It's kind of tiring to say that 2020 was hard on all of us, however, it's still true. Last year made it almost impossible to visit conferences and other larger industry events, may they focus on digital marketing, web development, design, entrepreneurship, and so on?
Let’s just say that things got messed up last year pretty bad, and let’s hope that 2021 will be at least a bit different.
If there’s one thing we missed in the industry, those were conferences. These events serve as a great way to learn, establish new business connections, enable us to do a bit of networking in a more laid-back style while at the same time, gaining valuable insight from the best of the best within the industry.
Hopefully, the rest of 2021 will be better in this respect as well, as we’ve compiled the best global web design events that you should check out. Please note that by the time you read this, some of these events will have been moved, canceled, moved totally offline. After all, the pandemic is still taking its toll and almost nobody can tell when things will get back to normal.
ODSC East 2021 Virtual Conference / Mini-Bootcamp
When: March 30 ? April 1, 2021
Where: Online
To kick things off, here’s an online event for you at the end of March, where you can learn in-demand web design and web development skills fast. Kicking off as a Mini-Bootcamp, you can perfect not only your current craft but learn new skills in such fields as data science. A great way to connect with people from the industry, learn from experts, from the examples of the best companies.
Lead Dev New York 2021
When: April 7-8, 2021
Where: New York, NY, United States
How about visiting the Big Apple in early April? Lead Dev in New York City will be an awesome opportunity to see and talk to some of the pioneering experts just from the world of web design but team management as well. Which are the best tools and tech for specific projects and programs? How to thrive as a team? If you want to know the answers, New York City will be the place to be in April.
Web Directions Hover
When: April 16-23, 2021
Where: Online
How about kicking a bit back for a week and focusing a bit more on learning about CSS? When it comes to web design, CSS has somewhat been an unsung hero of web dev, as it has been one of the main powerhouses behind typography, layout, and a ton of other design features that reshaped the industry, changing from a simple language to an intricate design phenomenon. If you want to learn everything there is to know about CSS, this online conference is pretty much a must!
DigiMarCon Online 2021
When: April 28-29, 2021
Where: Online
How about visiting one of the ?big dog? events? DigiMarCon will surely help you with everything you need. How to generate more leads and improve sales rates with design elements? How to boost engagement across the board? Topics that that will always have relevancy and that will almost always have slightly different answers.
Expand your knowledge regarding the importance of brand awareness, the best strategies for building traffic, customer service improvement, and advancement in the latest digital marketing tools.
beyond tellerrand // D?SSELDORF 2021
When: May 10-12, 2021
Where: Dsseldorf, Germany
Celebrating their 10th anniversary this year, this great conference will focus on the latest trends with full-day workshops to help you put everything you’ve learned into action. With several great discussion panels and speakers, this event should be high on your priority list.
Lead Dev London 2021
When: June 20-21, 2021
Where: London, UK
Good web design isn’t always just about technicalities and trends. Sometimes, it’s about building a great team. If you can’t make it to NYC, why not visit the Lead Dev conference in London and see for yourself: what makes a good team an outstanding team.
Webinale Hybrid Edition 2021
When: 7-11 July
Where: Berlin, Germany
In the digital world, knowing your craft is vital but if you want to become a true expert, you must keep up with other industries as well. Learning from digital professionals, trendsetters, IT professionals, and marketers is necessary to become the best of the best. And to make that happen, you also need a great crossover platform, where these people can come together and inspire each other.
You’ve guessed it, Webinale offers just that and more. This multi-disciplinary event will give experts from all walks a fine opportunity to perfect their design and development craft, combining user experience with code. Learn about the latest industry topics and trends in the German capital and build your professional network at the same time.
React Day New York 2021
When: September 10, 2021
Where: NYC, New York, USA
How about an entire day of learning about React.js, GraphQL, and React Native? If this is something that’s right up your alley, this NYC-based conference will enable you to learn about the latest react-based techniques, best practices, not to mention, it will be a great opportunity to touch bases with like-minded people on the advantages and drawbacks of the framework.
UXDX
When: October 6-8
Where: Online
How to streamline and integrate the UX process into the entire development loop and how to bring development, research, and design together?
This UXDX conference helps you to shed more light on how to improve development speed and how to tackle some of the major challenges teams have to face during the development process.
The team runs an annual product conference and community events to help professionals build better web solutions by breaking down the barriers between Design, Dev, and Product ? a truly exciting approach that’s worth looking into
Adobe MAX
When: October 26-28,
Where: Online
Visiting one of the largest creativity conferences in the world is a milestone in the career of every designer, even they can only do it online.
Adobe is undoubtedly a designer-industry leader that puts a lot of emphasis on bringing brands, artists, and experts together to speak about the latest industry trends, future forecasts, best practices, and design strategies that stand their ground both in a commercial and an artistic setting.
With live and on-demand content with over 350 sessions, musical performances, keynotes, labs, special guests, and much more, this year’s MAX should be on your 2021 bucket list.
Finishing Thoughts
As you can see, there are a lot of different events for web designers out there with the majority of them casting a broader net on the industry’s scope, focusing on different things such as the entire development cycle, the role of design in marketing, customer retention, lead generation, sales, and much more.
All in all, this makes perfect sense. If we think about a brands entire online presence more as an entire digital ecosystem, then we ultimately realize that every aspect, let that be development, paid advertising, lead generation, graphic design, or social media management, are all equally important pieces to the same puzzle and we need to understand at least the basics of each to become better in our respective areas.
