Always a good time. I will be there; talking, drinking, drinking and maybe some talking too.

Nude Nite Orlando is a juried art exhibition with hundreds of artists celebrating the body beautiful by creating a bazaar-like atmosphere of artistic talents not only in photographs and paintings, but also in live body painting, sensual performances, shapely sculpture and experimental installations. The abundance of imagery makes Nude Nite a must-see event.

The show was held in a wide-open warehouse close to where I live and work. I attended Saturday night and was pleasantly surprised to find a packed show (which added to the atmosphere). The live burlesque performances were a real draw as was the live sculpture. I also liked the more humorous Wizard of Oz nude series. Check out all my photos from the event on my Flickr photostream (yes, there is nudity).

Thanks to everyone who came up in support of me and I hope to see you there again next year!

Another quarter, another BarCamp. At least that's what it feels like between all the BarCamps taking place between Orlando, Miami and Tampa this year. This past weekend was Tampa's second annual BarCamp at the USF College of Business Administration, and my first BarCamp in Tampa.

Talks on Saturday included the latest IT & web development technologies and Sunday's talks (which I didn't attend) centered around new media. Standout talks included James Tryon talking on how to be a better freelancer, Steve Bristol's giving Advice to Startups, and a couple different talks on iPhone development. Another talk demonstrated the some really interesting, new technology called Augmented Reality.

Saturday is also the day I gave my talk on the topic on Object Oriented CSS which was about a new method on how to structure CSS in large projects to make your code reusable and modifiable. Aside from the technical difficulties with the projector, the talk went well and prompted good discussion afterwards. You can check out my slides below or take a look at them on Slideshare.

This past Friday the first Front-End Design Conference was held in St. Petersburg, FL. Ryan and I made the early morning drive to St. Petersburg for the festivities.

For awhile there hasn't been a conference or event that has focused on front-end design. Okay, there has been but nothing even remotely close to Orlando. I was surprised to hear about the Front-End Design Conference and quickly made plans to attend (thanks to NFi for covering the cost for the tickets). And it was an even bigger reason to attend when I found out the speaker lineup who included folks and companies I've actually heard of and follow.

Speakers included Kevin Hale of Wufoo, Jonathon Longnecker of Forty Seven Media, Grant Friedman of Colorburned and Chris Coyier of CSS-Tricks who had a great talk on jQuery.

Andrew Maier offered a great presentation on affordances in web design:

How do your users decide what actions lie behind a given interface element? For example: what makes a button a button? In this talk, we'll focus on the logical underpinnings of design; drawing on research in the fields of product design and ergonomics. We'll examine the foundations of usability and what it means to interaction design.

The talk also covered overdesigning and a good share of the theory behind interaction design. Andrew presented really forward-thinking ideas on why objects and interfaces look and work the way they do and how that relates to design. In the future I will definitely be thinking about these ideas and theories in my work.

Another great talk was by John Ashenden of Grooveshark about how to work creatively to customize your user interfaces. Fabio Sasso also had a great presentation about gathering design inspiration and how he first started the mega popular site Abduzeedo.com.

The great thing about FEDC was the format. Instead of the traditional breakaway format where you'd have to pick between two or more talks to watch, only one talk/session went on at a time.

Thanks to Dan Denney for putting on a great conference. I meet some great folks and had a lot of fun. The speakers were great, the locale was fantastic and everything just seemed to come together to make this event stand out. Even though it was the first year it's been held, I can see this conference becoming a must attend in the future. Great stuff going on in Tampa/St. Pete.

Ignite Orlando is a local event that was held at Wall Street this past Wednesday that brings artists, geeks, academics, entrepreneurs, techies, and others to network with a twist. The event is organized by local volunteers and was a great success this past week. Its much in the same vein as BarCamp but not quite as large and fits quite nicely into a single evening. The thing that sets Ignite apart from other events is the rapid-fire style talks and a hands-on contest that acts as intermission during the night.

If you had five minutes to talk to Orlando on stage, what would you say? What if you only got 20 slides and they rotated automatically after 15 seconds? Around the world geeks have been putting together Ignite nights to show their answers. Combine this with an onsite contest where contestants are grouped together to make things and you have Ignite Orlando.

This being the second Ignite Orlando, the talks overall were better than the first with every one being high-quality and very informative. The standouts for me included Greg Rollett's "How Rock Stars Can Change the World", Jessica Mariko's "How to be a Creative who Actually Completes Projects", Ryan Price's "How to Kick Ass at your Job", and, of course, Cory Collier's "You Love Death Metal, Here's Why". The full list of speakers can be found on the Ignite Orlando website. Overall, a very wide range of very interesting topics were covered; enlightening stuff.

This is one event that definitely has a strong foothold in the Orlando community. I'll keep you posted on Ignite Orlando 3 which I will definitely be talking at.

photo by corycollier

April 18 started off like any other day − quiet, tranquil, peaceful − until the geeks started to gather on Wall St. Pandemonium and and mass anarchy soon followed. Just kidding! The day, as every other Barcamp, was filled with great topics and people. I meet a lot of great folks and even did my own little talk on user interface design, which, from what I was told, was a huge hit (I went into a dream-like trance that could not be broken).

The standouts for me would have to be Done21's Help Kill Internet Explorer 6 (ie6update.com − very good stuff) and Eric Marden's How to Keep Barcamp Going All Year. Also, a great addition was having tees printed on-demand by a screenprinter. And with 400+ people, we sure did need it. The after-party was a great addition too (best time for Bayou is after 11).

Check out all the photos of Barcamp on Flickr. And also, all the speaker's slides are on the main barcamporlando.org.

photo by ozone567

Photo by markkrupinski

This past week I visited Miami to take in the sites and expand my knowledge a bit by attending BarCamp Miami and the annual FOWA (Future of Web Apps) conference. Both events were absolutely amazing and much fun was had by all. Here's my recap of the week in Miami.

Last Friday evening a few co-workers (Sterling, Elizabeth, and Daniel) and I skipped the usual NFi happy hour and drove down to Miami so we could get an early jump into the weekend where we'd be attending BarCamp Miami and on Tuesday, Carsonified's FOWA. BarCamp, which was Sunday, got off to a great start with a sea of people (500+) flooding the courtyard of the venue at which it was being held. (Oh, and for those who don't know what BarCamp is, read about it here.) I caught a bunch of great talks including one by fellow Orlander (Orlandian?), Greg Rollett and Adaptive Blue's Fraser Kelton, plus I did one of my own. I'm not gonna go too in-depth about it but it was really awesome to get up in front of an audience of your peers and present on a topic that you love and are knowledgeable in (web typography for me). For those who missed my talk or want the slides, you can get them here.

After the day wrapped on BarCamp, it was time for the after-party at the Mayfair Hotel's cabana rooftop bar (sweet!). It was great to meet and hangout with all the great folks who made it out to BarCamp, especially all the Orlando peeps who made it down in mass.

Next I hung out at Miami's co-working space, Brikolodge. That place is really a testament to Miami's tech scene. It was great to finally do the whole "co-working thing." (For more on co-working check out Orlando's Colab and co-working explained.) I also meet the guys from Done21 (thanks again Jim for the adapter) and some of the Grooveshark team.

Photo by alexdesigns

Next up, the big one: FOWA. I attended last year's Future of Web Apps, but this year definitely had better presentations, ideas, speakers and technology. An amazing event. Some highlights included Jason Fried of 37 Signals on Getting Real 2.0, Alex Hunter of Virgin on Brand 2.0, Aza Rankin of Mozilla on Ubiquity (very cool app) and of course Gary Vaynerchuk. The overall theme, which was stated pretty clearly in a few different talks, was how these new technologies aren't made for bringing people and information together, but for bringing people together. As contrasted with past years which were heavy on the side of social media and its importance, it was a fresh idea to bring to the table and ultimately, at least I think so, will have a lasting impact on the industry.

After FOWA wrapped for the day, yet another party was planned at Nikki Beach on South Beach. This is where things get a little fuzzy, but I meet a lot of great folks, including Ryan Carson and Gary Vaynerchuk. We actually stayed until they kicked us out (who says geeks can't party?).

All in all, I meet some fun people, had a few beers, learned a few things and had a great time in Miami. Already stoked for next year.

It all started in early September with Izeafest. Great speakers filled the Grand Bohemian in downtown O-town. Among them Christopher Schmitt, John Chow and Scott Allen. The great talks focused on blogging from all perspectives, from the casual blogger (like me) to professional I-pay-the-bills-with-my-blog bloggers.

A couple weeks later a few hundred techs and bloggers converged on the Rollins campus in Winter Park for BlogOrlando. This was a local event but it sure didn't seem like it. People came from a couple states away for the one day event that was jammed with social and new media talks. The big stand out sessions for me focused on Wordpress. Eric from xentek.net had a great talk about theming Wordpress with the K2 theme and Mark Jaquith's talk about advanced Wordpress. The parties that bookended the event were great for networking and and meeting the speakers. Overall, awesome event.

The last conference, Create Chaos was by far the biggest and the most relevant to me, being a designer and all... A total of five days filling with everything creative.

The creative industry event Create Chaos 2008 boasts 50+ expert speakers, a 40+ exhibitor Expo Hall centered around a Medici Garden Intersection with inspirational and educational stage presentations, a Job Fair specifically geared toward creative professionals and students, and unique networking parties/events throughout the week.

The real standout presentations were Bill Beachy's Designing for Apparel talk and Christopher Schmit's JQuery for People who Don't Code. This event was huge. The expo hall was packed with sponsors and booths. I easily brought back 30lbs of swag. Fun stat: the expo hall and main room were located in the largest no-column room in the world. Yeah, it was that big.

With so many events being so close together, I was lucky to make it out to as many as I did. Up next? FOWA Miami 2009.....

The weekend started a lot earlier than normal for me. I usually roll out of bed about 1pm on Saturday so I had to get up a bit earlier than usually to get there but the registration time of 10am. And I had a talk so I wanted to get there even earlier. I headed to our (NFi's) office to prep my note cards (which I didn't even use) for my 11.30am talk time. I caught a couple talks then I was up. I thought it went well. Altogether, a good time. Here's my presentation.

A lot of good talks. To mention just a few that stood out: Dan Kinchen on Creating a Central Florida Tech Association, Erik Hersman on Using Social Media in a Time of Crisis, Gregg Pollack's Rant on the Community and Greg Rollett's Music, Media, & Money.

The Izea after party on Dev Day was also a blast. Open bar, music and enough video games to keep someone busy for days. I met a lot of great people and had a great time.

Media Day was also just as fun as the first day, although it had a smaller turnout. Many of the presentations centered around social media, blogging and new media. I also did an impromptu talk on my blog, Helpmepaymyloans.com.

Big thanks to everyone of who helped put on BarCamp and all the sponsors (including NFi). It was a great time and I will definitely be attending the next.

BarCamp is set to take over Wall St. in downtown Orlando next weekend. This time the community tech event will be spaced out over 2 days: April 5th, Dev Day and April 6th Media Day.

BarCampOrlando is a community building event which happens twice a year to brings together people from different backgrounds to share and learn from each other. There will be people who know Java, .NET, Ruby, PHP, and other technologies coming together for Dev Day, and there will be people who know film, music, photography, graphic design, podcasting, and even other new Media coming together for Media Day

I'm looking forward to the weekend. I'll be attending both days where I'm sure I'll hear some great talks. My company, NFi Studios, will be sponsoring the event along with the community's top technology businesses. Check out the BarCamp Orlando website for more info.