JSConf & CSSConf 2015
The last weekend of September, I had the pleasure to attend JSConfEU & CSSConfEU in Berlin. I met amazing developers from all over the world, learned a lot of new tricks from the different conferences I went to, and most important of all I got really inspired and motivated from all the conversations I had afterwards with the attendees and speakers.
So, what was it actually like to attend JSConf ? I have to say it was lots of fun. The JavaScript community is amazing and everyone is so welcoming and willing to help and teach others. Basically, JSConf is a two day long event in which speakers from all over the world give conferences about anything related to Javascript. Going from topics like streaming airplay audio from iTunes to multiple peers over any network with Node.js, to using Javascript to help people in Africa fight Ebola or the comparison of the Bauhaus school with development and the intersection between code, design and people; every single conference was thought-provoking.
JSConfEU 2015
Photo by Holger Blank
Among the conferences I attended, one of them included a trip to the zoo thanks to Franziska Hinkelmann’s talk about Javascript engines (SpiderMonkey, SquirrelFish, Nashorn and V8 for Firefox, Safari, JVM and Chrome respectively) in which she basically prove how JS code can be as fast as native C++ code and explained the advantages of monomorphic operations over polymorphic operations in hidden classes. After that Denis Radin showed some crazy demos for rendering HTML/CSS using WebGL that helps speeding up animations and transformations by using 3D hardware acceleration on WebGL representations of DOM elements. Meaning, it is possible to apply OpenGL effects on the browser as modern 3D games do, for more information check http://htmlgl.com/.
But that was just the beginning of it. After a pretty busy day, it ended with an amazing talk by Martin Schuhfuß called “Let there be light” in which he basically controlled the professional light equipment on stage with Javascript and CSS. Yes, he basically made a disco (more like a nerd disco) and created a light show with CSS code. Whoever dared to disrespect CSS, I bet they didn’t know it was even possible to create and control your own lights directly from within your browser. Needless to say, the party that came afterwards was amazing.
CSSConfEU 2015
Photo by Lena Reinhard
So, during my second day in Berlin, I attended CSSConf. A one day long all CSS event. The conferences couldn’t have been more interesting. Una Kravets developer on the IBM Design team explained how css blend modes, filters, and gradients can be used to implement custom photo effects right in the browser on her ‘Photoshop is Dead’ talk. Coming next, CSS guru Lea Verou gave a mind blowing talk on pies 🍰. Actually, she used pie charts as a starting point to give tips on how to use transforms, animation properties, and SVG for problem solving.
Lea Verou and ‘The Missing Slice’
Photo by Lena Reinhard
Another remarkable talk was the one from Zoe M. Gillenwater, senior designer from Booking.com that basically explained how to enhance responsiveness using flexbox features. I could go on and on explaining how brilliant each one of the conferences was but then I will never end this post. I seriously encourage everyone to check the conferences out, they are available online JSConf 2015 and CSSConf 2015.
My last day in Berlin attending the second part of JSConf was equally as amazing as the previous days. The first talk of the day was a history lesson by Alejandro Oviedo on how Javascript has changed over the years until the latest ECMAScript 2015. I attended talks on security on JS frameworks, rewriting of old software in Javascript to program hardware, using CouchDB and PouchDB to run offline databases in places where it’s not always possible to have a connection, Javascript Forensics or how to detect, diagnose and fix JS bugs, and a bunch of other topics.
Brenna O'Brien and 'Javascript: The Good Parts'
Photo by Holger Blank
“Solve real world problems, not software problems.”
- @patggs on using JS for fighting Ebola
Radialsystem V
Photo by Lena Reinhard
Attending JS & CSS Conf was all about meeting people and sharing. Exchanging ideas and points of view, learning from each other. I came back to Paris with this desire on my heart to create and do stuff using all of the things I learned about during this weekend. I highly encourage anyone related to the web community to attend at least once a conference like this. There are lots of them going on every month, everywhere. It is a unique, self-growing experience. For a list of all upcoming JS & CSS conferences around the world I recommend checking: frontendfront conferences.
I couldn’t be more excited to start planning my next tech conference trip !
** TL;DR **
Check the online conferences over here :