ConvergeSE 2012 - April 27-28

Schedule

Friday - Workshops Friday - Indie Game Developer Showcase Saturday - Conference Day

Thursday Night

6:00 PM

Live filming of the Kick Awesome Show: kickawesome.tv

@ IT-oLogy

The Kick Awesome Show is dedicated to design, the web & general nerdery, with Your hosts Nate Croft & Jon Longnecker.

Come out early if you're in town for Converge and mingle with other attendees and speakers.

Social hour starts at 6:00 PM, there will be a cash bar for your enjoyment. Then the show will kick off at 7:00 PM. Hear interviews with other Converge speakers and watch the guys go crazy in front of the cameras.

Friday - Workshops

8:00

Check In Begins

9:00

Welcome Keynote and Introductions

Welcome keynote from Leslie Jensen-Inman.

Make sure to be here so you know what the heck to expect for the next two days.

9:30

Session 1

DESIGN

Usability Testing Approaches

How to do usability testing. In person, remote and some other scrappy approaches for your design work.

Jennifer Downs
Front-end Dev

HTML5

HTML5 isn't just about markup; there's a lot more to care about. This talk will cover "why" you should be using HTML5 today.

J Cornelius
Development

Node.js

Tom will take you through an introduction on how to create simple Node.js backend systems.

Tom Wilson
Mobile

Building Mobile Apps With The Tools You Already Have

Greg will show you how he goes about building apps for mobile devices using HTML, CSS and JavaScript, covering mobile websites, web apps, and using tools like PhoneGap to create true native apps.

Greg Lunn
Marketing

Get Kicktastic

If you are doing amazing work and still not getting the kind of jobs you want, we'll be covering what we did to clear that hurdle and start getting the kind of opportunities we wanted. Come along for a mad dash through branding, marketing, getting talked about, and making more money. You'll leave with things to do and not just things to think about and forget when you get home.

Jonathan Longknecker and Nate Croft

11:00(ish)

Break

Go grab some coffee and a snack.

11:15

Session 2

Design

Typography

Exploring typography and it's design from print to the web.

Chandler Van De Water
Front-end Dev

CSS3: Adpative Images in Responsive Web Design

The open web doesn’t stop at our desktop. Smart phones and tablets not only contain more computing power and better browsers than the computers that started the Internet economy, they have better displays. In this session, we work through tips and tricks to develop future friendly images in our sites and apps.

Christopher Schmitt
Development

CoffeeScript

CoffeeScript is a language that compiles to JavaScript, built to take advantage of all of JavaScripts good parts, and trying to mitigate the bad. This session is a hands on coding exploration into the features of CoffeeScript focusing on some of the best reasons to adopt a language like CoffeeScript for your JavaScript needs.

Jed Schneider
Mobile

Mobile Design Process

Designing for mobile environments is essential in today's world, and as such should be a high priority in your workflow. Mobile design can't be an afterthought, it requires careful planning and an intentional approach. In this workshop Jason VanLue will walk through an effective mobile design process from start to finish, where you'll learn practical tips and design examples that you can apply to your next mobile project.

Jason VanLue
Marketing

Could Asking Questions be the Answer?

We know that we should ask good, compelling questions during meetings with potential clients. But, which questions actually matter? If you’ve found yourself justifying, defending and explaining why you or your firm should be hired, you’re following your prospect’s buying process instead of your own. In this workshop, you will learn how to qualify the potential client harder than they’re qualifying you, and how to ask the questions that matter most. If you’re comfortable in your own skin and operate without a high need for approval, this workshop could be your answer.

Nicole Cendrowski

12:30

Lunch

Grab your lunch and enjoy the sun or stay inside our air conditioned paradise.

2:00

Session 3

Design

Conceptual Design: An Approach

Giovanni will discuss how you can approach conceptual or idea driven design projects and produce work that will be legendary.

Giovanni DiFeterici
Front-end Dev

CSS/SASS/Frameworks

This workshop will take you through utilizing CSS Frameworks (960, BootStrap, etc...) in your workflow and dig into some advanced CSS things like nested rules, variables, mixins, selector inheritance.

Robert Pearce
Development

Identity: Exploring the depths of identity and personalization.

This workshop will dive into the depths of how a person can be identified online, allowing for the delivery of highly personalized experiences.

Jonathan LeBlanc
Mobile

Immersive Mobile Experiences

This workshop will go beyond grids, icons, and interface guidelines and explore ways you can create more powerful and engaging user experiences for mobile apps. Wren will discuss designing with gestures, prototyping, and strategies for selling your designs to clients and stakeholders.

Wren Lanier
Marketing

Ambient Accountability: The Jellyfish Work Model

Carl reveals the potential of the revolutionary "Jellyfish Work Model" model and uncovers how it has the ability to change the face of work—and the world—as we know it.

Carl Smith

3:15(ish)

Break

Go grab a drink and an afternoon snack.

3:30

Session 4

Design

Death to wireframes, long live rapid prototyping

We'll explore a handful of prototyping tools, talk about some handy tips and tricks, and even talk about my favorite prototyping tool, the always fabulous HTML/CSS/JavaScript combo, with their friend, the web browser.

Bermon Painter
Front-end Dev

Breaking Free from jQuery

Skookum Digital Work's Dustan Kasten will help us explore Ender.js and the micro-framework movement that might allow alternative jQuery options. We'll also go into detail about the pros and cons of jQuery and how to leverage its strengths while mitigating its weaknesses.

Dustan Kasten
Development

Polyglot Rejected

The advantages of a single programming language for web development.

&

Computer Science Foundations

We understand so little about how the computing devices we use on a daily basis work. In this workshop, we will explore the fundamentals of computers from the ground up. Looking at how information is represented and how it is processed. From binary numbers to Turing machines, we'll take a whirlwind tour of the foundations of computer science.

Mark Gunnels & Jason Dew
Mobile

Beyond Native: Mobile Development with HTML5

Skookum Digital Work's Director of Engineering, Hunter Loftis, will discuss HTML5, Hybrid, and Native mobile application development options. Yes, you, John Q Web Developer, might just be the best equipped person in the room to create lasting mobile application experiences.

Hunter Loftis
Marketing

Startups for Starters

You have a business idea for the next killer app. You're smart, you're passionate, you have money... but you're not a developer. How do you go from idea to business without losing your shirt. In this interactive workshop, we'll talk about what every entrepreneur needs to know about navigating the world of developers and the development process.

Assaf Weinberg

Friday

All Day

Indie Game Developer Showcase

The showcase is taking place during ConvergeSE in the IT-oLogy "Portal" game room. Around 25 game creators will be gathering to show off their games, talk shop and generally mix it up Friday April 27th.

The showcase is free for all Converge ticket holders to check out, but chip in $12.00 (if you don't have a ticket) and we'll provide you with lunch and validate your parking. Purchase a Showcase Ticket.

Friday Night

7:30 PM

After Party @ The Art Bar - Sponsored by Grasshopper

Get a drink on Grashopper. Also there's Alternacirque going on at 9:30 & again at 10:30 (Get their promptly!)

Friday - Workshops Friday - Indie Game Developer Showcase Saturday - Conference Day