If you caught Ryan’s article last week, he told you about our brand new, not to be missed Vegas event – Future Insights Live! We’ve combined the Future of Web Apps, Design and Mobile into one massive five day event all geared toward you! Whether you’re a Web Designer, Developer or Entrepreneur there will be something for everyone.

We are launching a brand new scheduling app within the next couple of weeks which will list full details of the huge conference schedule and give you an overall feel for the event. So with that in mind, we have decided to extend our Early Birds (saving you $200) until 24th Feb! That way you can see EXACTLY what you’re paying for.

We’ll be launching the full schedule by the end of the week, so please check it out and join us for our biggest event yet!

At Carsonified Towers, we’re all getting super excited for May, when The Future of Web Design hits London for another three days of learning and inspiration. As ever, we kick off the show with four full-day workshops – each lead by a totally inspirational industry leader. From 9am am to 5pm, we’ll be rolling up our sleeves and knuckling down for a serious hit of web savvy. Numbers are capped at 40 for each workshop, ensuring a great learning environment.

This year’s chosen workshop topics are already proving popular. First up, we’ve got the unstoppable force of web awesomeness that is Paul Boag. Director of Headscape, Paul will be leading a crash course in Running A Successful Web Design Business: ”We like to think that being a successful independent web designer is about creating great websites. Its not. Running your own business is about a lot more than having the right professional skills. ”

After wowing the crowds as a Rising Star back in 2011, Steve Fisher has rapidly become one of our most popular speakers. He’ll be joining us again in London to lead his Rock Solid UX Deliverables workshop: “No longer something that has to always be hugely complex and costly, we’ll cover the back-to-basics approach to UX design in this workshop and how to practically dispatch a rock solid responsive web design UX deliverables package.” 

Next up, creator of the uber popular Coach to 5K app, Josh Clark will be crossing the Atlantic to deliver his Teaching Touch workshop – a sell out success at FOWD NYC last year: “The workshop presents nitty-gritty ‘rule of thumb’ design techniques that together form a framework for crafting finger-friendly interface metaphors, affordances, and gestures for a new generation of mobile apps that inform and delight.”

Last but not least, longtime Carsonified favourites, the Web Standardistas will be joining the fun, to teach their Good Ideas Grow On Paper workshop: “Armed with some fundamental design principles and an abundance of tools – which naturally includes the Standardistas’ ‘Bag of Awesome™’ (containing a veritable cornucopia of material) – we show the aspiring analogue designer a range of methods for breaking out of the stranglehold of the often clichéd digital world.”

We’ve just confirmed that industry leaders Kevin Rose and Jason Calacanis will be speaking at Future Insights Live in Vegas on April 30 – May 4th!

Future Insights Live is our new show that combines Future of Web Apps, Future of Web Design and Future of Mobile into one huge 5-day, 5-track, 1,500 person conference. It’s going to be epic and you won’t want to miss it.

Early bird pricing (save $200) is almost over, so grab your ticket today.

If you’re a Web Designer, Developer or Entrepreneur, you can’t miss Future Insights Live in Vegas on April 30 – May 4th. We’ve combined Future of Web Apps, Design and Mobile into one massive five day event, with over 100 sessions. It’s going to be like SXSW, but with valuable content ;) We’re expecting 1500+ attendees, so it’s going to be insane. The tracks include …

1. Development
2. Design
3. Frontend Development
4. Mobile Development
5. Business
6. Cloud

Early bird pricing ends soon (save $200) so move quick and book your ticket today.

As Ryan mentioned in his post last week, we have recently announced our awesome new Vegas show Future Insights Live!

To welcome in the New Year, we’d like to offer our Think Vitamin readers a 10% discount off the Early Bird prices. There are a number of ticket options to choose from, you can come to the whole event or simply choose to come to a part of it – it’s up to you! Just add the promotional code THINKVITAMIN when registering online.

Be warned, there are only a handful of these promo codes available so you’ll have to be quick!

Why come to the event?

At Carsonified, one of our main focuses has always been about getting you away from the computer screen and bringing the web community together, to learn, converse and connect through our events. No matter if you’re a developer, designer or entrepreneur – we have an event that is tailored to you!

The web industry is changing and there is more crossover than ever within disciplines, with web apps/design/mobile all falling under a very similar umbrella. So as we enter 2012, we are bringing you our fantastic brand new event – Future insights Live!

Future Insights Live will be taking place in Vegas (30 April – 4 May) and is a combination of all of our events – Future of Web Apps, Design, Mobile, and introducing Future of Web in the Enterprise. This multitrack event will bring you world class speakers, up to the minute content, full day workshops, over 100 conference sessions, networking, parties and lots more. Some of the amazing people joining us include:

* Dan Cederholm * Chris Eppstein * Aral Balkan * Dave Desandro
* Aarron Walter * Zoe Gillenwater * Chris Coiyer * Zach Holman
* Molly Holzschlag * Tom Hughes-Croucher * Hilary Mason * Josh Clark
* Steve Fisher * Samantha Warren * Mike Kus * Paul Boag
* Edward Boatman * Sarah Parmenter * Yosi Taguri * And loads more….

It’s our biggest event yet and we’d love for you to be a part of it so register today.

We’ve combined three of our events into one huge exciting event in Las Vegas! Future of Web Apps, Design and Mobile are all coming together on April 30 – May 4, 2012. Here are the highlights …

• 8 Workshops
• Socket.IO, Express and Node.js
• How to build a Web App from A-Z
• Advanced jQuery
• Increase Conversions and Revenue
• HTML5 and CSS3
• Interface Design Bootcamp
• Designing Great iPhone and iPad Apps
• Responsive UX
• 100s of sessions over five tracks
• Design
• Frontend Development
• Backend Development
• Business
• Mobile
• Best speakers in the world
• Dan Cederholm
• Molly Holzshlag
• Chris Coyier
• Mike Kus
• Paul Boag
• and more
• Huge discount on hotel rooms at MGM for attendees
• Save $200 on Early-bird tickets. Grab yours before the prices go up.

I’ll be hosting the show and I’m SO excited. Hope to see you there :)

The Power of One event is this Friday (11.11.11) and we are super excited. If you cannot make the conference, never fear we are live streaming the conference from our channel on justin.tv, head over to the channel at 9.25am to watch the event :)

Free taxi available for Power of One Event

We have been working with a start up called Taxi Stop who provide the ability to call taxis via SMS and Twitter.

Battersea Power Station is a short walk from Vauxhall Station but we know the weather is not always kind in mid-November London. So we have arranged for one of the Taxi Stop London Cabs to be available all day doing shuttle runs between Vauxhall and Battersea Power Station.

You should be able to spot the taxi (it will not be in the normal taxi rank) and it will have power of one and taxi stop branding in the back window. If you ask the driver whether its the “free taxi to the power of one” and he stares back at you with a blank expression on his face, you are in the wrong cab and he will charge you about £5 for the ride to the power station.

Make sure you are following @p0wer0f1 on twitter for further updates and self organizing the taxi journeys on Friday morning.

We have nearly sold out but there are still a few tickets left so be quick to grab one :)

Have Dinner with Brand New Friends At FOWD NYC…

One of the best things about the Future of Web Design show is seeing all the cool connections and collaborations that get kick-started at the event! It’s always a really friendly, sociable crowd, and we go out of our way to make sure that it’s as easy to meet new people as possible.

We know that a lot of people come into NYC from out of town, and some of you won’t know too many people. This year, we’ve teamed up with Grub With Us, who have organized some great group meals for our attendees – the perfect opportunity to hang out with fellow FOWD fans before or after the show, and chat web design until the cows come home!

There are currently meals planned for Sunday, Monday and Wednesday – and the earlier you book on, the better the deal! Check out the various options, register and kiss goodbye to a lonely night eating room service in your hotel room. Some meals are almost fully booked already!

The FOWD NYC Afterparty…

Of course, we won’t be leaving you to your own devices every night of the conference – Tuesday night sees the return of the legendary FOWD afterparty!

With money behind the bar courtesy of our awesome partners Grablet, come join us for a few beers and a chance to let your hair down after two intense days of web learning and inspiration.

There’s still time to register for your seat if you’re quick – and several different ticket options, including One Day Only for those on a tight work schedule!

Hope you can join us :)

Thanks to OSU Special Collections & Archives for the photo used above.

With The Future of Web Design NYC just around the corner, this week I caught up with Keynote speaker, Cameron Moll, to find out a little more about his presentation…

Q1. We’re delighted to have you delivering one of the keynotes at FOWD NYC this year, Cameron! What made you choose this particular topic to speak on?

I’ll be speaking about passion, pith, and productivity, and they really are things that have been pillars of my design career. But I’ve watched other successful designers excel in these three areas, as well. If there’s anything that, through sharing my personal experiences, will help others cultivate and refine a successful design career, I feel obligated to impart my knowledge — passionately, and hopefully with a little pith.

Q2. Could you briefly describe / summarize the route that your own design career has taken over the years? What keeps you motivated on a daily basis?

As brief as possible, I grew up using my hands for all kinds of things like woodworking and music, didn’t get a degree in design, thought I’d climb the ranks as a VP of marketing, fell into design along the way and found I like that a whole lot more than design, self-taught with the help of blogs, books, and great conferences like FOWD, made tons of mistakes along the way and hope I make many more for a lifetime of learning.

I’m motivated by a ceaseless desire to always be producing and to design things I’ve never designed. I’m also pretty motivated by the fact that a kid half my age could easily replace my voice in the community, or my job for that matter, if I slack off.

Q3. What are you looking forward to most about speaking at FOWD NYC?

There was such a wonderful energy at last year’s event, and I’m looking forward to being part of that again. More specifically, meeting great people, and hopefully saying something that will inspire them to push and expand the boundaries of their talent.

Come and see Cameron speak in person next month at The Future of Web Design NYC! Some limited availability remaining and heaps of amazing web learning, inspiration, networking and general fun to be had :)

(Thanks to San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives via The Commons / Flickr for the image used above!)

This week, ahead of his upcoming session and workshop at The Future of Web Design NYC 2011, we caught up with Compass & Sass fan Brandon Mathis!

Q1. Hey Brandon! We’re so pleased that you’re joining us at FOWD NYC next month! Could you tell us a little about yourself, your background and your current work?

I grew up working with the family business, a cave attraction just outside of Birmingham, Alabama. For the past 7+ years I’ve been a freelancing web designer. I got my start fresh out of college as a one-man show, designing WordPress sites and building small PHP web applications with Flash on the front end. My ambitions quickly outgrew my abilities and I started working with a Ruby on Rails consulting shop, where I could better to focus on honing my design skills and learning how to work in small teams alongside agile developers.

In the world of open source, I’m a Compass core team member and lately, I’ve been working on Octopress, a open source blogging framework which I created specifically for hackers.

Q2. You’re running a workshop on Compass & Sass for us this year – why is it such an important topic for web designers in light of the massive increase in mobile browsing?

The tremendous growth of mobile browsing has really changed the game for designers. Fixed width designs are dead, pixel perfect mockups are more clearly a huge waste of time, and “designing for the fold” is a far distant memory. We are now facing a job full of moving targets, where screen resolutions are all over the map and the goals of a single user can vary wildly, simply based on the device they’re using, or where they’re using it.

With the advancements in browsers and the adoption of HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript, our medium is shifting too. New approaches like “mobile first” are fantastic, but require fundamental shifts in our workflows that reach back to the way we think about designing for the web.

Isn’t that exciting? Okay I’ll admit, it’s also a little scary. But look at it this way. Those who are willing to educate themselves and commit to improving their craft have an amazing opportunity to be on the forefront of design, to demand higher rates, and work on more interesting projects.

Q3. What can people expect to take away from your FOWD NYC workshop?

While CSS3 brings some awesome new capabilities to browsers, it hasn’t really improved the way we author stylesheets. We’ve just been handed a pile of new browser features, but we still have to limp along with only CSS selectors, properties and values. We can’t use variables, math, or really any form of abstraction at all. With over four years of experience designing with Sass I can tell you, there is a better way.

That’s what my workshop is all about. Attendees will learn a fresh approach to authoring stylesheets using variables, math, code driven color theming, mixins, custom functions and more. I will be guiding them through the features of Sass and Compass and sharing my workflow for in-browser design. For designers who are currently trapped in CSS workflows, this workshop will help them write better stylesheets which are much easier to maintain.

Q4. Who is this workshop for and is there anything attendees should do to prepare?

Since Sass is a tool for stylesheet authors, this workshop is really intended for folks who already have a good bit of experience writing CSS. To participate in the workshop, attendees will need to be able to install Compass on their computers. During the first section I’ll assist with the setup, but if people come with Compass already installed, that would be fantastic.

Q5. What are you most looking forward to about FOWD NYC :)

So many things. For one, this will be my first time to go to NewYork, and I’m pretty excited about that. But mostly I just can’t wait to connect with all the amazing people who will be speaking and attending. This is such an essential conference for our field and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.

There’s still some limited availability on Brandon’s workshop, so head on over to our site for more information and registration.

Thanks so much for your time Brandon!

(Thanks to The National Library Of Scotland via The Commons / Flickr for the image used above!)

Announcing a wonderful opportunity for budding start-ups. The Power of One is running a competition to win 20 minute stage time to speak about the highlights of your start-up. You will be joining an awesome line up including Jason Calacanis, Morten Lund and many more.

The event is being held 11th November 2011 at the uber cool Battersea Power Station.

So how do you bag this stage time? Simply fill out this form by the 24th October. We will pick the strongest start-up, and e-mail you if you have won!

Everyone that enters will receive a discount on the ticket price :)

Good Luck!

The Future of Web Design NYC is always a real celebration of what’s new in the world of web. People head to our show from all corners of the globe, and in turn, we strive to create a fitting atmosphere: exciting, electric and full of ambition.

Next month, here’s a snapshot of just a few of the “added extras” that we’re throwing into the mix – all adding to the celebration of the future of web design!

We’re Teaming Up With Tattly!

We’re thrilled to be teaming up with the awesome Tattly! Their beautiful temporary tattoos (one design shown above) are created by designers, for designers and have been a huge hit since they launched earlier this year. Expect some great freebies, and members of the Tattly team on hand to chat about your design ideas!

The Web Font Awards: Live Final

You can’t beat a bit of healthy competition for ramping up excitement levels! We’re delighted to be hosting the live final judging (via a panel of our speakers and other web font experts) of The Web Font Awards. The awards celebrate creative, innovative use of web fonts – and there’s still time to enter your site for consideration! The winner will receive two VIP passes to The Future of Web Design London 2012…

The Official Treehouse Launch

You heard it here first! On the first day of the conference, our very own Ryan Carson will be taking to the stage to officially launch Treehouse! All will be revealed…

So there you go – just a few of the things adding to the excitement at this year’s FOWD NYC. There’s still time to register for your seat if you’re fast – and several different ticket options, especially for those on a tight work schedule! Hope you can join us!

(Image used above – one of the lovely Tattly tattoo designs, by Evan Huwa – courtesy of Tattly)

As you may know, last week the Carsonified Events team wrapped up the Future of Web Apps London. We had such a fun time. Our speakers, content and attendees were all amazing and the show was a great success!

Having said all of this, we are always striving to make our events bigger and better so we want to hear from YOU! Have you ever been to a web/tech event? Would you ever go? What would would be the deciding factor to make you purchase that ticket?

We’d love to hear your thoughts so please do take a few minutes to fill out our online survey. Every person who fills out the form will be entered into the draw to win a year’s Think Vitamin membership totally FREE!

Thanks to Greg Annandale for the Photograph.

We are offering one lucky person a chance to win a FREE seat to the Power of One.

To enter simply pop this badge on your blog and let me know by sending me the link. Your name will then be added to the draw, which will take place on Thursday 27th October 2011. The winning name will be announced via @p0wer0f1 on Twitter.

Good Luck!

The Future of Web Apps London is just one week away and the Carsonified events team are super excited to be heading up the motorway from sunny Bath to put on an awesome show! And the good news is, there’s still time to grab your ticket!

We have an amazing lineup confirmed including, TechCrunch, Facebook, Mozilla, GitHub, Google, SoundCloud, Wufoo and many more great industry names and topics. The full line up can be seen on our Schedule page. As well as the fantastic content, we have lots more to enjoy during the conference, including:

* Fully catered breakfast, lunch, snacks and all the coffee you can drink
* App Clinics – A chance to have 5 minutes one on one time with our speakers
* University Sessions and Speed Networking during the breaks
* Free videos of all sessions
* Party! We have an amazing party lined up brought to you by X.commerce

Enter the code FOWA_TV for an exclusive 15% discount off our 2 day conference passes when registering and join us for our fantastic show in London!

For all the big name speakers, the networking and the inspiration – it’s learning that’s right at the heart of the Future Of Web Design show. That’s why we’re delighted to have been given a stack of some of the hottest web design titles from New Riders: Voices That Matter – to be given away to the next 40 people to register for the event.

We have 10 copies of each of the following:

+ Introducing HTML5, 2nd Edition (Lawson & Sharp)
+ Stunning CSS3: A project-based guide to the latest in CSS (Gillenwater)
+ CSS3: Visual QuickStart Guide (Teague)
+ From Idea to App: Creating iOS UI, animations, and gestures (Welch)

Ready to register for your place in New York this November? To claim your free book, while our stocks last, just email Cat with a copy of your confirmation email, letting her know which title you’d like! The book of your choice will be waiting for you at the show :)

Thanks to The State Library of New South Wales via Flickr / The Commons for the image used above.

The Future of Web Apps (FOWA) London is only a couple of weeks away which means you only have a short time left to grab your pass!

If you haven’t heard about this Carsonified event, FOWA is a 3 day conference aimed at Web Developers and Entrepreneurs, bringing together web visionaries to discuss the technologies, platforms and business models you should be using to launch the next generation of successful web apps.

We have various ticket types available including our combination Workshop & Conference passes, which as ever, are proving very popular. Our intimate one day workshops are a great chance to get up close and personal with a topic of your choice.

If you can’t quite stretch to the workshops pass, we’re offering Think Vitamin readers an exclusive 15% discount off our 2-day conference passes. Simply enter the promo code FOWA_TV

Check out our site for full details on the conference and make sure you purchase your pass soon!

Party with us at our FREE Bar!

And here’s a little something extra for our attendees – not only will you receive great content and networking opportunities, there will also be the infamous FOWA Party. We’ll have a free bar (as long as it lasts) for all FOWA folk to enjoy. Check out our party venue – The Book Club, it’s awesome!

We are super excited to announce Jason Calacanis (Mahalo) will be joining us at the Power of One Event on the 11.11.11. This amazing line up already includes Morten Lund (Everbread), David McCandless (Beautiful Data), Yosi Taguri (Pah) and many more.

The event is a celebration of what the web industry has achieved and will be portraying success stories in the past, what is happening right now, and a look to the Future. It is a day to be inspired, celebrate and network with like-minded people.

The Power of One is being held at the super cool Battersea Power Station, and will be one of the last events held there, before it closes for refurbishment.

Tickets are only £99 + Vat, which includes the conference, plenty of coffee, food, and a party at the venue after the talks with free beer.

Be quick to grab one as there are very limited numbers :)

*picture by ElectricSheep

It’s that time of year, summer is almost over and the leaves are falling off the trees. Personally, it’s my favourite time of year but for many of you working within the education system, you’ve enjoyed a long (maybe rainy) summer holiday and now it’s back to the gridstone.

We’ve got some great news for you educators that will brighten up your day. We’re offering a 15% discount off our Future of Web Apps London 2-day conference passes. The perfect antidote to the post holiday blues.

Simply email me with your details and I will send you a promo code to book online.

Send your team and get one ticket FREE!

If you’re an employer and thinking about sending your team to FOWA, we’re offering you a great deal. Simply purchase a minimum of 4 passes for your team members and we’ll give you the fifth pass totally FREE!

To find out more information about FOWA’s amazing content and speaker lineup, take a look at our website and book your seat today.

We are super excited here at the Carsonified HQ as the return of Future of Mobile is just 3 days away, here’s a re-cap of why you need to be there;
1. The biggest names in the industry
We are bringing you the biggest names from across the globe to join us at The Future of Mobile, including Kevin Systrom (Instagram), James Pearce (Sencha) Daniel Appelquist (Vodafone), Antony Ribot (Ribot), Brian LeRoux (PhoneGap), just to name a few from the line up.
2. Two tracks
From crash courses in Andriod, Windows Phone and iOS to designing for different size screens, The Future of Mobile has a wealth of topics to offer across two tracks. Go back to work feeling motivated and inspired from what you have learnt at this event.
3. FREE videos
FREE videos will be sent to all FOM attendees after the conference, from both tracks. This will ensure you won’t miss a thing, you can also re-live the conference and share with friends and colleagues.
4. Amazing networking opportunities
The event will give you a chance to meet, share ideas and potentially collaborate with other freelancers, agencies and entrepreneurs.
5. Low cost
We know it is hard to escape a busy work schedule, The Future of Mobile will bring you up to date with the mobile industry in just one day. Within the price of the ticket is coffee, lunch, a bit more coffee and free drinks at the after party!

Tickets are still available at just £245 + VAT

If you can’t make the conference itself never fear you can purchase a video pass of all the talks from both tracks, at just £95 + VAT.

Announcing the launch of the Power of One Event

The Power of One is being held on the 11th November 2011. The Event is designed to motivate and inspire developers and entrepreneurs with the help of six fantastic speakers including Morten Lund (Everbread), David McCandless (Information is Beautiful), two panel sessions and much more. We’ll be looking back at past experiences and forward to what’s in store for us in the future. We’ll help you find the best ways to get your ideas heard and the funding to turn your ideas into reality.

This is all for the affordable price of £99 (+vat.) You will also be one of the last people to set foot inside the iconic Battersea Power Station before it closes long-term for redevelopment.

The Future of Web Apps is just one month away and we have an amazing line up for you. We’ve been busy confirming more wonderful speakers and packed content over the last couple of weeks to ensure that you get the most out of the event.

This week we’re happy to announce that joining the stellar list of names are:
* Chris Coyier (Wufoo)
* Cennydd Bowles
* Derek P Collins (KISSmetrics)
* Tom Hughes-Croucher (Joyent)
* Dave Verwer (Shiny Development)

We also have an amazing offer to announce – the next 10 people to book a ticket (excluding student passes) will receive access to the videos (worth £95) from our FOWA Vegas Show – totally FREE. It’s the perfect teaser to our London event! Go check it out and book your seat today!

Coming from out of town?

If you’re traveling to London for the event from out of town then you’re probably looking for some pointers on things to do in the area. We’ve discovered the awesome Secret London – it’s the perfect guide to parts of the city you don’t normally see on the usual tourist websites. Go check it out!

We interviewed Kevin Systrom co-founder of the massive photography app Instagram. Here we find out about Kevin’s passion for photography, why iOS not Android, and how does Instagram make money? A big thank you to everyone who sent their questions in for Kevin!

Have you always had a passion for photography?

Absolutely — ever since I was a kid I’ve been playing with cameras. It’s when I discovered digital photography and photoshop, which is when I became truly addicted.

Why did you launch with an iOS app not Android?

iOS is what we use internally – the platform at the time was simply more developed and had a bigger ecosystem for developers.

Is it important to you to launch an Android app?

Yes. It’s also important for us to launch a full-fledged website. It’s more about timing than anything. We’ll get there eventually when we can produce top-notch experiences on both.

Why did you decide not to launch Burbn?

I could write a book on this question, but the main reason was that the product wasn’t special enough. It didn’t stand out from the 1,000 other check-in apps that were vying for peoples’ attention. In our minds, we had to focus on what made us special – and that was photos.

You have stated you have not “spent a dime on marketing” how has Instagram grown so popular so quickly?

When you build great products, those products often resonate with people to the point where they’ll do the word of mouth marketing for you. Good products sell themselves, in many ways.

How does Instagram convert it’s massive user base into financial profit without charging for its software or supporting it with ads?

We don’t currently, but it’s top of mind for big challenges to tackle going forward. Big shifts in technology and the world never come easy – but that’s why we’re in this business in the first place. An entrepreneur’s job is to seek out the business model with a large market, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.

Instagram has fast become not only a photo sharing app but also very much a media tool, documenting world events as they happen, was this your intention?

Absolutely. Though we figured it was going to be many years until we saw anything like that. It’s been inspiring to see it happen so quickly.

You have stated that being based in San Francisco has had it’s benefits for investors and support, what is your advise for entrepreneurs and start-up based outside of San Francisco?

Move to San Francisco. (Kidding) Lots of really successful startups have been based in places like New York, London, etc. Technology is location independent, and in many ways being from outside of silicon valley means that you can tackle opportunities that don’t exist here domestically.

What is the future for Instagram and photo sharing media on mobile?

We’re tackling a very large market with big unsolved problems in mobile. I can’t wait to get out our next few releases that I think really change the way people look at mobile photography and their phones. While I can’t share details yet, I assure you it”ll be pretty awesome.

A big thank you to Kevin for taking part in the interview! This is just a taster, you can learn the full story of Instagrams success and Kevin’s hints and tips for your own iOS app at the Future of Mobile next week! It’s going to ROCK!

Heading to NYC for The Future of Web Design Conference, and looking for somewhere to lay your head? We’re pleased to point you in the direction of some great attendee deals and discounts that we’ve secured at hotels close to the venue.

Just head to our event site’s Information Page to check them out. From the brand new, boutique Pearl, to the Washington Jefferson, just a few minutes stroll from all the action at the conference – we hope you find something that will suit you down to the ground.

We’ll keep working on hotel discounts from now until the show, so do keep an eye on the page as it will be updated with any new deal that we secure for our lovely attendees :)

Flash Sale

Still waiting to register for your seat? We still have a couple of Flash Sale codes active if you’re fast! Enter the promo code FLASH10 on our Registration Page for a 10% discount on 2 Day Conference Passes!

(Thanks to Cornell University Library via The Commons / Flickr for the image used above!)

The Future of Mobile has been running a competition to win an iPad 2. I am happy to announce the winner is Jemma Mills.

Well done Jemma :)

Flash sale get 20% off

Got the bank holiday blues? Well here is something that should cheer you up! The Future of Mobile has 10 tickets available with a whopping 20% off, simply use promo code fom-20 when booking.

Not only will The Future of Mobile attendees gain a wealth of knowledge and inspiration, there will also be ample opportunity to meet like minded people in the industry.

We are holding a pre-registration meet-up the night before the event from 8pm – 10pm. It will be held at the Mermaid venue at the Bridge bar. This will give you the chance to get to know your fellow attendees in advance and skip the queues in the morning :)

There of course will be a wrap party after the event (7.30pm – late) with some FREE drinks. Mingle with speakers, attendees and chat about the days events, your projects and ideas. People attend our events from all over the globe so it is the perfect opportunity for some fresh networking in a relaxed environment. The wrap party will be held at the super cool Firefly bar.

Remember to bring your business cards! It may be old fashioned, but it’s a nice event tradition.

Limited tickets are still available at just £245 + VAT

Only 3 more days to Win an iPad 2

To win this amazing prize, simply purchase a Future of Mobile ticket between now and Friday 26th August. Your name will be placed into a draw to win. The winner will be announced on this blog on Wednesday 31st August.

How should I proceed when I get an idea which I think it’s good and it could be a successful startup, but I’m alone as a web designer/front-end developer, no business experience and with no developer friends or connections? (@pipozoft)

“Just create something and put it out to the world to play with.  If you can’t write the code to make it work, then try hiring someone part time (compensate them on future revenues or equity) and see what the market thinks.  You don’t need business experience to start, you can gain it while doing it.  You don’t need connections to start just pick up the phone and introduce yourself to people that have public facing websites that offer services that you might need.  Share your idea with them and ask for advice on moving forward.  It may take a few calls but that’s normal and why business isn’t for everyone.”

Do you think there are any fundamental differences between designing websites and webapps? (@SalilMalkan)

“Absolutely.  Websites are all about communicating the value of something and how it might help the visitor solve a problem. Webapps are about building interactions that help guide a user to solving that problem.”

Do you think there is a connection between how much money you earn, compared to how happy you are in your job, and if so, how close a relationship do you feel this is? (@liamjay66)

“Honestly, once you make similar income to your neighbors the next level of happiness will come from self actualization.  Either through your work or creative projects.  No amount of money will make you happy – it’s how you interpret what you have that decides this.  Wanting what you have equals happiness – not wanting more money.”

Thanks Dan! Now let’s hear what Pete had to say:

What is the single best thing (not supporter influenced) product that has aided you as a designer? (@culshaw)

“We’re a little biased, but we’ve actually had great success using Optimizely to test our own landing pages.”

What’s your opinion on hierarchical CSS code structure? (@robobeau)

“We recently started using SASS (http://sass-lang.com/) for all of our CSS and we love it so far.  It’s really simplified what was becoming a tangled mess for us.”

The web is the most powerful creative platform in the known universe, in my opinion. There are so many applications for using it to further science, arts, research and much more yet the “be all and end all” of the web seems to be “social networking” (which generally equates to sharing media). Do you ever get disapointed that it is generally just used as an aid to business, or for online games? What would you like to see it used for? (@benjambles)

“This seems like a silly question.  There are wonderful spots all over the web where people of all stripes meet to communicate, collaborate, create, laugh, etc. Some are for-profit sites, and others are run by enthusiasts.  The web’s characterization here as a mere “aid to business” or “online games” seems absurd given the scope of what can be found out there.  I guarantee that if you can imagine an application, you’ll be able to find it implemented and actively used somewhere on the web.  If not, you can always create it yourself–that’s the beauty of it all.”

How should I proceed when I get an idea which I think it’s good and it could be a successful startup, but I’m alone as a web designer/front-end developer, no business experience and with no developer friends or connections? (@pipozoft)

“a. Start making connections.  The ability to build and grow a successful business hinges in part on your ability to make connections and promote your work. Vanishingly few ideas spread on their own, and you’ll never get your ideas built or out there without a strong network.”

“b. Learn as much as you can about the areas in which you need help.  Business guy with no technical chops?  It’s a LOT easier to recruit a technical co-founder when you can speak their language, and even easier if you’ve already built a prototype. Conversely, it’s a lot easier to convince your MBA friends to join up when you’ve already made several sales.”

Do you think there are any fundamental differences between designing websites and webapps? (@SalilMalkan)

“I’m not sure what the difference here between a “webapp” and a “website” is.  If you define a website as a mostly-static page and a webapp as a dynamic page that makes heavy use of Ajax, I think it’s interesting to note that while the webapp designer has at her fingertips a larger “functionality toolset,” she is still constrained by the same usability rules as a website designer and must exercise even more design restraint.”

Thanks to both Dan and Pete for taking the time out to answer your questions. Next week we’ll be wrapping up this series of articles with our final interviews.

If you’d like to see these guys in action, then be sure to come along to the show! We have a full schedule plus ticket availability on our FOWA Site. Go check it out and register today!

To win a fabulous iPad 2, simply purchase a Future of Mobile ticket between now and Friday 26th August. Your name will be placed into a draw to win. The winner will be announced on this blog on Wednesday 31st August.

Good Luck :)

Do you have a question for Kevin?

We are super lucky to be interviewing Kevin Systrom from Instagram. This is your chance to ask Kevin a question. Please e-mail them to us or tweet @futureofmobile.

Kevin will be speaking at the Future of Mobile on 16th September.

Limited tickets are available at £245

We are offering one lucky person a chance to win a FREE ticket to the Future of Mobile.

To enter simply pop this badge on your blog and let me know by sending me the link. Your name will then be added to the draw, which will take place on Monday 5th September 2011. The winning name will be announced via @futureofmobile on Twitter.

Good Luck!

Petra Söderling and Tom Hume will be joining the line up at FOM

We are super lucky that the awesome Petra Söderling from Mobile Brain Bank and Tom Hume from Future Platforms have confirmed to speak at the Future of Mobile. Petra will be presenting “Which App Store is Right for me?” and Tom will be presenting “Making Sense of Sensors”.

Limited ticket are still available at just £245

Following on from last weeks Q&A with Techcrunch’s MG Siegler, as promised our next bite sized article features Sam Stephenson, a programmer at 37signals.

Since 2005 Sam’s been writing web applications for 37signals that help millions of people communicate and collaborate every day. He’s a prolific open-source author and contributor and has a soft spot for handmade bicycles. Here’s what Sam had to say when we put some of your questions to him:

What’s your opinion on hierarchical CSS code structure? (@robobeau)

“I’m a big fan of SCSS’s nested rule support. It’s a simple syntactical addition with dramatic consequences. The primary benefit of nested rules is that they encourage consistent scoping, which makes it easier to refactor related styles in the future. Nested rules also communicate intent: the path to the style is visually separate from the element being styled, and the stylesheet’s hierarchy mirrors the markup.”

“What I like most, though, is that as a programmer on projects using SCSS nested rules, I can feel confident in any changes I need to make to the styles. I know exactly where new styles should go because the scope is already there waiting for my additions. And I know with reasonable certainty that because of that scoping, my changes won’t inadvertently affect other elements.”

The web is the most powerful creative platform in the known universe. There are so many applications for using it to further science, arts, research and much more yet the “be all and end all” of the web seems to be “social networking” (which generally equates to sharing media). Do you ever get dissapointed that it is generally just used as an aid to business, or for online games? What would you like to see it used for? (@benjambles)

“No, it’s difficult for me to be disappointed with anything that makes the web less technical and more ubiquitous. In the future I hope to see more editorial sites like longform.org. There’s a lot of information out there, and I’d prefer to have it filtered by one person with a voice than a thousand people with thumbs-up buttons.”

Do you think there are any fundamental differences between designing websites and webapps? (@SalilMalkan)

“From a programmer’s perspective, one major difference between building sites and apps is that you generally do not need to concern yourself with search engine-friendliness when working on an app. That frees you to use JavaScript for rendering things you otherwise would have to include in HTML. Whether or not that’s appropriate, of course, is a matter for debate, but it’s often quite convenient and powerful.”

What is the funniest comment you have seen when going through someone else’s code? (@sam_benne)

“Here’s an amazing comment before a block of time zone-related code in one of our apps, courtesy of the inimitable Jamis Buck:

    TzTime is subversive. It even _sounds_ subversive, like sharp
    incisors snicking together in the dark. It sneaks into your app
    from the inside and stuffs time zone support into the cracks. It’s
    like a little ruby-colored rat, poking around in the
    under-basement of your code, but instead of chewing away at the
    infrastructure with its sharp little teeth (and believe me, they
    _are_ sharp), it builds fluffy (and oh, so comfortable!) little
    time-zone flavored nests wherever it can.”

A huge thank you to Sam for taking the time to answer some of your questions. Next week I’ll be putting your questions to Pete Koomen, co-founder of Optimizely and Dan Martell, co-founder of Flowtown.

If you’d like to come along to the show and meet our speakers in person, we’re currently offering a 10% discount on our 2-day conference passes. Simply enter the promo code FLASH when booking online. You can check out the FOWA site for details on the full schedule and book your seat today.

We’re delighted to announce that our final FOWD NYC workshop speaker will be the hugely talented Aaron Gustafson.

As well as heading up Easy! Designs, Aaron is Group Manager of the Web Standards Project (WaSP) where he has spearheaded Web Standards Sherpa. He wrote the JavaScript library eCSStender, serves as Technical Editor for A List Apart, and is a contributing writer for .net Magazine.

Aaron will be joining us in New York City to lead a day-long workshop, “Get Started With CSS3 and HTML5″ which will, in his own words, “drop mad HTML5 & CSS3 science and cram your brain full of practical ways you can put these two emerging technologies to use immediately.”

He will also be giving a HTML session on Day 1 of the conference, focussing his attention on “HTML5 as a markup language, providing you with a solid context for its enhanced semantics, and showing you simple, effective ways you can put it to use on your site today.”

Our workshop seats tend to sell out quickly, so head over to register for yours as soon as possible!

Have A Question For Our Workshop Speakers?

If you’d like to know more about any of our workshops – or about the topics that are being covered – head on over to my last Think Vitamin post. We’re fielding any questions you may have for our FOWD NYC workshop speakers, so please do feel free to ask away!

(Thanks to Nationaal Archief on The Commons for the image used above (via Flickr / The Commons)