I'm super excited that you’re receiving this newsletter!

I've been thinking about starting a mailing list for a while and it is finally time that I did it. I wanted my own place to share what I find useful, and oftentimes I get questions about the same topic again and again. So I thought, why don’t I answer everybody at once?

In my newsletter, you won't find a list of links that you can find in any other design newsletters.

What you’ll get is my personal take on the articles I read, reflections of recent events, personal news and stories, what I’m working on, and advice for people who want to learn from me—whether that is remote work, being a nomad, leading communities, conference speaking, or building your own brand. I hope my newsletter can be of value to you.

This first issue of my newsletter is focused on events, by popular demand. I love going to events and meeting people who are passionate about design and tech. However, many sources of design events are focused on events in the US. Since I live in Europe, it’s more challenging to find local design and tech events. Eventually, I figured out how.

How do I find events to attend or speak at? 🤔

Do you read newspapers? Do you read more than one newspaper or do you just have one news source? How often do you read the news, every single day or once in a while?

Just like daily news, event news is a kind of news. In order to be informed about new events and call-for-papers, one should subscribe to multiple news sources, read frequently to stay up-to-date.

1. Twitter

About half or more of the events I learned about is through Twitter. I follow event organisers, event attendees and speakers; all of them tweet about events from time to time. Through Twitter, I learned about events that I otherwise wouldn't have.

Talking to people is usually the best way to learn about interesting events, and that's exactly what Twitter allows you to do.

I first heard about XOXO and Beyond Tellerrand on Twitter some time ago. This year I’ll be going to XOXO and speaking at Beyond Tellerrand (p.s. I’m beyond excited!)

For example, Peter-Paul (co-organiser of CSS Day) asked on Twitter about people’s favourite web conferences. He received lots of recommendations. If you're interested in web technology conferences, this list is for you.

Here are a few more event recommendations on Twitter to check out.

2. Event curation sites

My other sources are event curation sites. Majority of them on the web focus on dev events, so you can imagine I was really happy to find sites that curate design events.

1. Neon Moire - a site for design events in wider (digital) design field, like typography, graphic design, film etc.
2. Field Trips - an awesome new tool with conferences and speakers calls all in one. There’s a filter for UX events!
3. Find UX events - this leans more towards professional UX training as it also lists workshops. The UX of this site is not as good as the other two. 🙊

If you are interested in dev topics, Papercall is still a good resource. There’s also Speakerdex, a nicely designed event curation site but it does focus on dev events (90%).

3. Curate your own

Even if you’re not following event curation sites, you have certainly come across good talks. Here’s my strategy to add more events to my calendar.

When I find an interesting talk or speaker profile, I check out her/his website or speaking portfolio to find what other events she/he’s speaking at. There’s a good chance that she/he is speaking at other conferences which also curate interesting talks.

By using this strategy, you will probably end up with more events in your calendar than you can possibly go to. 😉

Resources (where to browse talks)

1. Notist - a public speaking portfolio. On Notist you can browse by events or by speakers. I also use Notist to collect all the content and tweets related to my talk.
2. Speakerdeck - similar to Notist, it’s a tool to let speakers upload their slides. However, there’s no event tag so you’ll have to look up the events separately.

Upcoming Events (UX, design & tech)

Laracon EU (I'm speaking here!)
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
August 29-31

XOXO Fest (I'm going there!)
Portland, USA
September 6-9

Confront (I'm speaking here!)
Malmo, Sweden
October 5

Beyond Tellerrand (I'm speaking there!)
Berlin, Germany
November 5-8

DIBI Conference (I'm speaking there!)
Edinburgh, UK
November 12

Non Binary in Tech (Free)
London, UK
July 28

Grace Hopper Celebration (world's largest gathering of women technologists)
Houston, USA
September 26-28
*Google Travel Grant available, apply before July 22nd at 11:59pm PDT

EuroIA
Dublin, Ireland
September 27-29

UXDX
Dublin, Ireland
October 3-5

UX Designers Camp
Mokrin, Serbia
October 6-14

Leading Design
London, UK
October 10-12

Talk UX (by Ladies that UX)
Boston, USA
October 18-19

SmashingConf
New York, USA
October 22-25

UX Brighton
Brighton, UK
November 2

Pixel Pioneers
Belfast, UK
November 23

UX Digital Summit
Guadalajara, Mexico
November 30 - December 2

Call-for-proposals (CFP)

Web Weekend Kathmandu
Kathmandu, Nepal
September 22-23
CFP due: July 31

ITNEXT Summit 2018
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
November 14
CFP due: July 31 23:07 UTC

PixelPioneers
Belfast, UK
November 23
CFP due: July 31

CanUX
Ottawa, Canada
November 1-4
CFP due: August 1 11:59pm Eastern Time

ThingsCon
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
December 2018
CFP due: August 1

Inclusive Design 24
Online event
October 11
CFP due: August 19

SustainableUX 2019
Boston, USA
February 12, 2019
CFP due: November 20

FFS Tech Conf
*Submit 1 tweet for session proposal using #FFSTechConf
London, UK
September 2018
CFP due: unknown

FITC
Toronto, Amsterdam, Calgary
Various dates
CFP due: unknown

That was a massive first issue! Do you already feel like you now know more events than you can possibly go to? 😉

Do you have any feedback for my newsletter? If you have any topic you want me to write about or have any question you’d like me to answer, just reply to this email. I read everything. 🙂

Until next time!

—Jenny