CSS3 Online Conference
Friday, March 26th, 2010This past Monday, I had the pleasure of attending Think Vitamin’s CSS3 Online Conference. Being fresh off the SXSW boat, a little under the weather and still exhausted, an online conference sounded like a perfect idea so I could roll out of bed late and remain in my PJs. I have previously mentioned in this blog my love for the idea of online conferences and attended the <head> conference a couple years back, but to be honest Think Vitamin is the first online conference to really get it right.
Most conferences have to appeal to a large group of people to sell tickets to pay for the cost of renting space/insurance/etc, but since obviously an online conference doesn’t have those costs, Think Vitamin had the freedom to choose a very specific topic, in this case CSS3 and in the future HTML5 (already signed up!) and create tracks specifically based on this smaller topics knowing that the lack of travel would attract/enable enough people and the best speakers on the topic. The output? Amazing content from the industry leaders on a specific topic. I learned/was inspired about CSS3 10 times more then I was in the 3 CSS3 speeches I attended at SXSW. Partly this is just due to the fact that I wasn’t hung over and wasn’t worries about planning which other tracks and what I needed to go with next and where I needed to meet my friends… or where I checked in on Gowalla 
This isn’t SXSW fault, but anything in meat space is infinitely more complicated from an attendee perspective. Online you can get yourself a cup of coffee, you can cough, you can answer the phone if need be, etc. Complete freedom all the while being able to attend.
On this same line, it seems we got the pick of the litter in terms of speakers as I imagine them also being in their PJs in their hometowns with their families is way more an attractive option then flying around the globe, living in hotels and getting dressed up for a single hours worth of work. This level of comfort was obviously attractive to the speakers who many were also fresh off the SXSW/Mix train as well… like Andy Clarke who decided to have a cigarette in the middle of his presentation. Not that I condone smoking, but why not? Wasn’t going to bother me as a nonsmoker… I am like 10,000 miles away. Andy felt more comfortable and I am sure were got a better presentation because of it.
So quick review, conference started at 1pm EST with Molly Holzschlag going over CSS3 layout options and where they stand in development and support of browsers. Next the Squared Eye guys, Matthew Smith & Sean Gaffney, talked about typography in CSS3… this time being able to finish their presentation without an alarm evacuating the building (Poor Matt Smith’s speech at SXSW was interrupted only a week early). Next up we had Andy Clark going over CSS3 best practices and careful degradation and finished up with Jina Bolton talking about CSS3 visual effects. Each was a fantastic speech and specific enough to feel like I learned something without being yet another walkthrough of “cool things CSS3 promises”.
The conference cost 150 dollars to attend and there were about 200 attendees. Even if many of them got the student discount, Think Vtiamin walked away with 20k with their only expenses being WebEx and paying speakers. Now I don’t know the going rate of SXSW or what WebEx costs, but I imagine that per hour investment (work to create presentations and actually give speech), I bet this conference was more lucrative to the speakers and creators then most, something that I hope will entice more people to do online conferences for a lot of different topics.
So thus far all good right? Well there were a couple of drawbacks and a couple of things I would change, fortunately all little and all things that may adjust once “we” get the hang of this online conference thing. There were some sound issues with getting people setup and normalized (definitely just something that needs to be ironed out), the webex system would have been great if it was more integrated in terms of collecting links or not trying to take over my whole screen during speeches and having to switch back and forth to chat. We figured out a work around, but each speech we had to go in and change the apps settings. Lastly the recording only being one long recording is annoying. I wish it was broken down per speech.
I will be attending SXSW next year. This doesn’t replace the social interaction and idea building you get when you meet with your colleagues, I don’t think it is trying. But monthly conferences like will enable me to keep on top of new and changing technologies as well as keep me inspired to learn and create. If I can sit here in my Baltimore suburb in my PJs with my cat on my lapt and still be inspired I will gladly hand over 150 a month to be educated and inspired.
