A Web Afternoon
The web continues to amaze me. Not just because of the ever improving technology, but because it’s full of talented, humble, generous, and helpful people. I’ve been lucky enough to meet and befriend a number of these fine folk, and let me say, it’s a genuine pleasure to know and work with them.
As some of you know, I’ve been organizing the Atlanta Web Design Group for some time now. We’ve been hosting monthly meetups and helping out with the occasional event, and it’s all great. But over the last few months I’ve sensed a desire within the group for something more. So after a brief exchange with Faruk Ates about speaking at a monthly event, it dawned on me that we could create something bigger. So we did.
A Web Afternoon Was Born
The whole thing started quite innocently, really. I wanted to get two or three speakers together for a single event. It wouldn’t work on a weeknight since the sessions would last too long and people don’t like to stay out too late on a school night. It had to be on a weekend. A day long event was too much, so an afternoon seemed right.
Hmm… web, afternoon. Yep, the webafternoon.com domain is available. Let’s do this.
At that point it became a personal challenge to put together a great event in less than 30 days.
There Shall Be Talent
The stars must have been aligned. Not only had Faruk already agreed to speak, but Denise Jacobs and Ben Friedman were also available to do featured talks. And as icing on the cake Leslie Jensen-Inman, Theo Rosendorf, Michael Mogill, and Todd Schnick all agreed to do lightning talks. This was shaping up well.
A Community Effort
Of course I couldn’t pull off an event like this alone. The guys at 45Royale designed the website, and the team at Epic Labs coded it. Gene at UnmatchedStyle helped spread the word, John prepped graphics for the signs, and Farhan, Nic, Moses, Josh, Danny, Josh, Amy, Danielle, Lauren, Suzanne, and (I know I’m forgetting someone and I’m sorry) a handful of others helped get things set up on event day, and Chris kept the Twitter stream going strong. Plus, without the help of sponsors like CoffeeCup Software and Mailchimp, and the hospitality of Bill Cutts and the Georgia Tech Research Institute the event just would not have happened.
One of my favorite things
As a little surprise for Web Afternoon attendees, I asked a handful of people I respect to record a sub-30 second video starting with “what I love about the web” that I would show at the event. The similarity of responses I received amazed me, so I decided to compile them together. Here’s the result.
I’m flattered by the enthusiasm and generosity of everyone who participated. All of the speakers and video contributors are people I respect, and having them involved really made the effort of organizing the event worthwhile. And thanks to them, Web Afternoon was a hit with the attendees as well.
To each and every speaker, contributor, volunteer, and attendee; thank you for making A Web Afternoon a success. I think we’ll do this again.
