Speakers
Below you’ll find the schedule for SmashingConf New York 2018. We’ll keep this page regularly updated with new sessions, so be sure to keep checking in! Stay updated.
Sara Soueidan
Sara Soueidan is a Lebanese freelance front-end UI/UX developer working with companies across the globe, building clean, responsive front-ends for Web sites and applications focused on accessibility, progressive enhancement and performance.
She also runs workshops on front-end development and writes technical articles on her blog and for various big publications.
Sara wrote the Codrops CSS Reference, co-authored the Smashing Book 5, and has been voted the Developer of the Year in the 2015 net awards.
Chiara Aliotta
Chiara is an Italian award-winning designer with many years of experience as an art director and brand consultant. Chiara has worked with brands like Joomla, NH Hotels, Osram, and many others. She has also directed the overall artistic look and feel of different tech companies and not-for-profit organisations around the world, ensuring that their communication followed the established vision and mission. When she is not busy designing innovative products for her clients, you can find her capturing typography in the city with her camera, or spending her free time at home with a book, snuggling with her cat, Kissa.
- Talk
- The Shape of Thoughts
- On the web
- http://untilsunday.it
Debbie Millman
“Named “one of the most creative people in business” by Fast Company, and “one of the most influential designers working today” by Graphic Design USA, Debbie Millman is also an author, educator, curator and host of the podcast Design Matters. As the founder and host of Design Matters, one of the world’s first and longest running podcasts, Millman has interviewed over 400 artists, designers and cultural commentators.”
- Talk
- Why We Brand, Why We Buy
- On the web
- http://debbiemillman.com
Jason Grigsby
In 2000, Jason Grigsby got his first mobile phone. He became obsessed with how the world could be a better place if everyone had access to the world's information in their pockets. But _WAP_ was crap so he headed back to the desktop web for several years. Now Jason spends far too much time thinking about mobile. Jason is a mobile strategist, co-founder of [Cloudfour.com](http://CloudFour.com) and frequently speaks about mobile technology and strategy.
- Talk
- Designing Progressive Web Apps
- On the web
- https://blog.cloudfour.com
Josh Clark
Josh Clark is a UX design leader who helps organizations build products for what's next. He is founder of Big Medium, a New York design studio specializing in future-friendly interfaces for artificial intelligence, connected devices, and responsive websites. His clients include Samsung, United Airlines, ExxonMobil, About.com, O’Reilly Media, and many others. Josh has written several books, including Designing for Touch and Tapworthy: Designing Great iPhone Apps. He speaks around the world about what’s next for digital interfaces.
Before the internet swallowed him up, Josh was a producer of national PBS programs at Boston’s WGBH. He shared his three words of Russian with Mikhail Gorbachev, strolled the ranch with Nancy Reagan, hobnobbed with Rockefellers, and wrote trivia questions for a primetime game show. In 1996, he created the popular “Couch-to-5K” (C25K) running schedule, which has helped millions of skeptical would-be exercisers take up jogging. (His motto is the same for fitness as it is for software user experience: no pain, no pain.)
- Talk
- Design in the Era of the Algorithm
- On the web
- https://bigmedium.com
Michael Flarup
Michael is a Danish designer & entrepreneur. He runs entertainment studio Northplay, Pixelresort and design resource platform Apply Pixels. He’s got a treasure-trove of experience creating his own companies, leading teams of developers and designers and working on countless of succesful products, games and services.
- Talk
- Designing for Augmented Reality
- On the web
- http://flarup.com
Monica Dinculescu
Monica works on Magenta, in Google Brain, where she makes generative music and art with Machine Learning. In the past she’s worked on Polymer, web components, and Chrome, and has probably at least once broken the Internet for you.
She is unreasonably excited about emoji, wary of web fonts, and will become your best friend if you bring her cheese. On second thought, she may be a mouse.
Paul Boag
Paul Boag is a leader in conversion optimisation, digital strategy and user experience design. He has been working with diverse organisations such as The European Commission, PUMA and Doctors Without Borders for over 25 years. Through consultancy and training, he helps organisations better connect with today’s digital consumers.
Paul is also a well-respected figure in the digital sector. Author of six books, including Click, Digital Adaptation and User Experience Revolution. Finally, he is a prolific writer for numerous publications, including his blog, and regularly speaks internationally.
Dan Mall
Dan Mall is a creative director and advisor from Philly. He’s the founder and CEO of SuperFriendly, a design collaborative that helps in-house teams make better digital products with design systems. Dan is an enthralled husband & dad, author of Pricing Design, and co-founder of SuperBooked, a service that helps you find work with a little help from your friends. He writes about design and other issues on http://twitter.com/danmall and on his industry-recognized site, danmall.me.
- Talk
- Til Launch do us Part
- On the web
- http://danmall.me
Sarah Drasner
Sarah Drasner is the Director of Engineering, Core Developer Web at Google. She is author of Engineering Management for the Rest of Us, an award-winning speaker, and Vue core emeritus. Sarah is formerly VP at Netlify, Principal Lead at Microsoft, and Manager at Trulia/Zillow Group. She’s an O’Reilly author and co-organizer of ConcatenateConf, a free conference for Nigerian and Kenyan developers.
The Mystery Speaker
Can you guess who is going to be the Mystery Speaker this time?
Tim Kadlec
Tim is a web developer living in northern Wisconsin with his wife and three daughters. He is very passionate about the Web and can frequently be found speaking about what he’s learned at a variety of Web conferences. He wrote Implementing Responsive Design: Building sites for an anywhere, everywhere web’ and was a contributing author for the Web Performance Daybook Volume 2.
- Talk
- The Long Tail of Performance
- On the web
- https://timkadlec.com
Vitaly Friedman
Vitaly Friedman loves beautiful content and doesn’t like to give in easily. When he is not writing or speaking at a conference, he’s most probably running front-end/UX workshops and webinars. He loves solving complex UX, front-end and performance problems.
- Talk
- New Adventures in Front-End
- On the web
- https://smashingmagazine.com
Yoav Weiss
Yoav Weiss has been working on mobile web performance for longer than he cares to admit, on the server side as well as in browsers. He now works as part of Google Chrome developer relations team, helping to fix web performance once and for all.
He takes image bloat on the web as a personal insult, which is why he joined the Responsive Images Community Group and implemented the various responsive images features in Blink and WebKit. That was his gateway drug into the wonderfully complex world of browsers and standards.
When he’s not writing code, he’s probably slapping his bass, mowing the lawn in the French countryside, or playing board games with his family.
- On the web
- https://blog.yoav.ws
