Today I went to the Forward 5 > JS conference. This was my first tech conference since I finished Hackbright. I was so excited to have a nametag that had the word “software” on it!
The speakers and panels were very insightful. One of my favorite speakers was Max Firtman, whose talk was entitled “The Web meets the Virtual and Holographic Worlds.” It was the first technical talk I have ever heard about virtual reality. His slide deck contained pictures of how the world looks using various VR technologies and then he delved into what was possible right now, along with actual code (JavaScript), browser compatibility, API’s and more. It struck me as he was talking that I not only understood what he was saying (which wouldn’t have been the case last year at this time) but that I was also curious to try it. How much fun would it be to create my own VR world or app? He also spoke about the future of VR, and certain challenges.
Another enjoyable speaker was Estelle Weyl, who spoke on a panel about animations, but more interestingly, gave a talk about Inclusive Code. At Hackbright, during the lecture on HTML and CSS, we learned about using labels for accessibility. Estelle’s talk really helped me to understand the importance of designing websites for all users. She explained the different types of disabilities and showed examples of how to code in a way that enabled users with varied disabilities to use the web. On top of this, she was able to do it using significantly fewer lines of code and faster load times!
michdcode 