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).

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 …

Isn’t ist spooky sometimes, that you search for a certain asset and in the next moment the next shopping site you visit suggests you to buy something like this? Well, nowadays is it less spooky, but annoying.

I like, that Mozilla makes this a default in their latest Firefox release to block tracking by default. Reason for this enhancement is, that, since the introduction of ETP, the ad industry found different ways to track users. Passing you through the tracker’s site before landing on your targeted website enables them to see where you came from and where you are going.

And this is what Firefox does now:

With ETP 2.0, Firefox users will now be protected against these methods as it checks to see if cookies and site data from those trackers need to be deleted every day. ETP 2.0 stops known trackers from having access to your information, even those with which you may have inadvertently visited. ETP 2.0 clears cookies and site data from tracking sites every 24 hours.

Read the whole post about the latest enhancements on Mozillas blog

This is just lovely: the door bell. DHL delivers a package. What did I order again and have forgotten about? Did I? No! It is a lovely little surprise by Rodney. A gin I don’t call a family member yet. Infused with wild berry.

Sounds interesting and I just tested it with Thomas Henry tonic, a hand full of wild berries – just right for the summer.

Thanks soo much, Rodney, for thinking of me and bringing a smile to my face with this!

My friend Vic Lee was drawing a diary during the lockdown. He decided to make a book out of it and it turned out just beautiful. Check his Instagram account and follow the links to the book to read the background story. It is worth it.

Well done Vic, it looks great and feels really good!

These are a few impressions from Preveli Beach, located about 35km south of Rethymno on the south side of Crete and about 10km east of Plakias, another well known beach. People refer to it as palm beach and I gonna write about it in more detail on my blog. A river ends in the sea right here, which is lovely to swim in and where river and sea meet, palms and reed are growing, creating a beautiful scenery.

Found in the backgarden of the house we live in on Crete.

A day at Evita Bay on Crete. Feels surreal after the crazy times. Well, I say after… we are still in the middle of it and for some reason the holiday we booked last year did happen. And we actually enjoy it – with all the safety precautions it needs.

I have not written a thing on my website for over a month. Not because I have been sick, or anything. I – my family and I actually – are alright. It was just the depressing knowledge of the fact that I won’t be able to run beyond tellerrand events for a while.

Already before beyond tellerrand many of those attendees who have been at the event a couple of times, but also those, who were there only in 2019, have written so man encouraging, nice and heart warming messages via email, text or on social media. I wanted to hug them all and say thanks, but, well, also this won’t happen for a while.

Today I received a parcel by Bianca, one of the people being in the beyond tellerrand family for a long time already. I took this as the kick in the butt to get active again. First of all to be there for what has grown over the last 10 years since starting beyond tellerrand and the people who shape this event and this … community. Is it really a community? I don’t know really, but I think there is something, which is special about those who support beyond tellerrand and me and the way they do this.

I guess you want to know what I got today. Well, it is known, that I do like gin. So, I got a lovely packed bottle of gin, that comes in a wooden box, accompanied by a bottle of tonic and some wonderful words about how this little show titled beyond tellerrand became something that feels like “home” for Bianca. If I only would be able to express how much those things mean to me.

Thanks so much, Bianca and to the many other wonderful people who are so supportive these days (you know who you are! 😘).

Well … I also know what I am drinking later in the sun. And you?

So sad to hear that Jeff Grosso died. I still have a couple of decks of him in my basement still. RIP. 😢

Since I had to postpone my tenth edition of beyond tellerrand in Düsseldorf (date TBA) and it is unsure, if Berlin or Munich editions are taking place in this strange year, I was trying to work on an online setup for beyond tellerrand. Not to replace the live events – I don’t think this will ever be the same, especially for what I do with beyond tellerrand – but to create a platform, where we can exchange, meet and inspire each other in a time, when it is simply not possible to meet live and in real.

Now, I was testing a couple of platforms to host online meetings, webinars and events of all kinds. During the last two weeks those services had a huge boost and run on their services.

Lists with tools, services and tips for online events are popping up, like these:

• A Comprehensive List of Tips, Tools, and Examples for Event Organizers During the Coronavirus Outbreak
• The Ultimate Webinar Livestreaming List
• How to Run a Successful Online Conference

Next to this, a lot of Slack channels pop up for event organisers and existing ones have more or less one topic only right now: Online Events.

So far I tested about 10 different platforms to host events on and somehow Zoom is the one that I always return to. For some reason it feels closest to what I want to do with being able to access your camera, to see each other, to speak to each other and not only write in a chat. As I don’t want to the many cool opportunities that pop up now, where people host workshops, webinars or try to port their live conferences into the web, I always came back to Zoom for the mentioned reasons above.

I wish that the people from Hopin would reply to any of my emails. I have written a couple of times, used the “Get Early Access” button, but within the last three weeks no one ever got back to me sadly. What I read on their website sounds nice, but I can’t sadly test it and tinker with it.

But back to why I have not started, what I have in mind right now: I am simply not sure, if I want to identify my event, even if only online, with what Zoom as a company is representing. Last year they were in the news, that, without telling the user, they’d secretly install a web server on your Mac, while installing the Zoom app. This was so bad, that I thought I never gonna use Zoom again. It was so hard to remove this server from your Mac again, that Apple even published a silent Mac update to remove it. (Here is a more detailed blog post by John Gruber about this whole issue and also about many more details, like the way Zoom runs the installer etc.)

Now another issue popped up: Zoom sent data to Facebook – even if you don’t have a facebook account – WTF?!

Well, the code now is said to be removed and they also have a web version (see here on how to use it, which is not as feature rich, but which does not need to install anything and which you can run in a private window, but it still leaves a bitter taste to it. What’s coming next?

And therefore: Do I really want to use a service for my events, where a company knowingly does this kind of stuff? What do you think?