Ahead of next year’s Industry Conf, a Newcastle-based event covering practical talks from experienced web professionals, we caught up with founder Gavin Elliott to find out a bit more about his approach, tips and projects, and what we can expect from the conference and accompanying workshop.

Could you provide a bit of information about yourself? (e.g. who you are, what you do, your background in the industry…)

I’m a designer based out of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK and have been in the web industry in different capacities since 1998. Previously I ran the DIBI Conference for its first two years in 2010 and 2011 and currently get things done at Obox Themes. As well as Obox, I founded Industry Conf in 2011 and it’s taking place on the 24th April 2013.

What prompted you to organise and run your own web design conference?

Having ran the DIBI Conference in its first two years with great success bringing the likes of Jeffrey Zeldman and Jared Spool to the UK, I took some time out before founding Industry to take an event in a direction which I thought was needed in the UK Web Conference scene. I love giving something back to the industry I’m lucky enough to be a part of and Industry is just a small part of that.

What have been the biggest challenges so far in getting the conference off the ground?

Dates, the UK is relatively small in the grand scheme of things but the amount of conferences and events is forever growing. Finding a date outside of the no-go areas like Christmas and Summer breaks and away from other more established calendar events like New Adventures and Build et al is challenging. With Industry taking place at the end of April it’s perfectly placed in the event calendar for all to enjoy.

What tips would you give to someone looking at organising his or her own conference?

Research. Research your the audience you’re looking to target. We now have many focused conferences and events whether that be PHP, jQuery, App Design or UX and more broad conferences like Build which takes a wider view on our design industry. You’ll need to research exactly who you’re wanting to target and see if there is indeed a need for that event for the type of audience. Research your speakers, we all know the ‘same old faces’ theory, I’m not a full believer in it but understand that some industry members like to see fresh faces on the conference calendar. Most importantly research the content, don’t just try and throw something together. Actively plan your content around the events goal.

What will people get out of attending Industry?

I’ve found that a lot of content at conferences can be a bit airy-fairy. At Industry, attendees will be listening to practical talks by the 8 speakers, where they’ll be telling stories about their experiences what they’ve learned and what the attendees can take away and use tomorrow. The conference itself takes place in the Turbine Hall at The CastleGate in Newcastle upon Tyne. The building used to house the old turbines that powered Newcastle’s tram system. It’s a huge open space, which on the day will be largely informal so the attendees can talk and discuss the topics. Refreshments through the breaks are provided as well as lunch, this is on top of the opening and closing party!

You are also running a workshop about HTML 5 the day before the conference. Why have you chosen this topic?

The Workshop is being ran by John Allsopp, most notably known for writing the ‘Dao of Web Design’ on A List Apart. John is a practitioner, constantly working in the environment rather than talking about what you can do without the practical examples. I believe there is so much more to learn about HTML5 and when John and I started planning out the content together everything just fell in to place. Attendees will have a full day workshop with John to learn that HTML5 is much more than a bunch of new semantic markup. John will take you beyond the header and footer, to focus on some of the powerful, but surprisingly easy to use, features of the next generation of HTML (and related W3C technologies): UI features, offline capabilities, rich media, geo-location, accelerometers, and many more hidden gems.

Can you describe the process from idea conceptualisation through to launch at Obox?

We treat each new release as a brand new product. And with any kind of product you have to start right at the very beginning with research. We generally plan months in advance so know what is going to come next and this gives us enough time to research and create a rough specification of our next product whether that is a theme, plugin or extension. From there, we go in to wire framing the product out which can sometimes go through a couple of iterations before we move to design. The design of the product can also go through a few iterations. You could almost classify the process as being slightly agile as there are so many contributing factors, which can change the shape of the product at any given moment, and we’re very very open to this. It’s rare that we ever get attached to one of our products so much that we don’t want to change the design from the wire-framing phase.

Once the design is signed off it’s then a case of creating the markup and any development, which is, needed then a whole lot of testing and quality assurance before launch day!

Do you think there is a move within the industry to take WordPress back to blogging?

No, not at all, I think it’s more the other way around. I think people want WordPress to do more! However, I partly agree with what you’re saying. I do believe that people want to start blogging more and want the platform and a design where they can just blog. If you think about WordPress.com, Blogger, Medium, Svbtle and the new ‘Ghost’ platform, people definitely like blogging. You can still use WordPress comfortably to blog, my personal site has been WordPress since day one and it will always be that place where I can just write.

Are there any key blogs or resources you would recommend budding WordPress designers/developers read?

Tutorials – https://wp.tutsplus.com/

Tutorials and great content – https://wp.smashingmagazine.com/

General WordPress News – https://wphub.com

What are the key tools of your trade you couldn’t live without (and why)?

My Dot Grid Book – All of my sketches and wireframes go in this book. I find it much easier to sketch with dotted paper than plain.

My MacBook Air 13” – This little machine has been my trusty steed for over a year now. At first I thought the 13” might be a bit too small but it’s absolutely ideal for working on the move as well as hooking it up to the cinema display in the office.

Headphones – I work in an office by myself however everyday you’ll find me sat there with my headphones on. I tend to focus a lot more when I have them on and if I want to turn my music up louder it doesn’t bother the world.

Logitech Mouse – The Apple magic mouse doesn’t do anything for me apart from giving me cramp in my hand. The Logitech is a much more robust and solid mouse in my opinion; I can use that thing relentlessly and just keep on going.

iA Writer – This is my go-to writing app. It enables me to focus so much more than Google Docs, MS Word (bleurgh) or directly in to the text editor in WordPress.