We love organizing events that deliver value and leave a long-lasting impression. SmashingConf Oxford is taking place again next year, on March 15–16th 2016. The conference will be packed with smart real-life solutions and techniques, ranging from front end to design to UX — and a few delightful surprises along the way. Two days, one track, 14 brilliant speakers and 350 fantastic attendees. Tickets are now on sale.
$449 / £296 (incl. VAT)
Be quick: seats are filling up fast!Discussions about design trends and visual style are often very subjective and they rarely provide actionable, valuable takeaways. Nothing beats a conversation about what worked and what didn’t work in actual real-life projects and what decisions were made along the way. That's exactly what we're setting off to explore in Oxford — accompanied by a lot of learning and networking in the beautiful pathways and gardens of legendary Oxford.
Learning And Networking, The Smashing Way
Usually when writing a release post like this one, one tends to write about how much better the new conference will be than previous ones, and why attending it this year is absolutely necessary. Well, the truth is that we aim to reach the same high bar next year as we did in 2014 and 2015: only curated and valuable content, stellar and diverse speakers, a personal and intimate atmosphere — all in a beautiful and historic venue in Oxford.
We don't promise stargazing on a clear night, but we do promise a valuable, carefully crafted, well-orchestrated event that will be rather difficult to forget.
Practical and Useful: Guaranteed
You know that feeling when you attend an event and feel like you’ve learned nothing new? Well, this won't happen to you at SmashingConf — mostly because we'll discuss existing real-life projects and solutions and how designers and developers like you have solved them. There's always a unique point of view, with unique constraints, requirements and solutions, to be found in this context.
We will explore how to approach design problems strategically and efficiently. You'll learn what warning signs and common stumbling blocks to watch out for and how to prevent them from happening. Techniques, lessons learned, design patterns. Think of it as a little playbook with handy rules of thumb: It doesn't get more practical than this! Now, this conference might keep you on your toes for quite some time. Seriously.
Our Goal: Many “A-ha!” Moments
We asked ourselves how we could ensure that the content is as stellar as it should be throughout the event. So we set a goal to plant at least a few “A-ha!” moments into every single talk — be it regular conference days or meet-up before the event. Ambitious? Yeah, absolutely! But who doesn't like a good challenge? You'll be the judge of how it has worked out, but that's what we're aiming for.
No theory, no fluff, just curated quality content. 2 conference days, 1 track, hands-on workshops and 16 speakers improving their craft on small or large scale every single day.
Code of Conduct
We embrace respect and tolerance with our code of conduct. Be friendly, be cool, and be smashing to each other. Networking is important, and we always organize many networking activities starting from Sunday, but we will not tolerate any kind of disrespectful behavior. There’s no room for it at the conference. Fullstop.
Great Speakers, Great Workshops
We thoroughly curate every single talk and work alongside our speakers to make sure that each talk fits nicely within the overall conference. We’ve invited speakers who are passionate about their work and who've learned a thing or two from their own experiences. We’re happy to welcome the first confirmed speakers:
- Rachel Nabors
Front end, Animation - Aarron Walter
UX • MailChimp - Sara Soueidan
SVG, Front end - Robbie Manson
Product Design - Leisa Reichelt
User research • GDS, Gov.uk - Patrick Hamann
Front end, Performance • Financial Times - Alla Kholmatova
Interaction design, Atomic design • FutureLearn - Chris Shiflett
Front end, UX • FictiveKin - Wes Bos
JavaScript, Flexbox - Umar Hansa
Front end, Tooling • Shazam - Vasilis van Gemert
Front end • University of Applied Science in Amsterdam - Mystery Speaker
(Somebody you definitely know, and respect.) - ...more speakers will be announced soon!
Full-Day Workshops at SmashingConf Oxford
We’ll also host hands-on full-day workshops, with practical techniques and strategies taught by practitioners in the industry. So, if you are going to attend the conference, why not attend a workshop as well? In fact, if you book a workshop, too, you'll save $50 off the conference + workshop ticket price. Here is an overview of our workshops:
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Interface Design Bootcamp by Aarron Walter March 14th • Whether you are designing a web app or a website, following best practices and standard design methodologies will always help to ensure that your interfaces are usable and engaging. Read more… -
Mastering SVG by Sara Soueidan March 14th • SVG is the new big thing in web design today, and for good reason. SVG is going to be one of the fundamentals of web design, and getting a grip on it and how to use it is becoming more important, as its usefulness becomes more obvious every day. Read more… -
The DOM in Motion by Rachel Nabors March 17th • With animated user experiences moving from nice-to-have to a necessity, it's more important than ever to understand the ins and outs of CSS animations and transitions, motion design best practices, and how to ensure high-performance, “jank-free” animation on even everyday mobile devices. Read more… -
RWD Tips and Techniques by Vitaly Friedman March 17th • In this updated full-day workshop, Vitaly Friedman, editor-in-chief of Smashing Magazine, will present practical techniques, clever tricks and useful strategies you need to be aware of when working on any responsive design project. Read more…
$798 / £526 (incl. VAT)
Save $100 off the regular price!Why This Conference Might Just Be For You
The conference might be for you just because it's very practical. You’ll learn many valuable techniques for your workflow, and you’ll meet fantastic likeminded people from the industry. You’ll learn:
- strategies for crafting delightful animations;
- clever psychological techniques for smarter interfaces;
- techniques and guidelines for better product design;
- guidelines for scalable CSS and JavaScript;
- gotchas and rules-of-thumb for when using SVG and flexbox;
- handy tricks and tooling to improve your efficiency and workflow;
- mistakes and lessons learned from real-life projects;
- responsive design patterns for future-ready websites;
- how to avoid generic solutions, with designs that exhibit soul and personality.
Download The “Convince Your Boss” PDF!
We’ve also prepared a neat “Convince Your Boss PDF” sheet (PDF, 0.15 MB) that you can use to convince your boss, colleagues, friends, neighbors and total strangers to join you or send you to the event. We know you will not be disappointed. Still not good enough? Well, tweet us @smashingconf — we can be quite convincing!
Sponsors, Dear Sponsors
We pour our heart and soul into creating a friendly, memorable and inspiring community event for everybody involved. Our goal is a valuable community event with practical talks, neatly packed with a lot of learning, sharing and networking opportunities.
We keep ticket prices affordable for everyone, and we're happy to welcome sponsors to help us make the conference smashing in every possible way. If you're interested in sponsoring the event, please drop an email to Mariona at mac@smashingconf.com. We’d love for you to be involved!
See You In Oxford!
We are looking forward to seeing you in Oxford. And who knows? Perhaps months after the conference is over, you'll look back at your workflow, at your projects and at this very article, realizing that it wasn't far off after all. After all, it's a conference where anything can happen, right? See you there!