Day 1 at ARTIFACT
Tags: events, eventsinyourcity, artifactconf
Published: 2019-10-01 17:48:24

---
title: Day 1 at ARTIFACT
published: true
description: Summary of the first day at the ARTIFACT conference. Presentations, speakers, and notes.
tags: events,eventsinyourcity,artifactconf
canonical_url: https://alvaromontoro.com/blog/67847/day-1-at-artifactconf
cover_image: https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/n35uyqpukgn3v1qqwr3h.jpeg
series: artifactconf 2019
---

I have gone from not attending any event in a while to attending two in a row! Last week it was the [5th Annual Women Who Code Diversity Hackathon](https://dev.to/alvaromontoro/our-experience-at-the-5th-annual-diversity-hackathon-570p), and these days I am attending [ARTIFACT conf](https://artifactconf.com/) in beautiful (and cloudy) here in Austin, TX.

Yesterday was the first day of this 2-day event (3 if we count the workshops, and the presentations matched the expectations, and the all-star line-up that the conference presented.

ARTIFACT conf is happening at room #5 of the Alamo Drafthouse in South Austin, a classic (but extraordinary) movie theater turned into meeting/conference space for the occasion.

![Alamo Drafthouse movie theater entrance](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/zjy9nl1douqx1wt7wwi4.jpeg)

## The Talks

The first presentation was in charge of **[Tim Kadlec](https://twitter.com/tkadlec)**, who gave an amazing talk about performance and improvement. How websites are growing and how we can change this.

**[Chris Coyier](https://twitter.com/chriscoyier)** kept the level high during his presentation about what being a front-end developer meant (aren't we all full-stack now?) And how front-end can ve divided now into front-front-end and back-front-end.

The conference continued with **[Jen Simmons](https://twitter.com/jensimmons)**'s "Thinking in Grid" presentation that consisted of a live-coding example. She was given a randomly-picked picture from a design book, and turned into HTML+CSS using grid.

That made it to the first half of the day and the lunch break. During which there was a projection of the ARTIFACT logo animation that was pure art. Kudos to whoever created it.

After the lunch break, **[Dave Rupert](https://twitter.com/davatron5000)** took us through a journey of web design and development and how to improve it, showcasing a previous project with a major pizza company and explaining what they did and how it affected design and performance.

Then **[Elle Waters](https://twitter.com/Nethermind)** completed a really nice talk about lean accessibility and agile accessibility. And how they can help with the group culture and boosting a project, providing better design and development.

![Picture during Divya's presentation about JAMstack](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/yo9xw9yp9u1kowm8bybe.jpeg)

After a small break for cookies and milk (really!), **[Divya Sasidharan](https://twitter.com/shortdiv)** presented JAMstack, explained the main concepts, showed how it works, and even did a live demo on stage!

**[Dan Mall](https://twitter.com/danmall)** was the last speaker of the day, with a talk about design systems. The whole flow of the presentation was amazing, with great slides and a story connecting every day. My favorite presentation of the day (and I'm a developer!)

## Tomorrow more...

That was the end of the first day for me. I am looking forward to the second day with presentations from Chris Ferdinandi, Sara Drasner or Brad Frost among other people :D