites submitted by our live audience on the fly.
• See Cameron Moll, author, Mobile Web Design, uncover the differences between good and great design.
• See Aaron Gustafson, co-author, AdvancED DOM Scripting, go beyond “unobtrusive” JavaScript to truly meet users’ needs, no matter what their device or platform, by applying the principles of “progressive enhancement” to client-side scripting.
• See Andy Clarke, author, Transcending CSS, explain how comic books inspire his award-winning web layouts.
• See Stephanie Sullivan, co-author, Mastering CSS with Dreamweaver CS3, explore practical, standards-based approaches and techniques to some of today’s toughtest design challenges.
• See Aarron Walter, author, Building Findable Web Sites, explain “findability bliss through web standards SEO”
• See Brian Oberkirch, Publisher, Like It Matters, review, catalog, dissect, and champion small design victories that daisy chain to create a delightful overall user experience.
• See Jason Santa Maria, designer, Happy Cog, share techniques for maintaining individuality and brand distinction in a world of generic templates and design sameness.
• See An Event Apart co-founder Eric Meyer, author, CSS: The Definitive Guide, present two new talks that shed brilliant light on the darkest corners of CSS.
• As for me, I’ll be doing two new sessions on the whatness of web design (what it is, what it ain’t, and why it matters) and the whereness of web standards (as in, where we are with them).

It’s the longest, biggest, densest, hardest, coolest show we’ve ever done, and we’re doing it where Louis learned to blow his horn. Join us if you can.

Can’t make New Orleans? Join us in these cities!

• Boston, June 23–24
• San Francisco, August 18–19
• Chicago, October 13–14

Tickets for all four shows are on sale now.

[tags]aneventapart, webdesign, conference, neworleans, aeaNOLA08[/tags]

• Private address, Business Week (NYC, Nov. 5, 2007);
• Discussion Future of Web Design (NYC, Nov. 7–8), with Andy Clarke and Josh Williams;
• Keynote address, Web Design World Boston 2007 (Boston, Dec. 10-12);
• Keynote address, Web Directions North (Vancouver, BC, January 28–February 2, 2008).

[tags]zeldman, FOWD, businessweek, webdesignworld, webdirections, webdirectionsnorth, NYC, boston, vancouver, design, conferences, jeffreyzeldman[/tags]

[tags]aneventapart, aea2008, neworleans, boston, sanfrancisco, chicago[/tags]