SmashingConf Live – My Experience of Day 1

2012 Vitaly and I started SmashingConf with the very first event in Freiburg. It was meant to be an event for the web community to meet and see each other and the aim was not to only deliver and present high-quality talks, but to make it something memorable and exciting, that people leave highly inspired, with new knowledge and practical takeaways and hopefully with ew friends also. During the last 8 years the event grew to one of the most known in-person events in the web industry. One reason is the great team of lovely people behind it, living what they produce and giving their best to make this a welcoming and friendly event.

Now, as you know, we are living in times, where in-person events are not taking place as it would come with the high risk of spreading Covid-19. Many people together in a – kind of – small space for two or more days. Not the ideal setting at the moment (and also the reason why I don’t run any beyond tellerrand at the moment either).

Photo showing Vitaly Friedman sitting in front of his computer, running SmashingConf as online event
Vitaly at my office, running his part of SmashingConf live

Since the lockdown I attended many online events (many!). On one hand to see which software solutions and platforms people use to run their events. On the other hand to see, if they are able to transport a good vibe, how I’d like them and what differences in all the various ways of running such an event are. I found out, that online events are just not my cup of tea. I recognised, that after a few weeks, I more and more was doing other things than focusing on the event, presentation or what was going on at the screen. Then I lost track of what the person was talking about and so on. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike online events, but I somehow could not get warm with most of them. There are a few formats I do like, like Mike’s and Erika’s Quarantine Book Club or Vito’s Admission online series, just to mention a few. Somehow they managed to catch me n the one or two hours I am at the event. But a multi-day event?

Well, yesterday the SmashingConf team opened doors for the first day of SmashingConf Live, their first two-day online conference. I was surprised, that it worked to create an atmosphere, that I was able to feel at home. I read many people’s comment about the “nice atmosphere” and the “smashing vibe” that people cold feel as if they were attending an in-person SmashingConf. And this is great and makes me happy. Maybe one part is, that Vitaly uses my hardware over here to run his part of the conference and so I have someone with me, having an in-person experience somehow, but I think also, because the whole teams communication – in the sessions as well as off stage – helped creating this experience.

Today is day two of the event and I am excited to see if it works out as well as yesterday. But I am pretty sure it will. If you want to give it a try as well and want to join for day two: this way, please. See you there …