Did you attend WebVisions 2010? We’d love to hear about your experience and get some constructive feedback on how we can make the event better. Please take a moment and share your thoughts.

» Take our Survey

With the advent of Ajax and RIA, we’ve come a long way from the page refresh metaphor, but we can go a lot further. With the continually decreasing cost of hardware, and the trend towards open source, it is now easier than ever to equip your web application with physical computing hardware.

In session on “The Physically Aware Web,” Adobe’s Kevin Hoyt will provide a gentle introduction to leveraging web technologies such as Flash and JavaScript to interact with electronic sensors such as servo motors and RFID, to weather stations and ultrasonic distance measuring.

The Drupal CMS has quickly become one of the most popular and powerful engines powering all kinds of websites, including the White House. In his session on “Drupal Theming—A Crash Course,” Tom Wheeler will provide an in-depth look at some of the tools and techniques of theming Drupal.Drupal sites can take on any look, and are extremely flexible. Understand Drupal’s theming hook system, views, CCK fields to create custom content, blocks, and more.

Tom Wheeler has taught in the Media & Web Design program at the Art Institute of Portland for over 10 years. He has worked as the Interactive Director and Developer at Gravitate Design Studio, and currently runs his own Drupal design and development business

How the mobile context has evolved over the years and where it is headed? In his session on “Mobile Web UX,” former WebVisions board member Nick Finck will explore the differences between the web and the mobile web, why these differences are important, what the key user experience principals are for the mobile web . . . oh yeah, and there will be plenty of examples for you to sink your teeth into.

Nick will also provide the information you’ll need to design an optimal user experience for the mobile web, and alert you to the decisions you will need to make along the way.

Most of us spend our days bringing others’ ideas into reality, whether it’s giving voice to a brand through great graphic design or building systems that benefit a company’s bottom line.

Join Dave Selden, web designer and budding entrepreneur in his presentation on “Doing It For Yourself” as he explains how he’s turned the corner from creating great work for great companies, and begun doing it for himself with his unique web-based business, 33 Beers.

Youth cram their days with hours of activities, so how do you build a web site or digital experience that attracts and keeps their attention? How do you hold their interest long enough to engage, educate or entertain them? Barbara will cover examples of successful preschool, kid and tween websites and what makes them capture a child’s imagination.

Since becoming a producer at Smashing Ideas in 2003, Barbara Pritchard has led the development on hundreds of projects for top kid destinations such as Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, Hasbro and PBS Kids.

In her session on “Developing for Digital Kids,” Barbara discusses that whether it’s a game, an activity or a full-blown site, the way kids interact with online content is different from how adults do. From making child-friendly navigation to adding fun and fascinating content, there are certain rules of thumb to follow to make a site that delights kids. Attendees take away design and development tips on building successful sites for this unique and lucrative market.

Our world is at a crossroads. We face problems unlike any generation before us. Diminishing natural resources, pollution, and climate change are so complex, so multifaceted, that traditional problem-solving methods yield little success.

As designers we have an opportunity to assist the world in solving the pressing issues of our day. Our unique training in tackling problems using a multidisciplinary human-centered approach (known as design-thinking) is what governments and NGOs around the world desperately need. There are ten potential projects for every design thinker with the time and talent to solve them.

In his session on “Design Thinking for Social Change,” Ryan Russell discusses how designers can leverage their talents, skills and processes to assist in solving global problems. Learn how to connect your passion with the issues, and unlock the power of shared vision.

How did a company turn a web site about talking cats into the web’s largest network of humor and entertainment sites? Sure as grass is green, sure as the sky is blue, you can bet that they didn’t do it the normal way.

In his session on “Life at Cheezburger,” Scott Porad, CTO of the Cheezburger Network, will regale you with fantastic tales about how they prioritize and stay focused, tickle you with dramatic stories of how we do our product development and web operations, and maybe even pontificate about how the future doesn’t look all that much different than the past.

The Cheezburger Network is the company behind the hugely popular I Can Has Cheezburger? and Failblog.org. The Cheezburger Network is a collection of web sites where every day millions of people share moments of joy through the humor and wonder of LOL.

Scott has spent his entire career working at web startups, and as a result he’s developed some ideas about them. Are these ideas good? Are they bad? Does the Devil Wear Prada? Who knows!? But, he’s trying them at Cheezburger and they seem to be working…maybe they’ll work for you too!

User Experience. User Engagement. Human Centered Design. Design Thinking. Business Innovation. Business Value. Shareholder Value. Bottom-line Impact. Cost Leadership. Market Segmentation, Cost-benefit Analysis. Total Quality Management. Critical Path Analysis. Return on Investment. Market Domination.

Okay, be honest. At some point above, your eyes glazed over and a bit of your soul died. And you’re not alone. It’s a common phenomenon. The language of design and the language of business don’t often connect, yet each has their own important role in the overall success of the organization. As designers, we focus on designing with empathy for users…yet often don’t give credence or empathy to our colleagues on the business side.

How can we better ensure alignment with the overall goals of the enterprise? In her session on “Strategy Patois,” Adaptive Path’s Kate Rutter discusses the benefits of learning the language of strategy and integrating strategic decision-making tools and frameworks into the design process.

Why does it matter? According to Kate, these tools help streamline the design process, focus team decision-making and ensure that the most important priorities and opportunities get the time and effort they deserve so that delivered designs align with and forward the overall strategy.

Kate is also presenting a half-day workshop on “Design Strategy in a Nutshell“. It’s almost full, so sign up today!

Religions and governments have done a better job creating divisions than promoting solutions on a global level. Some folks say they’ve lost faith in both to make the world a better place. So who are folks looking to?

Multi-national brands, with the reach, budget and local impact most governments can only dream of. As agencies responsible for creating brand culture, experiences and technology in a world of shifting channels and evolving communications, can we ‘hack the channels’ and help brands do well AND do good?

In his session on “World Changing Brands,”, Renny Gleeson peers into the future to see if advertising change the world – and meet and exceed brand and business objectives. Renny is global director of interactive strategies at Wieden + Kennedy and has been interactive since he got his TRS-80 RadioShack microcomputer in the ’70s. He’s worked all sides of the interactive marketing space—from client, to agency, to publishing/sales—beginning his “career” as an animator and game designer creating online and CD-ROM games, before helping to found Saatchi & Saatchi’s Darwin Digital company in 1997.