WEB DEVELOPER TRAINING CAMP

MIDLAND HOTEL, MORECAMBE

FRI 29TH - SUN 31ST JANUARY 2010
48-hours to eat, drink and develop.
‘An essential event for web developers - technical training like this is like gold dust’
David Eccles, MD at Fudge

Technique is a residential training camp for north west web developers. The event format presents a shift
in focus – while other events focus on thinking and talking, Technique is all about action. It will be inten-
sive, practical and hands-on. Sure, you’ll think and talk, but you’ll also improve your technical skills, explore
emerging technologies and develop new approaches to web and app development.

The event is designed for front-end engineers and back-end developers working within the north west. If
you develop sites, web apps or interactive media platforms, Technique is for you.

Benefits & learning outcomes

• Get practical, hands-on training from leading international developers
• Improve technical abilities
• Master emerging technologies
• Develop more productive approaches
• Select sessions to broaden skill-base or develop existing skills
• Meet other developers from leading agencies across the north west
• Benefit by sharing skills, approaches and experiences
• Exclusive opportunity - Limited to just 25 participants to give high levels of access to trainers
• Get world-class training and coaching for the cost of a single day course
• Subsidised discount for NW companies means you pay £500 instead of £1500

Guest trainers include leading international developers:

• Peter-Paul Koch [Quirksmode]
• Luis Lavena [Area 17]
• Seb Lee-Delisle [Plug-In Media/Papervision3D]
• Dan Zambonini Box UK
• James Downes [Box UK]

The venue - a stunning 4-star hotel

The Midland Hotel is set on Morecambe’s famous promenade, and offers a stylish setting in a lovingly re-
stored Art Deco building, with views sweeping across Morecambe Bay to the Lake District. The Midland is
an impressive venue, with state of the art technology, fabulous food and quality service. For Technique, we
have exclusive use of the 4 individually-styled conference rooms which provide the perfect space to learn,
think and be inspired. Go to the Midland Hotel website

This project is funded by the Digital and Media Skills programme, delivered by Northwest Vision and Media in partnership with Skillset and with the
support of the Northwest Regional Development Agency.
THE FORMAT
Technique is a unique event - its not a conference or a training course, but a residential training camp
based around hands-on technical workshops from some internationally-renowned developers.

For 48-hours it’s nothing but eat, drink and code (sleep is optional!). You’ll get expert technical training,
explore emerging technologies and develop new, efficient approaches to working.

As well as a unique chance to receive expert technical advice from our guest trainers, you’ll also have the
chance to swap skills, experiences and approaches with developers from across the north west.

All-in-all, a developers dream retreat.

The program includes:

Friday
We’re kicking off the event on the Friday afternoon with an inspiring keynote from a very special guest, fol-
lowed by a stimulus session of 10-15 back-to-back lightning talks (5-7 minutes each) to kick-start the week-
end and get the creative juices flowing. This intense session will deliver diverse, forward-thinking ideas from
passionate speakers, and the open theme should ensure that a wide range of topics, techniques and issues
are covered.

Saturday
The Saturday programme focuses on practical, hands-on workshops led by our expert trainers. Trainers
include some leading international developers, each with a reputation for innovation in their field and each
with experience of training and mentoring. Participants can select from 3 strands of activity, to suit their
individual needs.

Each session is structured to focus on specific themes, but designed with sufficient flexibility to adapt to the
needs of the user-group.

One-to-one, drop-in surgery sessions will also be available during the day.

Sunday
Another round of intensive workshops keeps things hands-on on the Sunday, before we round off with a
closing Keynote and lunch.

Social
In the evenings participants can take advantage of the hotel’s superb facilities to eat, drink, relax, socialise,
network, discuss and code with trainers and colleagues.

This project is funded by the Digital and Media Skills programme, delivered by Northwest Vision and Media in partnership with Skillset and with the
support of the Northwest Regional Development Agency.
THE SCHEDULE
Friday 14:00 Registration & Reception

15:00 Introductory Keynote - The Future of The Web

16:00 Lightning Talks

18:00 Drinks & Dinner

Front-End Ruby PHP5 Flash

HTML5 & Unob- Getting to grips

PHP5 - How to AS3
trusive Javascript with Ruby on
Saturday 09:30 [Peter-Paul Rails
build a web app [Seb Lee-
in a day (1) Delisle]
Koch] [Luis Lavena]

12:45 Lunch

Developing for
User Interface
and User Advanced ap-
PHP5 - How to Papervision
Experience proaches to
13:45 - 17:00 [Dan Zam- Ruby on Rails
build a web app [Seb Lee-
in a day (2) Delisle]
bonini & James [Luis Lavena]
Downes, Box
UK]

Interactive
CSS - Styling for & 3D sites
Real-world Ruby Advanced XML
Sunday 09:30 a beautiful web
[Luis Lavena] with PHP5
using Flash
[Andy Clarke] [Seb Lee-
Delisle]

12:15 Closing Keynote

13:00 Lunch & Finish

This project is funded by the Digital and Media Skills programme, delivered by Northwest Vision and Media in partnership with Skillset and with the
support of the Northwest Regional Development Agency.
FEES & PAYMENT
Delegate fees are £500 + VAT, which gives you access to

Keynotes
• Technical workshops
• One-to-one surgery sessions
• Lightning talks
• Two nights’ single-occupancy accommodation at The Midland
• All your meals in the stunning Midland Restaurant and some drinks

Once your application has been approved (see below), a deposit of £100 will secure your place, with the
balance to be paid by 18th January 2009.

APPLY NOW!
To ensure that the event is truly hands-on, interactive and unique, we’ve limited places to just 25
participants.

Because of the limited number of spaces, there’s a quick application form to complete. This is to make sure
that Technique is right for you, and to give us chance to get a handle on your background, experience and
training needs.

To apply, just hit the link below and complete the online form. We’ll get back to you to confirm your place
asap.

Apply online here (http://tiny.cc/techniqueapp)

This project is funded by the Digital and Media Skills programme, delivered by Northwest Vision and Media in partnership with Skillset and with the
support of the Northwest Regional Development Agency.
THE TRAINERS
Peter-Paul Koch [Founder of Quirksmode]
Peter-Paul Koch is a freelance front-end consultant and trainer in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He spe-
cialises in the mobile web. He has won international renown with his Quirksmode browser compatibility
research, frequently speaks at conferences, has founded Fronteers, the Dutch association of front-end
professionals, and advises browser vendors on their implementation of the web standards.

Peter-Paul Koch has been a professional front-end engineer since 1998. He focused on HTML, CSS,
JavaScript, and browser compatibility even when doing so was not yet fashionable. In 2009 he started
working on mobile web consultancy, training and browser compatibility research.

On the Web he is universally known as ppk. His grandfather was a coffee planter on Java, so he is geneti-
cally predetermined to be an expert on most languages that have “Java” in their name.

Luis Lavena [Technology Director at Area 17]

Collaboration is the key message with Luis. A leader in the open source community, Luis loves to bring
people together to do extraordinary things.

In a world dominated by Macs, Luis is the maintainer of the One-Click Ruby Installer, the main Windows
Ruby Distribution. So if you are a Ruby developer on Windows, you owe him! As an advocate of Behavior
Driven Development, he believes that business and technology should work closely together in order to
identify real value.

Before joining AREA 17, Luis ran a technical consulting company specializing in software and hardware
solutions for the video broadcasting industry. The high demands of that industry coupled with the need for
non-stop service developed his “acquired taste” for sustainable systems.
Luis is a native of Tucumán, Argentina and studied Computer Science at the University of Tucumán. He
splits his time between Tucumán and Paris with the occasional sejour in New York City.

Seb Lee-Delisle [Technical Director at Plug-in Media and Papervision Contributor]

Seb has developed a reputation as a ‘crazy Flash programmer’, specialising in games, physics, 3D and
particle systems. He speaks and trains regularly all around the world, and still continue to produce “cool
Flash stuff” with his company Plug-in Media. Notable clients include BBC, Sony, Philips, Unilever. and Bar-
clays.

Seb is a healthy combination of tech and creative, and has been programming various types of multimedia
stuff for most of his life. He started with BBC BASIC aged 12, then became a Commodore Amiga developer
in his early 20s. In the late 90‘s Seb moved on to the web and started developing in Flash. He’s a member
of the Papervision working group, and is an active contributor to Open Source community projects.

This project is funded by the Digital and Media Skills programme, delivered by Northwest Vision and Media in partnership with Skillset and with the
support of the Northwest Regional Development Agency.
Dan Zambonini [Technical Director at Box UK]
Dan is a creative, pragmatic, obsessive achiever, with burning desire to use the web to make our lives
better, easier, and above all, happier.

He is co-founder of internet consultancy Box UK, which has created multiple-award-winning websites driven
by an ever-increasing range of software (also award-winning), which includes Amaxus, clickdensity, Con-
netric and Accuda.

This project is funded by the Digital and Media Skills programme, delivered by Northwest Vision and Media in partnership with Skillset and with the
support of the Northwest Regional Development Agency.