G Live, Guildford
25.09.15

WXG is over for this year. Follow us @WXG for future event news.

WXG runs from 9am to 5pm with twin tracks, time to chat, lunch included & drinks to follow. Subscribe to stay updated and follow us @WXG.

To find out more about our speakers — read the interviews on Medium

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Mr Bingo

@mr_bingo

Talk

↪ An Audience with Mr Bingo
(May contain adult content)

Bio

↪ With his unique breed of fine-line drawings, at once delicately rendered and packed with dry humour, Mr Bingo has grown to become one of the industry’s most celebrated illustrators.

His infamous Hate Mail project, where fans paid a small sum for their own hand-drawn postcard of verbal abuse, gained him such popularity that he was forced to limit sales in order to keep up with overwhelming demand and the definitive collection is now available via a kickstarter project.

Alongside all this funny business, Mr Bingo has been commissioned by some serious clients and his illustrations feature regularly in publications such as TIME, Esquire and The New Yorker.

Read our interview with Mr Bingo on Medium

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Christine Cawthorne

@crocstar

Talk

↪ How designers and developers can work with content

Users come to websites to get information, so content needs to be high up in the priority of a web build. But how do you get great content?

Whether writing it yourself, coaxing it from the client or working with a digital copywriter, this whistlestop tour of content strategy will show you how to get the best results and why you should work with a writer if you can. They're always lovely, you know.

Bio

↪ Christine is an online copywriter with a background in journalism at the BBC. Having worked as a homepage editor for Yahoo, AOL and BT, she has translated this experience into writing content and managing social media accounts for brands including Pizza Hut, Paul Smith, Nokia, Boots and many smaller companies.

Christine is currently working on the GOV.UK project, training people in government departments and agencies about user needs and how to write for the web. She combines her passion for stories with a keen interest in how people actually use and consume content on the web.

Christine also teaches students at the University of Sheffield and the University of Derby, helping educate the storytellers of tomorrow.

Read our interview with Christine on Medium

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Dan Edwards

@de

Talk

↪ Finding Your Mojo

More and more recently I’ve seen creative people struggling with motivation feeling like they’re stuck in a rut. It’s easy to lose perspective and become stagnant but the important thing is to spot the signs and make positive changes. In this talk I aim to uncover what your mojo is, how to get it back and how to keep it!

Bio

↪ Dan is a designer, surfer and occasional doodler from the UK. Currently working as Creative Director of No Divide, an agency he co-founded in 2014. Dan is also winner of net magazine’s 2013 Young Designer of the Year and the co-creator of oozled.com.

Read our interview with Dan on Medium

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Peter Gasston

@stopsatgreen

Talk

↪ OK Computer

In recent years there have been incredible advances in artificial intelligence and deep learning. As a result, powerful technology which used to be rare and expensive has very quickly become easily available and cheap. This will have both positive and negative consequences for web developers.

In this talk I will look at how AI will change the development field, and provide techniques that will help designers and developers to work with AI to improve their skills and make better sites and applications for end users.

Bio

↪ Peter is a veteran web developer who now works as a technologist and front-end lead at rehabstudio on projects for clients including Google and Red Bull, and in partnership with some of the world’s biggest creative agencies.

He’s the author of The Book of CSS3 and The Modern Web, and has written for Net Magazine, Smashing Magazine and A List Apart. In his spare time he “relaxes” by reading voraciously, supporting Arsenal, and day trips to castles.

Read our interview with Peter on Medium

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Ruth John

@rumyra

Talk

↪ A Journey Through Web API Space & Time

The world of Web (or Browser) API’s is growing. We have familiar ones we’ve all seen and used, such as Geolocation and getUserMedia, but what about all the others. What about gaming API’s, device API's, API’s to interact with the operating system! Don’t panic, after this talk from Ruth, you’ll be well on your way to feeling a lot calmer about what’s on the horizon. We’ll cover a whole range of Web API’s, why we have them, what we can use them for and most important the code to make it all work.

Bio

↪ Ruth has been wireframing, designing and coding for over a decade. She also tweets and blogs a bit too. You can often find her chatting about new mobile & web development techniques. She tends to get excited about making things, whether that’s coding things in the browser or sewing jackets connected to her mobile.

Interview coming soon.

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Craig Kerstiens

@craigkerstiens

Talk

↪ SQL

Some people enjoy writing SQL, but no one enjoys reading SQL. That's because most people write bad SQL. We'll start on how to write more legible SQL, add some simple tips for helping people follow along — such as using CTEs (Common Table Expressions) — and then look at how to ask the hard questions of your data without having to export and run some script in Ruby/Python/Other.

By the end you'll be able to do things like:

  • Compute deltas across periods directly in SQL
  • Query for things like perc 95/99
  • Generate random data for testing/sample apps directly in SQL
  • Document your SQL, which you should do just like your code

(All SQL will have a heavy Postgres slant, because well it's the best, but much can apply to other DBs too)

Bio

↪ Craig has worked at both large corporations and small early stage startups. Currently Craig runs product for Heroku's ecosystem group which comprises their API, CLI, add-ons, and core languages. Previously he ran product and marketing for Heroku Postgres, Heroku's database as a service.

In addition to that he blogs frequently about Postgres, SQL, and start-ups at craigkerstiens.com and curates Postgres Weekly.

Read our interview with Craig on Medium

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Sam Mason

@samjbmason

Talk

↪ Out of sight, out of mind

At Steer, the development team have a split working life. We spend half our time working to a tight schedule, creating features and fixing bugs across our two platforms alongside other projects. The other half of our time is spent helping our students, teaching them the fundamentals of how to create projects with code.

One of the biggest challenges we have faced is how to approach this 50/50 schedule; ensuring that our in-house projects don't grind to a halt when a team member is teaching and that when they return from teaching they can transition smoothly back into the projects they are working on.

The lessons we've learnt have not only helped the development team, but we have found they apply to all parts of the company such as when people are off sick, on holidays or on extended absence, as well as when we are on-boarding new developers.

In this talk we'll share the techniques, tools and attitudes that have proven their worth at Steer.

Bio

↪ Sam is a developer and occasional music maker from London. Having worked on projects for the likes of TK Maxx, Red Nose Day and Barclays, he's now CTO of Steer, a company that teaches people to build websites and apps on short courses.

Read our interview with Sam on Medium

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Alasdair Monk

@almonk

Talk

↪ Blame Your Tools

We're on the cusp of a new age of interface design and to grow up we need to forget everything we've learnt.

But before we read Photoshop it's last rites, we need to figure out how we're going to design tomorrow...

Bio

↪ Alasdair Monk is a product designer and developer from London. After leading GoCardless' design & product for three years, he now works at Heroku designing a platform for the world to build their apps.

His lowest low was being told by Simon Cowell that he didn't "have the right hair" to be in a boy band. He's avoided pictures of Harry Styles since.

Read our interview with Alasdair on Medium

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Pete Roome

@zoltarspeaks

Talk

↪ The Great Startup Machine

We’ve all heard of the Lean Startup by Eric Ries and by now we’ve probably all read it. The difference is I’ve lived it. In 2014 I was tasked by my investor to validate as many startup ideas as I possibly could. This talk is what I learnt during that time.

I will discuss the tools and tactics I used to validate and launch 4 startups in 12 months. From being featured on Product Hunt twice, to hitting the front page of Hacker News and getting banned from Facebook and LinkedIn. Together, we'll celebrate failing fast. After all, it’s better to prove yourself wrong than it is to spend time and money building something no one wants.

Bio

↪ A web developer who learnt his trade at Kyan, Pete has gone on to co-found a number of startups. The most notable of which are: The 405, PANDR and Sisu – Your Exercise Data As Art. Pete is a jukebox hog, buffet aggressor and triathlete in training.

Read our interview with Pete on Medium

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Paul Sturgess

@paulsturgess

Talk

↪ Building Title Challenge — From Idea to App Store

Title Challenge is Kyan's first iOS game. Find out all about how is was created and the challenges involved.

Bio

↪ Paul has worked as a Ruby on Rails developer for 8 years. Recently turning his hand to RubyMotion, to build the iOS football manager game Title Challenge. He blogs about RubyMotion development at paulsturgess.co.uk.

Read our interview with Paul on Medium

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Dan Nuttall

@pixelblend

Talk

↪ Future Radios: Prototyping with Electronics, Stickers and Javascript

In this session we will talk about BBC Research & Development’s experimental radio toolkit, a way to easily prototype radio-like experiences. We’ll discuss the origins of the project and how a mix of open source software and hobbyist electronics allows us to experiment with ideas in a low-risk, believable way.

Bio

↪ Dan is a Software Engineer for Internet Research and Future Services in BBC R&D. He has worked for a range of companies in Europe and Africa, building web sites, browser extensions, servers and everything in between using open-source software.

Read our interview with Dan on Medium

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Derick Rethans

@derickr

Talk

↪ From SQL to NoSQL

In this talk I will explain the differences between different types of noSQL databases. I will then progress to illustrate which paradigm shifts are necessary to successfully implement noSQL, using MongoDB as an example.

The approaches to schema design, fault tolerance, the network breaking and latency are all things that are inherent to scalability with noSQL solutions and with this talk you will learn how to use MongoDB effectively considering all the above mentioned situations.

Bio

↪ Derick Rethans has contributed in a number of ways to the PHP project, including the Xdebug debugging tool, and various extensions and additions. He's a frequent lecturer at conferences, the author of php|architect's Guide to Date and Time Programming, and the co-author of PHP 5 Power Programming. He is now working at MongoDB to work on the PHP and HHVM drivers for MongoDB.

Read our interview with Derick on Medium

Supported by:

WXG wouldn’t be possible without the support of our sponsors. If you’d like to join them and be part of the event, we'd love to hear from you. Get in touch

WXG takes place at G Live in central Guildford, just a short walk from the mainline station, 35 mins by train from London Waterloo. Get directions

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Code of conduct

WXG is dedicated to providing a harassment-free conference experience for everyone, regardless of gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of conference participants in any form.

Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately. If a participant engages in harassing behavior, the conference organisers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the conference with no refund. Sponsors are also subject to the anti-harassment policy. In particular, sponsors should not use sexualised images, activities, or other material.

If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact a member of conference staff immediately.

Conference staff will be happy to help participants contact venue security or the police, provide escorts, or otherwise assist those experiencing harassment to feel safe for the duration of the conference.

Need Help?

Conference organisers: info@wxg.com / 07545 150 967

Thanks for coming!

This document is based on codeofconduct.com, licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Refund policy

We can refund tickets (or swap names on tickets) up to one working week before the event, so the latest date would be Thursday 18th September. So just contact us if your WXG plans need to change.

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Although we will always aim to communicate in as clear manner as we can, some of our blog posts, due to their technical nature will require a reasonable level of technical understanding.

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Last updated: 9th May 2012

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Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided is accurate, it does not constitute any form of advice, recommendation, representation, endorsement or arrangement by Kyanmedia Ltd.

The information presented is believed to be reliable but it’s subject to change at any time without notice. Kyanmedia Ltd. do not guarantee its completeness or accuracy. By accessing this website you agree that Kyanmedia Ltd. will not be liable for any direct, indirect or consequential loss arising from the use of the information and material contained in this website or from your access of other material on the internet via web links from this site.

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Privacy policy

Introduction

WXG is organised by Kyanmedia Ltd. (Kyan), which takes the confidentiality of personal data seriously. Please contact us if you have any questions or comments on this privacy policy.

The Company’s privacy policy sets out the ways Kyan processes personal data. This privacy policy only relates to personal data collected by Kyan via the Kyan website. Any personal data collected by Kyan is used in accordance with data protection legislation.

This privacy policy does not apply to personal data provided to Kyan by any other means or via any other website. Users should be aware that if they provide personal data to other companies, the privacy polices of those companies determine the uses to which that information is put and Kyan’s privacy policy will no longer apply.

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Personal information provided to Kyan via the Kyan website will be used for the purposes outlined at the time of collection.

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Personal data will be collected and processed by Kyan for the following purposes: to provide goods and services, including marketing, advertising and promotions, unless a user elects to opt-out of receiving such communications.

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Users have the right to ask Kyan for a copy of the personal data held about them and to request that Kyan correct any inaccuracies in that information.

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