Smashing Meets Gives A Sneak Preview Of What To Expect At Live! — Smashing Magazine

Testing The Waters With Smashing Meets

Last week saw the first Smashing Meets event, a free two-day online gathering spread across multiple timezones. Three speakers presented each day, but the real feature was the chance for attendees to chat and ask questions directly. Beyond the community spirit, Meets served as a test run for the platform that will power the upcoming Smashing Live conference. The question on the organizer’s mind: does the format hold up?

Three more great talks today at #smashingmeets (one same as yesterday - but a brilliant talk) exciting stuff to come from CSS layout and Speed/Sensor APIs. Can’t wait to give them a try! @smashingmag

— James Bateson (@jim_bateson) May 19, 2020

The goal was to recreate the feel of an in-person community meetup. Since Smashing readers span the globe, the event ran twice — one slot favoring US timezones, the other Europe and Asia. Over 500 attendees joined across the two days to hear from Yiying Lu, Phil Hawksworth, Mark Boulton, Mandy Michael, and Smashing’s own Rachel Andrew.

What Worked Online

Presenting to a screen rather than a room has its quirks. For speakers, the lack of immediate feedback is the obvious difference. The fix came in the follow-up: moving to a session room for questions. Rachel Andrew noted she could answer far more individual questions this way than after a typical in-person talk. Attendees picked up on this too.

“I am more likely to ask a question in a chat setting (nerves/shyness keep me from physically asking questions in a conference setting.) It was SO cool to have my question answered and be able to directly interact with the speaker!”

The team also tried to foster interaction among attendees. Community partners were introduced, challenges set, and a quiz run. The feedback suggests it worked, with one participant calling it a proper community meetup. Chat alongside the talks kept things lively.

Online events share a fundamental with offline ones: if the attendee experience comes first, almost everything else falls into place. Good talks are the core draw; interactive sessions are a bonus, not a replacement. Still, some preferences remain — some want a single track with nothing missed, while others prefer to pick and choose. Making an online event social is possible, but it takes effort and a rethink of the usual format. The platform choice matters too, if you want the event to be more than a series of slides on a screen. The only thing attendees reportedly missed were the snacks.

Scaling Up: Smashing Live On June 9–10

Between Meets and the next project, the learnings will be applied on a larger stage. Smashing Live will use the same platform but on a bigger scale, and the speaker lineup is set.

• Josh Clarke on Machine Learning and UX
• Sarah Drasner on JavaScript and Vue
• Nadieh Bremer on Data Visualisation
• Brad Frost and Dan Mall on Design Workflow
• Chris Coyier on Front-end
• Miriam Suzanne on CSS
• Jared Spool on UX
• Guillaume Rauch on Static Websites and Serverless

There’s also a Mystery Speaker. Guessing might be trickier than at a physical conference, where a likely candidate might be spotted wandering the venue. Attendees will be invited to guess and possibly win a prize.

Timings, Tickets, And Sessions

Smashing Live takes place on June 9th and 10th, 2020, running from 11am to 4pm in New York, which translates to 5pm–10pm in Amsterdam. Feedback from Meets and previous workshops suggested that shorter days make more sense. Two half-days keep content accessible across timezones and are gentler on the body, especially for those juggling work, family tasks, or schooling children at home. Recordings will be available after the event.

A ticket is USD $225. Smashing Members get a discount — 10% for Members, 25% for Smashers — with links available in the Member Dashboard.

Online workshops will run before and after the conference, mirroring the schedule of regular events. They are taught live and designed to give attendees the same access to experts as in-person workshops. Adding a workshop to a conference ticket saves USD $100. Several past workshops sold out due to limited capacity, so early booking is advised.