Web Directions Year round learning for product, design and engineering professionals

Our traditional early year timeframe for Web Directions North has come and gone, so you might have been wondering what’s been happening with Web Directions in North America.

We’re really excited to be able to say behind the scenes a lot has been going on, and we’re excited to be able to announce our next North American conference.

Over the last year or so, we’ve been looking for a location that will be home to the sort of event we really want Web Directions to be – an event that brings together folks from all over North America, and indeed the world, and showcases the latest technologies and techniques, the latest know-how.
We’ve been looking for a city that’s easily accessible from just about anywhere in North America. A city that doesn’t necessarily get the attention, and events, that some other cities get. A city with a thriving, exciting web scene, and a city that’s got a lot to offer over as a destination is its own right.

In Atlanta, we really believe we’ve found that city, and we’re excited to let you know we’ll be holding our next North America event there September 23rd and 24th of this year. Midtown Atlanta, where the event is held, is a thriving, diverse community, featuring restaurants, bars, cafes, nightlife, and more, and home to Georgia Tech, one of the world’s leading technology focussed schools. Loews Hotel, the venue for the conference is brand spanking new, only opening in April this year. And with the busiest airport in the world, Atlanta is usually a nonstop, affordable flight from almost anywhere in North America (and beyond).

To capture the essence of this new home, Web Directions North is now Web Directions USA.
But at its heart of course is the same philosophy – to bring the latest technologies, like CSS3 and HTML5, the latest techniques in design and development, featuring leading practitioners, not just the usual suspects, to share their experience and expertise in content rich, independent sessions.

For Web Directions USA 2010 we’ve got such amazing speakers as

• Scott Thomas, lead web designer on President Obama’s electoral campaign, explaining how to design online communities that resonate and motivate
• Aarron Walter, lead designer from MailChimp, speaking on emotional design
• The legendary Dan Rubin on Creativity, Design and Interaction with HTML5 and CSS3
• User Experience expert Juliet Melton on running remote user research projects

And many other sessions covering adding geolocation to your web apps, building native mobile apps with web technologies, serverside JavaScript, web typography, HTML5 for web app development, Agile UI design, and much much more. In total 20 amazing sessions over 2 days.

We’ve also got 2 days of great value workshops leading up to the conference.

There’s also our well known dedication to the social side of our events – so while you may not get the chance to ski or snowboard (this time) there’ll be plenty to keep you occupied, and connected, not least of which an amazing free event on Saturday September 25th, which we’ll be announcing soon. Whether you’re from nearby, or far away, keep this day clear in your diary, it really is not to be missed.

And, before June 20th, it’s just $799 to attend. 20 hours of amazing presentations, fully catered, a reception and closing night party, and our mystery event as well – we’d like to think it’s the best value, as well as the straight up best event for web professionals you’ll find anywhere.