CSSconf is a conference dedicated to the designers and developers who build the world’s most engaging user interfaces. From the community, for the community.
Since the prototype, CSSconf US, was started by Nicole Sullivan in 2013, and shortly after CSSconf EU joined, the CSSconf family has expanded around the globe. All CSSconf event organizer teams share the vision of an international, diverse and creative CSS community, for which the CSSconf series offers a platform to meet, collaborate, share knowledge and build friendships.
CSSconf is a a loose federation of designers and developers who share a passion for CSS, and believe its community deserves its own conference event series. We strive to bring the most prolific CSS speakers on stage as well as upcoming talent, all with the goal of discussing cutting-edge techniques and tools and sharing knowledge about CSS.
We don’t believe that one model or process fits all communities, in fact we are big advocates of locally run events driven by passionate individuals dedicated to the community.
We have three rules for starting an event using the name CSSconf. They are rather simple, but critical to how we operate:
We do this to ensure that you know what a CSSconf event means, for better or for worse. We run these events as not-for-profit, volunteer driven experiments where we try to isolate the things that work well and reduce, if not remove, the items that degrade the experience. We focus on shared social experiences, and we do our best to make a difference in the community. Reading about it second-hand doesn’t convey the full scope of this and that is why we require that people looking to start a new CSSconf have attended an existing CSSconf.
Only a diverse community is a healthy community. Only a safe, welcoming and accessible event is beneficial for the community. All CSSconf events aim to be safe spaces for attendees, speakers, staff and everyone involved. All organizers actively work on involving diverse people of the community, and encourage people to add their voices to the community. Educating yourself and your team about the risk of harrassment and about ways to deal with it is crucial to run a safe event, and a public Code of Conduct is a required first step in this process. Educating yourself and your team about the lack of diversity in our community and actively working to make your event welcoming and inclusive is required to run a CSSconf.
Only a diverse team – organizers, volunteers and all staff – are able to run an actually inclusive event. We expect all organizer teams of a CSSconf to be representative of our diverse industry in as many aspects as possible, and if they are not yet, a clear priority and a plan to change this.
Some resources to get you started:
We treat the CSSconf event as a franchise model where the event is run entirely by the local individual or team. They handle all financial dealings, they arrange the schedule, they plan out the venue, the parties, and everything else. This gives the event a very local feeling to it. If you were to attend CSSconf US and CSSconf EU without knowing they were CSSconf you would most likely think they are completely disjoint – and that is intentional. We have this oversight clause just to ensure that…
Another important job of the overseeing organizer is to provide a view that isn’t deep in the planning and be there to say “It will work out, don’t worry”.
There are many people that share our passion for CSS and want to bring the event to their local community. We understand how it might seem from the outside, but it is not all roses on the organization side. If you are going to run a CSSconf, it (for better or worse) already means something to the CSS community, and it might at times be better to run a CSSconf-like event with a different name. If you reach out to us via email or meet us at one of the events, we will help as much as we can and you want. We want more events to happen all over the world.
This way of organizing a worldwide conference series is inspired by the JSconf family and their years of experience in creating community events – thank you!