webstories

The Web Conference at the Heart of Europe

February 5, 2021 online

A one-day, one-track, non-profit conference for those who love the web.

The Speakers

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Just think about the most amazing line-up for the web; that's what we expect to present you for this first WebStories Lille.

We are thrilled to announce our top speakers:

John Allsopp

Long time organiser of the Web Directions Conference series, John Allsopp has been working on the Web for nearly 30 years.

He's been responsible for innovative developer tools such as Style Master, X-Ray and many more. He's spoken at numerous conferences around the World and delivered dozens of workshops in that time as well.

His writing includes two books, including "Developing With Web Standards" and countless articles and tutorials in print and online publications.

His "A Dao of Web Design", published in 2000, is cited by Ethan Marcotte as a key influence in the development of Responsive Web Design, who's acclaimed article in 2010 begins by quoting John in detail, and by Jeremy Keith as "a manifesto for anyone working on the Web".

Jeremy Keith

Jeremy Keith lives in Brighton, England where he makes websites with the splendid design agency Clearleft. You may know him from such books as DOM Scripting, Bulletproof Ajax, HTML5 For Web Designers, Resilient Web Design, and, most recently, Going Offline.

He curated the dConstruct conference for a number of years as well as Brighton SF, and he organised the world's first Science Hack Day. He also made the website Huffduffer to allow people to make podcasts of found sounds—it's like Instapaper for audio files.

Jen Looper

Jen is a Google Developer Expert and a Cloud Developer Advocate Lead at Microsoft on the Academic Team with over 20 years' experience as a web and mobile developer, specializing in creating cross-platform mobile and web apps.

She's a multilingual multiculturalist with a passion for hardware hacking, mobile apps, Vue.js, machine learning and discovering new things every day.

She is the founder and CEO of Front-End Foxes, an international nonprofit charity that promotes diversity in front-end developer communities.

Eric Meyer

Eric A. Meyer has been working with the web since late 1993 and is an internationally recognized expert on the subjects of HTML, CSS, and web standards.

A widely read author, he is technical lead at Rebecca’s Gift, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to providing healing family vacations after the death of a child; and is, along with Jeffrey Zeldman, co-founder of An Event Apart.

In 2006, he was inducted into the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for “international recognition on the topics of HTML and CSS” and helping to “inform excellence and efficiency on the Web.” In December 2014, he accidentally touched off Slate’s Internet Outrage of the Day.

Kenneth Rohde

Kenneth Rohde Christiansen is a Danish software engineer and architect, specialized in mobile and web technology.

Working at Intel out of Copenhagen, Kenneth helps define Intel’s strategy and plans regarding the Web Platform, as well as puts it into action. Before joining Intel, Kenneth was employed by Nokia (Denmark and Brazil) where he worked on the Nokia N9 web browser, Qt, WebKit, as well as many other mobile projects.

Kenneth is an elected member of the W3C Technical Architect Group (TAG). Currently working on making Progressive Web Apps more capable as part of Project Fugu.

Stéphanie Walter

Stéphanie is a User Researcher and Designer who focuses on building user-centred, inclusive and accessible products and services. She spent the last 10 years helping her clients in different industries (banking, financial, automotive, healthcare, press, travel, etc.) deliver successful projects to their audience, all the way from strategy to the final products and services. She teaches and likes to share her passion for her work on her blog and at conferences.

Léonie Watson

Léonie is Director of TetraLogical; a member of the W3C Advisory Board; co-Chair of the W3C Web Applications Working Group; and a member of the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Advisory Committee.

Amongst other things, Léonie is co-organiser of the Inclusive Design 24 (#id24) conference; co-author of the Inclusive Design Principles; and mentor to young people interested in the fields of accessibility and inclusive design. She is also a Microsoft Most Valued Professional (MVP).

Cassidy Williams

Cassidy is a Principal Developer Experience Engineer at Netlify. She's worked for several other places, including CodePen, Amazon, and Venmo, and she's had the honor of working with various non-profits, including cKeys and Hacker Fund as their Director of Outreach. She's active in the developer community with her newsletter rendezvous with cassidoo, and one of Glamour Magazine's 35 Women Under 35 Changing the Tech Industry and LinkedIn's Top Professionals 35 & Under.

The Agenda

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The agenda is set on CET/ GMT+1 (Paris, Brussels, Rome) international time:

Link anchor John Allsopp

A History of the Web in 100 Pages
As of 2020, estimates of the size of the Web put it at over half a trillion pages. So what can we learn of the Web's history in just a handful? In this presentation John will look at the prehistory and early history of the Web by examining a number of "pages" associated with that history. Which pages could be so significant? You'll have to tune in to find out!

Link anchor Stéphanie Walter

Designing beyond the pixel-perfect idealistic case
I face a challenge as a designer: how do I help bridge the gaps between that idealistic pixel perfect image of a site and the real deal? Between design and dev teams? How to design flexible and modular systems that work with real content, real diverse users with different needs, beyond pixel perfect mockups.

Link anchor Kenneth Rohde

Project Fugu, the first two years
Two years ago, Google announced Project Fugu as an effort to minimize the feature gap between native and web applications, and create a public roadmap. Intel, Microsoft and others joined the effort, but how far have we gotten so far? In this presentation we will look at the background of PWAs and Project Fugu from personal experience, and dive into some of the core APIs that Project Fugu has contributed to the web platform since its inception.

Link anchor Léonie Watson

You talkin' to me?
The front end is changing. It's no longer something we have to push, tap or click. It has quite litterally taken on a voice of it's own, and using technologies like Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML), the Web Speech API and (maybe one day) the CSS Speech module, we can create Alexa skills, Google Home actions, and web applications that sound a lot more interesting than you might think!

Link anchor Jeremy Keith

The Layers of the Web
Together we'll uncover how to build resilient, performant, accessible and beautiful structures that work with the grain of the materials of the World Wide Web.

Link anchor Jen Looper

Ombromanie: Storytelling with Machine-Learning Infused Hand Shadows
Wouldn't it be nice if we could reproduce spooky shadows like we do with our hands using the latest technology? Join Jen Looper to discover Ombromanie, a new way to tell stories with your hands, on the web.

Link anchor Cassidy Williams

Scaling yourself: Building what works for you
As developers work, make content, and move up in their careers, the tools they use have to grow with them. There are so many options to pick from to keep us accountable and on track. And, because of the field we're in, sometimes while finding the perfect solution, we end up (for better or for worse) building it ourselves! In this talk, Cassidy Williams will go through some of the technical details of projects, including a to-do app called todometer, how they came to be, and the power of open source to improve your own developer experience.

Link anchor Eric Meyer

Design in the Background
Our web designs are filled with elements, and every element has its own background area — each and every one a practically infinite canvas on which we can paint, layer by layer. In this talk, Eric will dive into that space and explore some of the many useful and surprising ways it can be used.