TECHdotMN: News about Minnesota Startups

Industry Blossoms at MinneWebCon

April 12, 2011 | by Mike Bollinger Comments

MinneWebCon attracted over 250 people yesterday to the fourth annual regional conference for web, mobile, and design professionals. The all-day event took place at University of Minnesota’s Continuing Education and Conference Center and included presentations ranging from mobile design strategy to building great teams.

Luke Wroblewski kicked off the conference by delivering the morning keynote to an eager audience. Designing for Today’s Web was all about the mobile landscape, how it’s changing, and what it means for design strategy. His presentation was replete with statistics, charts, and technical data—refreshing for a topic that is often laden with broad claims and assumptions.

A noticeable portion of those participating were affiliated with the U of M (employment or otherwise), and at least half of the audience was female, a better ratio than I’ve seen at a local technology conference in recent history. Fitting, then, that the afternoon keynote presentation—Revenge of the Nerds—was delivered by Nancy Lyons and Meghan Wilker, founders of Geek Girls Guide, a site they launched in 2008 to publish their perspective on the interactive industry.

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A Sign of Spring Appears as MinneWebCon 2011 Nears

February 10, 2011 | by Jeff Pesek Comments

You know we’re turning the corner when it’s time to start thinking about MinneWebCon again!

On April 11th, Minnesota’s fourth annual regional conference covering Web design and standards, content management and strategy, user experience, and social networking will take place at the University of Minnesota’s Continuing Education and Conference Center.

Largely a grassroots initiative produced by a core group of U of M staff & alumni, the gathering is a full day, three-track conference with a practical blend of technical and creative knowledge from industry practitioners and educators.   In addition to the educational value, attendees can anticipate a high concentration of graphic artists, UX and front-end developers to be present.

“I think you’ve got us pegged right, in that we favor the designer in our audience,” admits director Kristofer Layon. “And by that I mean web designers as generalists, who are passionate about both the art and the science of the web. The code as well as the visual and human experience.”

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Get to Know #5: Kristofer Layon and Minnewebcon

February 27, 2010 | by Jeff Pesek Comments

Kristofer Layon is Director of MinneWebCon, the University of Minnesota’s annual regional conference about Web design and standards, content management and strategy, user experience, and social networking. Into its third year, MinneWebCon remains much of a grassroots initiative – produced by a core group of University staff & alumni who volunteer their resources to bring us a day packed with some of Minnesota’s finest minds and material.  Last years conference drew a crowd of 250 attendees with featured keynotes by Doc Searls and Bruce Schneier; this years keynotes are:

Kristina Halvorson

“Kristina Halvorson is the CEO and founder of Brain Traffic, an internationally-renowned content strategy agency. Her recently-published book, Content Strategy for the Web, is helping to shape and define the value of this emerging practice all over the world. Kristina has appeared as a featured speaker at Web 2.0 Expo, An Event Apart, Voices That Matter, and SXSW Interactive.”

Wendy Chisholm

“Wendy Chisholm is a Web developer, human factors engineer, and co-author of Universal Design for Web Applications. She was a staffperson for the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)  for 6 years where she focused on Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Wendy has also consulted for Microsoft, Google, Adobe, and the American Foundation for the Blind.”

The conference will be held on April 12 at the University of Minnesota’s Continuing Education and Conference Center from 8 – 5.  Tickets range between $100-$200 depending on one’s role and the format remains consistent with years past: two keynotes (morning/afternoon), four breakout tracks with three sessions each and three “unconference” facilitated discussions.  Lunch buffet is included.

By day, Mr. Layon is a web designer with the University where he works as part of an  “internal agency” on an estimated 30-40 websites.  In his personal time, he also develops  mobile applications for the iPhone, iPod Touch and (eventually) the  iPad.  His first release was ArtAlphabet followed by ArtKids.  His more specialized apps include OrthoTrauma and UrgentCare.