Tags: event

Stop me if this sounds familiar to you…

There’s a conference you heard about it. It sounded really good but you never got ’round to getting a ticket. You were too busy thinking about work stuff. It was just one of those things that remained in the idle thought stage.

Then the day of the conference rolls around. You’re sitting in front of your computer seeing the social media posts from people at the event who are having a ball. The talks sound really good and you wish you could be there. You wonder why you never got ’round to getting that ticket.

Maybe you’ve experienced that when FFconf is happening and people like me are in the audience posting about some revelatory insight we’ve just received. Or maybe you see the blog posts and pictures from an event like dConstruct and you realise that you missed your chance to experience something special.

I’ve certainly experienced it when I’m not in Düsseldorf or Berlin for Beyond Tellerrand and all my friends are posting about how excellent it is.

It’s kind of like FOMO but instead of fear of missing out, it’s more like regret at missing out: RAMO.

I’m giving you advance warning. If you have anything at all to do with front-end development and you don’t come to Web Day Out, you are definitely going to experience RAMO.

Seriously, it is shaping up to be something very special indeed. Check out the schedule to see what I mean:

• I can’t believe it’s not JavaScript
• A pragmatic guide to browser support
• Progressive web apps from the trenches
• Build for the web, build on the web, build with the web
• Breaking with habits
• What’s new in web typography?
• Customisable select and the friends we made along the way
• The browser is the playground

Tickets are just £225+VAT. Now is the time to get yours. It’s the second week of the new year. You’ve settled back into work. Now in the depths of Winter, you need something to look forward to, something that’s going to get you excited about making websites. That’s Web Day Out.

And if you need to convince your boss, I’ve got you covered.

There’s the old adage “nobody gets fired for buying IBM”. Or to put it more broadly, “everyone else is doing it.”

It’s dispiriting how often this explanation is given as justification for a dubious design decision, from home-page carousels to cookie banners.

Nic Chan has written a great post about designing a contact form and how the process was derailed by the client pointing to other people’s contact forms …even when they’ve got very, very different user needs.

It’s especially depressing when “everyone else is doing it” is used a substitute for any kind of accountability.

Building an email service that’s going to track when people click on links in an email? That sounds dodgy. On the other hand, everyone else is doing it.

Building a straightforward website, but making it a single-page app with client-side React that will be barely work on some devices and networks? That seems over-engineered. On the other hand, everyone else is doing it.

Sometimes the “everyone else is doing it” phenomenon leads to a chain reaction where nobody even knows why anyone ever did it in the first place.

Remember Flash? Remember when almost every website had a Flash intro? Everyone knew they were annoying and uneccessary, but everyone else was doing it.

Instead of getting rid of the intros, we got “skip intro” links instead. This link was guaranteed to have a 100% clickthrough rate.

I’ve noticed something similar with conference talks. So many of them begin with a little spiel about the speaker, their background, and their work experience.

This might be interesting information, but this isn’t the right time or place for it. It’s already on the conference website, in the conference programme, and has probably just been reiterated by the conference host who just introduced the speaker.

When I’ve asked why people do this, the responses generally come down to “everyone else is doing it.” It’s become an expected part of the conference talk, just like a Flash intro used to be an expected part of a website.

When I’m curating a conference, I like to send speakers some information to help them prepare their talk. Some of this is practical stuff, like the tech set-up. Some of it is guidance for the slides, like ensuring sufficient colour contrast. And then there’s this:

Please don’t begin your talk with an introduction about yourself and your work history. You’ll be introduced on stage so it would be a shame to just repeat all that again. Also, it just gets in the way of the actual content of your talk. No need to provide your bona-fides.

Personally, I just find it super cringe. That’s why I don’t do it if I’m giving a talk myself.

As a host however, it’s a big part of my job. It’s way less cringe to have someone else big you up before the talk then doing it yourself.

I’m speaking at Web Day Out 2026 - Manuel Matuzovic

The core idea of the event is to get you up to speed on the most powerful web platform features that you can use right now. I love that because it aligns perfectly with what I’ve been working on over the last couple of years: finding ways to break old habits to get the most out of CSS.

Can’t wait!

Web development tip: disable pointer events on link images

Here’s a little snippet of CSS that solves a problem I’ve never considered:

The problem is that Live Text, “Select text in images to copy or take action,” is enabled by default on iOS devices (Settings → General → Language & Region), which can interfere with the contextual menu in Safari. Pressing down on the above link may select the text inside the image instead of selecting the link URL.

Here’s the schedule for Web Day Out—what a fantastic collection of talks!

Web Day Out

10:00 – 10:30	I can’t believe it’s not JavaScript	Jemima Abu
10:30 – 11:00	A pragmatic guide to browser support	Rachel Andrew
11:30 – 12:00	Progressive web apps from the trenches	Aleth Gueguen
12:00 – 12:30	Build for the web, build on the web, build with the web	Harry Roberts
14:00 – 14:30	Breaking with habits	Manuel Matuzovič
14:30 – 15:00	What’s new in web typography?	Richard Rutter
15:30 – 16:00	Customisable <select> and the friends we made along the way	Jake Archibald
16:00 – 16:30	The browser is the playground	Lola Odelola

Seeing all of those talk titles in a row is getting me very, very excited for this day!

I hope that you’re excited too, and I hope you’ve got your ticket already.

If you need to convince your boss to send you (and your team) to Web Day Out I’ve put together some reasons to attend along with an email template that you can use as a starting point.

Also, if your company is sending a group of people anyway, consider sponsoring Web Day Out. You get a bunch of conference tickets as part of the sponsorship deal.

Hope to see you in Brighton on Thursday, 12 March 2026!

The line-up for Web Day Out is now complete! The final speaker to be added to the line-up is the one and only Manuel Matuzovič.

You may know Manuel from his superb Web Accessibility Cookbook (full disclosure: I had the honour of writing the foreword to that book). Or perhaps you’re familiar with the crimes against markup that he documents at HTMHell. But at Web Day Out, he’s going to be talking about CSS.

The past few years have seen a veritable explosion in CSS capabilities. It’s one thing to hear about all the new stuff in CSS, but how do you actually start using it?

You may need to unlearn what you have previously learned. That’s what Manuel’s talk will be covering:

Manuel built a new project from scratch with modern CSS and questioned every line of code he wrote.

In this talk, he presents what he has learned and encourages you to review your best practices.

You can see why I’m so excited about this—it’s perfect for the agenda of Web Day Out:

Do you feel like you’re missing out on some of the latest advances in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript APIs? Web Day Out is your chance to get up to speed on what matters.

There’ll be eight brilliant speakers for your entertainment:

1. Jemima Abu
2. Rachel Andrew
3. Jake Archibald
4. Aleth Gueguen
5. Manuel Matuzovič
6. Lola Odelola
7. Harry Roberts
8. Richard Rutter

You won’t want to miss this, so get your ticket now for the ludicrously reasonable price of just £225+VAT!

See you in Brighton on 12 March 2026!

UX London will be back in 2026. It’s on June 2nd, 3rd, and 4th:

Each day features a morning packed with inspiring talks followed by an afternoon of practical hands-on workshops. It’s the perfect blend!

As with last year, each day will be themed:

• 2 June 2026: discovery day
• 3 June 2026: design day
• 4 June 2026: delivery day

You can come for a single day, but for best value, you should come for all three days.

I’m starting to put the line-up together now—hoping to match the excellence of last year’s event—and I’ll start announcing speakers early in the new year.

But if you trust me, then I highly recommend getting a super-early bird ticket now. They’ll only be available for another couple of weeks. You get a significant discount if you buy now.

Oh, and while I’m in the process of putting the line-up together, you should know that you can submit a talk or workshop proposal:

We always pay ALL our speakers for their time as well as covering the cost of accommodation and economy travel.

Don’t be shy! Pitch early, pitch often.

(That said, I wouldn’t recommend pitching a talk that focuses on “AI”. It’s not just that the bubble will probably have burst by the time UX London rolls around, it’s also that UX London doesn’t tend to focus on tools, whether they’re graphic design tools like Figma or generative tools like whatever people are using to turbo-charge their output of slop. If you’ve got a case study you want to talk about that happened to use some “AI” tool, great! But don’t make that the focus of the talk. Tell me about the problem and the solution.)

Almost two months ago, I put out the call for speaker suggestions for Web Day Out. I got some good responses—thank you to everyone who took the time to get in touch.

The response that really piqued my interest was from Aleth Gueguen. She proposed a talk on progressive web apps, backed up with plenty of experience. The more I thought about it, the more I realised how perfect it would be for Web Day Out.

So I’m very pleased to announce that Aleth will be speaking at Web Day Out about progressive web apps from the trenches:

Find out about the most important capabilities in progressive web apps and how to put them to work.

I’m really excited about this line-up! This is going to be a day out that you won’t want to miss. Get your ticket for a mere £225+VAT if you haven’t already!

See you in Brighton on 12 March, 2026!

Jeremy Keith: Speaker profile at beyond tellerrand

Beyond Tellerrand has a new website and it’s beautiful!

And look! Past speakers like me get our own page.

In fact there’s a great big archive of all the past talks—that very much deserves your support as a friend of Beyond Tellerrand.

I’m very happy to announce that the one and only Jake Jaffa-The-Cake Archibald will be speaking at Web Day Out!

Given the agenda for this event, I think you’ll agree that Jake is a perfect fit. He’s been at the forefront of championing user-centred web standards, writing specs and shipping features in browsers.

Along the way he’s also created two valuable performance tools that I use all the time: SVGOMG and Squoosh, which has a permanent place in my dock—if you need to compress images, I highly recommend adding this progressive web app to your desktop.

He’s the man behind service workers and view transitions—two of the most important features for making websites first-class citizens on any device.

So what will he talk about at Web Day Out? Image formats? Offline functionality? Smooth animations? Something else entirely?

All will be revealed soon. In the meantime, grab yourself a ticket to Web Day Out—it’s just £225+VAT—and I’ll see you in Brighton on Thursday, 12 March 2026!

The Lifeblood of the Web · Matthias Ott

If you need to convince someone – your boss, your team, your family, or also yourself – then explain that going to a conference isn’t just another trip away from “real work.” No, this is the real work: investing in your craft, your connections, your growth.

Matthias nails why should go to events …like, say, Web Day Out.

There’s something magical about walking into a conference venue in the morning. The hum of first conversations, the smell of coffee, the anticipation, and the smiling faces. And the unspoken feeling that we all belong here, that we are here for the same reason: because we care about the same things and we all have, in some way or another, built our lives around the Web.

If you work at a clever company, then you should let them know about sponsoring Web Day Out.

All the details are in this PDF sponsorship pack. Basically there are three (and only three) spots available, at three different levels of sponsorship.

One of the best things about the venue for Web Day Out is that always having an excellent auditorium, the Studio Theatre has a really nice space for the breaks. It would be the perfect spot to set up a stand and chat with all the smart attendees.

All the attendees will, by definition, be smart because they got tickets for Web Day Out—a steal at just £225+VAT.

I was going to save this announcement for later, but I’m just too excited: Harry Roberts will be speaking at Web Day Out!

Goddamn, that’s one fine line-up, and it isn’t even complete yet! Get your ticket if you haven’t already.

There’s a bit of a story behind the talk that Harry is going to give…

Earlier this year, Harry posted a most excellent screed in which he said:

The web as a platform is a safe bet. It’s un-versioned by design. That’s the commitment the web makes to you—take advantage of it.

• Opt into web platform features incrementally;
• Embrace progressive enhancement to build fast, reliable applications that adapt to your customers’ context;
• Write code that leans into the browser, not away from it.

Yes! Exactly!

Thing is, Harry posted this on LinkedIn. My indieweb sensibilities were affronted. So I harangued him:

You should blog this, Harry

My pestering paid off with an excellent blog post on Harry’s own site called Build for the Web, Build on the Web, Build with the Web:

The beauty of opting into web platform features as they become available is that your site becomes contextual. The same codebase adapts into its environment, playing to its strengths, rather than trying to build and ship your own environment from the ground up. Meet your users where they are.

That’s a pretty neat summation of the agenda for Web Day Out. So I thought, “Hmm …if I was able to pester Harry to turn a LinkedIn post into a really good blog post, I wonder if I could pester him to turn that blog post into a talk?”

I threw down the gauntlet. Harry accepted the challenge.

I’m sure you’re already familiar with Harry’s excellent work, but if you’re not, he’s basically Mr. Web Performance. That’s why I’m so excited to have him speak at Web Day Out—I want to hear the business case for leaning into what web browsers can do today, and he is most certainly the best person to bring receipts.

You won’t want to miss this, so be sure to get your ticket now; it’s only £225+VAT.

If you’re not ready to commit just yet, but you want to hear about more speaker announcements like this, you can sign up to the mailing list.

Half of the line-up of speakers for Web Day Out is already on the site. One more is already confirmed.

I’m ridiculously excited about the way the line-up is taking shape, and judging by the zippiness of ticket sales, so are lots of my peers. Seriously, don’t wait to get your ticket or you might end up missing out completely.

I’ve already got a shortlist of other people I could imagine on the line-up, but I’m open to more suggestions. If you’d like to speak at Web Day Out—or you know someone you think would be great—send an email to [email protected]

I won’t be checking my work email while I’m away on holiday next week but it would be lovely to come back to an inbox of exciting suggestions.

A couple of pointers…

I’d rather not have too many people like me on the line-up. White dudes are already over-represented in this industry, especially at conferences.

If you’ve never given a talk before, don’t worry. I’d love to help you put your talk together and coach you in presenting it. I have some experience in this area.

No product pitches. That includes JavaScript frameworks and CSS libraries.

If I get even a whiff of “AI”, your proposal doesn’t stand a chance. There are many, many, many other events that are only too happy to have wall-to-wall talks about …that sort of thing.

If you end up speaking at Web Day Out you will, of course, be paid. We will, of course, cover travel and accommodation too. We can’t afford the travel costs of bringing anyone in from outside Europe though (and we’d like to keep the carbon footprint of the event as small as possible).

Web Day Out has an opinionated agenda all about showing what’s possible in web browsers today. Some potential topics include:

• view transitions,
• invoker commands,
• anchor positioning,
• scroll-driven animations,
• progressive web apps,
• web components.

The emphasis should be on using stuff in production rather than theoretical demos.

If you’ve got a case study about using the web platform—perhaps migrating away from a framework-driven approach—that would fit the bill perfectly.

How’s all that sounding? Know someone who could deliver the goods? Let me know!

I’m going to cut right to the chase: Clearleft is putting on a brand new conference in 2026. It’s called Web Day Out. It’ll be on Thursday, March 12th right here in Brighton. Tickets are just £225+VAT. You should be there!

If you’ve ever been to Responsive Day Out or Patterns Day, the format will be familiar to you. There’s going to be eight 30 minute talks. Bam! Bam! Bam!

Like those other one-day conferences, this one has a laser-sharp focus.

Web Day Out is all about what you can do in web browsers today. You can expect talks that showcase hands-on practical uses for the latest advances in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript APIs. There will be no talks about libraries, frameworks or build tools, and I can guarantee there will be absolutely no so-called “AI”.

As you might have gathered, this is an opinionated conference.

If you care about performance, accessibility, and progressive enhancement, Web Day Out is the event for you.

Or if you’ve been living in React-land but starting to feel that maybe you’re missing out on what’s been shipping in web browsers, Web Day Out is the event for you too. And I’m not talking about cute demos here. This is very much about shipping to production.

I’ve got half of the line-up assembled already:

• Jemima Abu,
• Rachel Andrew,
• Lola Odelola, and
• Richard Rutter.

Jemima’s talk gives you a flavour of what to expect at Web Day Out:

In this talk, we’ll take a look at how to use HTML and CSS to build simpler alternatives to popular JavaScript components such as accordions, modals, scroll transitions, carousels etc We’ll also take a look at the performance and accessibility benefits and real-life applications and use-cases of these components.

Web Day Out will be in The Studio Theatre of the Brighton Dome, which is a fantastic intimate venue. That means that places are limited, so get your ticket now!

Ever since Salter Cane recorded the songs on Deep Black Water I’ve been itching to play them live. At our album launch gig last Friday, I finally got my chance.

It felt soooo good! It helped that we had the best on-stage sound ever (note to the bands of Brighton, Leon at the Hope and Ruin is fantastic at doing the sound). The band were tight, the songs sounded great live, and I had an absolute blast.

I made a playlist of songs to be played in between bands. It set the tone nicely. As well as some obvious touchstones like 16 Horsepower and Joy Division, I made sure to include some local bands we’re fond of, like The Equitorial Group, Mudlow, Patients, and The Roebucks.

A bunch of the UX London speakers have been saying very nice things about the event over on LinkedIn. I’m going to quote a few of them for my future self to look at when I’m freaking out about curating the next event…

Valentina D’Efilippo:

Still buzzing … UX London smashed all expectations!

Huge shoutout to Jeremy Keith and the entire Clearleft team for their tireless efforts in making this event truly special. Three days packed with inspiration, insights, and true gems – I left feeling inspired, grateful, and already looking forward to next year’s event!

Eleni Beveratou:

Huge thanks to my fellow speakers for the inspiring talks, and to the team at Clearleft (Jeremy Keith, Louise Ash, and so many more!) for putting together such a brilliant event.

Videha Sharma:

I’ve loved learning and sharing this week! Feeling super inspired and looking forward to building new friendships!

Carolina Greno:

Last week in UX London I got to witness event planning mastery, I was in awe. Things ran smoothly and people were united under a premise: to share knowledge and build community.

This doesn’t happen by chance, it’s the mastery that pros like Jeremy and Louise bring to the table.

Sayani Mitra

Bold, thought-provoking talks. Hands-on workshops that challenged and stretched thinking. And a real sense of community that reminded me why spaces like this matter so much.

Nina Mathilde Dyrberg:

The conference was packed with inspiration, thoughtful conversations, and a strong focus on accessibility and inclusivity. Thank you Luke Hay, Jeremy Keith, Louise Ash, and the whole Clearleft team for creating such a welcoming and inspiring space!

Craig Abbott:

Jeremy Keith, Richard Rutter, Louise Ash, Chris How, Sophie Count, Luke Hay and the rest of Clearleft, take a bow! Hands down one of the best conference experiences I’ve had!

The curation was excellent, the talks complimented each other so well, it was almost like we’d all met up and rehearsed it beforehand!

ÌníOlúwa Abíódún:

A huge thank you to Jeremy Keith, Louise Ash and the Clearleft team for the opportunity and the brilliant conference you’ve put together.

It’s been inspiring to experience every moment of it.

Laura Dantonio:

Shoutout to the organisers for curating such a rich experience—3 themed days focused on Discovery, Design, and Delivery.

We remember through stories. And this event was full of them. Already looking forward to next year.

And I’m just going to quote Rachel Rosenson’s post in its entirety:

Spoke at UXLondon last week—and while the talks were great, it was something off-stage that really stuck with me.

After the Day 1 talks wrapped, a bunch of us speakers grabbed a drink, and someone pointed out: Every single speaker that day—every one—was a woman. 5 talks. 4 workshops. All women.

And it wasn’t a “Women in Tech” day. It was just… the conference.

No one made a fuss. No banners. No “look at us go!”

Just incredible women, giving incredible talks, like it was the most normal thing in the world. (Spoiler: it should be.)

Jeremy Keith mentioned how frustrating it is that all-male line-ups are still so common—and how important it is to actively design for inclusion. Major props to Jeremy and the Clearleft team for curating a line-up that was intentional without performativity.

It was refreshing. No tokenism. No checkbox energy. Just great voices on great stages. And a big honor to be one of them.

UX London happened last week.

Working on an event is a weird kind of project. You spend all your time and effort on something that is then over in the blink of an eye.

I’d been preparing for this all year. 95% of my work happened before the event—curating the line-up, planning each day. There wasn’t all that much for me to do at the event itself other than introduce the speakers and chat with the attendees.

Maybe it was because there was very little left in my control, but the night before the event I found myself feeling really anxious and nervous. I was pretty sure the line-up was excellent, but anything could happen. I really wanted everyone to have a great time, but at that point, there wasn’t much more I could do.

Then the first day started. Every talk was superb. Everyone got really stuck into their workshops. By the end of the day, people were buzzing about what a great time they’d had.

My nervousness was easing. But that was only one day of three.

The second day was just as good. Again, every talk was superb. I began to suspect that the first day wasn’t just a fluke.

The third day confirmed it. Three days of top-notch talks—nary a dud in the whole line-up!

It was, dare I say it, the best UX London yet. Not just because of the talks and workshops. The attendees were absolutely lovely! There was a really good buzz throughout.

By the end of the event I felt a huge sense of relief.

For this year’s UX London, I put a lot of time and effort into curating the line-up. There were some safe bets. There were some risky bets. They all paid off.

I’m incredibly grateful to all of the fantastic speakers and workshop hosts who really gave it their all. And I’m so, so grateful to everyone who came. It’s a tough time for events right now, and I really appreciate every single person who made it to this year’s UX London. Thank you!

The only downside to pouring my heart and soul into this year’s line-up is that I left nothing in the tank for next year. I’m already starting to worry—how am I going to top UX London 2025?

Mark your calendars: Friday, 20th June — that’s when Salter Cane will be launching Deep Black Water at the The Hope And Ruin in Brighton

I can’t wait to get back on stage with the band! These songs sound great on the new album but I can guarantee that they’re going to absolutely rock when we play them live.

Support will be provided by our good friends Dreamytime Escorts, featuring former members of Caramel Jack. They’ve also got a new EP on the way.

Doors are at 8pm.

I’m really, really excited about this. It’s been far too long since Salter Cane were last bringing the noise live on stage. I hope to see you there!

It’s just over one month until UX London. You should grab a ticket if you haven’t already!

The format of UX London is quite special. While the focus of each day is different—discovery, design, and delivery—each day unfolds like this…

There are four talks in the morning. You get your brain filled with ideas and learn from fantastic speakers. It’s a single track—everyone’s getting the same shared experience.

Then after a lunch, you choose from one of four workshops. Whatever you choose, it’s going to be hands-on. You can leave your laptop at home.

A day of listening to talks could get exhausting. A workshop that lasts all day could be even more exhausting. But somehow by splitting the day between both activities, the energy level is just right!

That said, we don’t want the day to end with everyone spread across four different workshop rooms. That’s why there’s one final talk at the end of each day.

These closing talks are a bit different to the morning talks. Whereas the focus of the morning talks is on practical skills that you can apply straight away, the closing talks are an opportunity to sit back and have your mind expanded. They’ll be fun and thought-provoking.

Paula Zuccotti is closing out day one with a talk about two of her projects: Every Thing We Touch and Future Archeology:

This talk invites audiences to reconsider the meaning of the objects they encounter every day and reflect on what their possessions might reveal about who we are and what we value, both now and in the years to come.

Sarah Hyndman will wrap up day two with a fun interactive talk about your senses:

Join a live expedition into our inner world to explore why we see, feel and remember.

Finally, Rachel Coldicutt is going to finish UX London with a rallying cry:

Introducing the Society of Hopeful Technologists and discussing how, in modern technology development, your practice is probably more political than you realise.

I can’t wait! Get yourself a ticket for a day or for all three days.

And as a little thank you for tolerating my excitement, use the discount code JOINJEREMY to get 20% off your ticket.