From the moment I saw Jeffrey Zeldman, Eric Meyer, Jason Santa Maria and Molly working the conference registration desk, I knew that this truly was “An Event Apart“. Imagine walking in to the Alamo Drafthouse and having Zeldman hand you your badge and thank you for coming.
The dynamic for the day was really set at that registration desk and the funky movie theatre venue. It was almost like sitting down with your favorite web heroes for a comfy chat. Jeffrey, Eric, Jason and Molly shared recent lessons learned and asked what we wanted to know. The atmosphere was laid back and comments and questions were frequent, welcomed and clearly shaped the conversation.
A few of my favorite moments from AEA-Austin:
- Seeing inside Jason Santa Maria’s sketchbook. Watching a design idea develop from pencil and paper to finished product.
- Being able to talk to Jason and Eric about how they work together during the design process.
- Enjoying the mental exercise of thinking from the content out from Molly (who never fails to inspire me with her creative and agile approach to web design).
- Watching the CSS Master explain the One True Layout…helping us all see the way to become one with the code (while looking like an Oompa Loompa).
- Learning how Jeffrey squeezes the best out of every word when writing the user interface.
- Realizing how lucky we are to have leaders in this industry who are so genuinely friendly and interested in making a personal connection with people who make websites.
And in true geek fashion, the day ended with a happy hour and a half, sponsored by Knowbility at the Belmont. Tune in next week to hear who won the battle in Eric (Oompa Loompa) Meyer vs. Glenda the GoodWitch!
Nice recap on the AEA haps! I too was impressed by the fact that all 4 of them were working the registration table at 8:15 a.m. Led to a friendly vibe all day long.
I think it was you who took this incriminating photo of Molly and I. I have no clue what I was even talking about there, but it sure looks like I was passionate about something. Maybe I just wanted another beer or I was showing my love for non-linear web design. Who knows.
Anyways, cool post! I’m going to check out your blog regularly from here on out. Take care.
Hey Glenda, it was great to see you and hang out once more, and thanks so much for the great write-up here in that which is not Kansas! We all had a great time and it’s really wonderful to read that the audience did as well.
I must admit to feeling extra bonus geek giggles over your use of WP-Gatekeeper, too. Which plugin are you using for your live preivew?
By the way, regarding next week: oh, it’s on. I will so totally take you down.
@Matt – it was great meeting you at AEA. And as for the incriminating photo…my favorite caption was from Ben Kimball who said, “On the web, you look THIS TALL!”
@ Eric – Awwww Eric…your WP-Gatekeeper is Scrumdiddlyumptious! The live preview I use is Comment Live Preview by Iacovos Constantinou.
And perhaps we should consult the Great Tiki Turkey about our future “rematch” ;-)
I searched a long time for such an great article. Thank you