12 Sessions We’re Excited About for SXSWi 2014
It's that time again! South by Southwest Interactive is upon us, and we can't wait to head down to the conference center for four wonderful days filled with breakfast tacos and some of the best new ideas in tech.
While there are literally hundreds of sessions going on during SXSWi, our team has worked to narrow it down to the 12 sessions we are most excited about. We can't wait to see what the themes are this year (wearable tech? designing in-browser? the privacy vs. usability battle?) and hope to see you out there!
Here goes!
Alternative Design Workflows in a "PostPSD" Era
We expect to hear a lot about the "PostPSD Era" during this year's SXSWi, which has been a growing movement in the web community for the past year or so due to the unique challenges and workflow shifts brought about by Responsive Design. We're looking forward to hearing how it worked out at Clickfarm and (hopefully) how they have smoothed the edges for the rest of us! Tuesday, March 11 • 12:30PM - 1:30PM
Presenters:
Jeremy Fuksa, Design Director, Clickfarm Official SXSW Listing
The Dynamic Site Is Dead
Jekyll, Middleman, Prose.io, GitHub Pages have led a new wave of sites — particularly in government — that are being deployed faster, simpler, more securely. We're looking forward to this panel discussion on the pitfalls, peril, and ultimate glory involved in deploying content in a post CMS world. Monday, March 10 • 12:30PM - 1:30PM
Presenters:
Ben Balter, Government Bureaucat, GitHub Danny Chapman, Director of Design, NIC Jessica Teal, Principal, Teal Media Julie Herron, Project Mgr, US Department of Health and Human Services Official SXSW Listing
UX Love Potion
We're already in love with UX and are fully aware we probably look a bit starry-eyed whenever explaining it to a client. This panel grabbed our attention because we want to learn how to better explain the wonders of UX, share ownership of the process with all members of our projects, and get others just as excited as we are to build user-centered products. Monday, March 10 • 9:30AM - 10:30AM
Presenters:
Alissa Briggs, Intuit Raman Hansi, Intuit Official SXSW Listing
Feature Assassins
In order for a product or a website to be streamlined, it's often necessary to cut out old features or ones that are not working as well as they could be, which is always a recipe for a great debate. This panel addresses a question we run into quite frequently in our projects: where do you draw the line at which features are useful and which are fluff? Saturday, March 8 • 9:30AM - 10:30AM
Presenters:
Jeremy Tunnell, Prod Mgr, Stack Exchange Malcolm Ong, Co-Founder, Skillshare Mat Mullen, Prod Mgr, Disqus Matas Petrikas, Prod Mgr, SoundCloud Official SXSW Listing
Office of the Future: Optimizing for Happiness
We spend around a third of our lives at work – whether that’s in an office, in a coffee shop, or in your living room, the right work environment can dramatically impact productivity and happiness. We're excited to hear what Scott Chacon, of GitHub, has to say about the challenges of creating a highly productive office. Tuesday, March 11 • 9:30AM - 10:30AM
Presenters:
Scott Chacon, CIO & Co-Founder, GitHub Official SXSW Listing
De-Suckifying Third-Party JavaScript
Bad JavaScript has the potential to do a lot of damage; It will slow down your page, screw up your layout, and steal your readers' secrets if you're not careful. In this panel discussion, Kent Brewster from Pinterest will be covering common mistakes made while implementing third-party JavaScript, and then show an approach that's worked for them in many places. Saturday, March 8 • 11:00AM - 12:00PM
Presenters:
Kent Brewster, Widgeteer, Pinterest Official SXSW Listing
Pixel "Pretty Damn" Perfect
The world of web design is continuously changing! We love it and are always investigating new processes. We're looking forward to this panel and aim to glean how to apply our detail-oriented design thinking toward fast prototyping. Sunday, March 9 • 12:30PM - 1:30PM
Presenters:
Joel Beukelman, Sr Mobile UX Designer, Netflix Official SXSW Listing
A Conversation with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson
So this panel isn't necessarily design-focused, but we wanted to express how incredibly excited we are to see Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson in person. He's being interviewed by Christie Nicholson from Scientific American, so this has all the makings of being a fascinating keynote. Saturday, March 8 • 2:00PM - 3:00PM
Presenters:
Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, Host/Genius, Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey Christie Nicholson, Journalist, Scientific American/CBS/Core77 Official SXSW Listing
Search Is Dead: The Secret Sauce Behind Discovery
One thing we can all agree on is that some of the most successful companies to spring out of the internet in the last few years have been recommendation engines: Netflix, Pandora, Spotify, Amazon. This panel even claims that we live in a world where search is dead. We're looking forward to this diverse panel on what this means for the future of the web, and how we can implement these new strategies for our own clients. Monday, March 10 • 12:30PM - 1:30PM
Presenters:
Hayley Barna, Co-Founder, Birchbox Katrina Lake, Founder & CEO, Stitch Fix Ruzwana Bashir, CEO & Founder, Peek Todd Yellin, VP of Prod Innovation, Netflix Official SXSW Listing
From Every Screen to No-Screen: Next Gen Responsive
What is the future of responsive web design? We've seen drastic changes in how the web is used in the past couple of years, and we look forward to understanding what the future of technology holds for us. Saturday, March 8 , 11:00AM - 12:00PM
Presenters:
Chris Saint-Amant, Mgr UI Engineering, Netflix Kerry Bodine, Author & Customer Experience Expert Mike Norman, VP Technology, Genuine Interactive Tim Hayden, Principal Strategist, TTH-Strategy Official SXSW Listing
How Creative People Arrive at Good Ideas
One of the most difficult thing any creative person comes up against in their day-to-day dealings is the difficulty of harnessing creativity, especially in the face of ambitious deadlines. While every creative team has their own internal process for motivating ideas and creating collaboration, we're looking forward to learning what some of the big players in the industry do to keep their teams inspired and doing great work. Sunday, March 9 • 11:00AM - 12:00PM
Presenters:
Brian Janosch, Creative Director, Cultivated Wit Colin Raney, Managing Director, IDEO Erin Clift, VP, Global Mktg & Partnerships, Spotify Scott Aukerman, Comedy Bang Bang Official SXSW Listing
Hacking Princess Culture: Girls, Games, & Science
There's much celebration that girls make up 47% of gamers, but if all of the games and TV they see are focused on princesses, make-up, and pink, how can we inspire girls to do more than wait for prince charming? This panel discusses not only what is currently available to young girls on TV and in games, but what we could be doing to inspire the next generation of women. Sunday, March 9 • 11:00AM - 12:00PM
Presenters:
Jennifer Oxley, Creator/Exec Producer, 9ate7 Productions Lindsey Shepard, VP of Sales, GoldieBlox Sara DeWitt, VP, PBS KIDS Digital, PBS Official SXSW Listing
Meetups
You can also look for us at the XX+UX Happy Hour for Women in UX and the Austin Women in Tech Networking Event! We can't wait to see you all!