I had a fantastic time. In Many ways. Here are my photos of Web Day Out 2026 in Brighton. (#WebDayOut)

Gavin Strange celebrates 25 years of creating under the name of Jamfactory. Wow. And Yay!

I’ve been celebrating as of late, as at the start of the month on the 6th February, it was exactly 25 years since first registering my domain name jam-factory.com, which means it’s been a quarter of a century making stuff under the name of “Jamfactory”! I put together a wee video edit, cataloguing 25 years of passion projects […]

Here is the article and the video.

Congrats on 25 year of “making the all the stuff that absolutely no one asked for” my friend!

⇾ Visit: Congrats to my Friend Gavin Strange for 25 Years of Jamfactory

“The Ensh*ttificator” is a little movie about who it is to blame for all the things getting worse.

This video is part of a campaign by the Norwegian Consumer Council for its campaign “Breaking Free” against consumer-unfriendly “enshittification”.

Well, let’s work on it and find that guy!

A while ago, when recording an episode for one of my podcasts, I slipped up on a few things that didn’t ruin the conversation or content, but that would have made it a lot more enjoyable to listen to and saved me a lot of editing afterwards.

So, I thought I’d sit down and write out the checklist that I usually keep in my head. It’s (hopefully) a practical list of things for podcasters because I’m sure others have been in the same situation like me, aka “forgetting small details”.

I considered making a separate checklist for guests, but in the end I figured it’s enough for me to have it and simply check in with my guests about the key points. Either via email before the recording or in our chat before. And no, I don’t go through it like an interrogation. That’s just not how I work ;)

A Pre-Talk

I don’t include content preparation in this checklist. A pre-talk, whether written, via email, or a quick (video) call, can even happen right before recording in my opinion.

In this pre-talk, you should let your guest know what they can expect and how you usually run your interview. Tell them how long your episodes typically are or if your format isn’t time-bound at all for example.

It’s also not a bad idea to ask if there are taboo topics or things your guest would prefer not to talk about. This saves awkward pauses during recording, or painful edits later.

Ask whether they’d like to listen to the recording before it goes live, just in case something unintentionally slipped in that makes them uncomfortable. Most people usually say say no anyways, but asking is just nice, isn’t it?

Finally, share the planned publication date.

Your Own Content Prep

Again, I don’t put actual content preparation into the checklist. I focus mostly on the technical stuff here. But of course, doing your homework about your guest is part of being a good host. Especially in interview formats, spending a little time learning about who your guest actually is makes the conversation flow better.

Recording Checklist (For You and Your Guest)

Here’s what I check before and during the recording session:

Mic & Sound

• Is there a good microphone available?
  • No: What’s the alternative? Usually a headset mic, like the ones that come with an iPhone, sounds way better than most laptop mics. Less room echo, and your guest can wear headphones right away.
  • Yes: Which mic? Make sure your guest knows how to position it. I once didn’t pay attention to this, and my guest spoke into the mic like a stage mic (e.g., Shure SM58), when it was actually meant to be spoken across the side.

Headphones

• Always use headphones.
  • It doesn’t matter what kind, but not using them risks echo from the guest’s mic picking up your voice. That creates really nasty feedback sounds later which are hard to edit and get rid of.

Room Acoustics

• Choose a room with as little reverb as possible.
  • Not always doable, sure, but if your guest is mobile and you realise the room sounds like a train station, ask if there’s another space.

Water

• Have a glass of still water ready.
  • This helps avoid smacking and dry-mouth sounds during the recording.

Noise Control

• Remind your guest to:
  • Close windows
  • Turn off notifications on all devices
  • Mute their phone
    Basically avoid any distractions or noise before pressing record.

Final Comfort Check

• Quick check-in:
  • Are they comfortable?
  • Is headphone volume okay?
  • Is your voice clear to them?

Start Recording — Locally Too

• Once everything’s good, start the local recording and explain it briefly if needed. Even if you’re using software like Riverside, Zoom, or similar, record locally too! It’s your safety net and usually gives you the best sound quality.

That’s it. Hopefully this checklist helps create smooth, fun, and well-sounding episodes. Got additions or experiences that make your workflow even better? Hit me up! I’d love to hear from you! hello@this-website-address

Here comes a round of events I attend in the first 6 months of this year. I bet there will be more, but those are the ones – in chronological order – where I have travel and accommodation booked and where I’d love to meet you ;)

State of the Browser, London (UK)

State of the Browser, or SOTB in short, is an annual one‑day tech conference in London organised by London Web Standards (mainly Dave Letorey) that brings together web developers, browser vendors, and community members to discuss the modern web, accessibility, web standards, tools, and best practices. It typically features a single track of diverse talks covering topics like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, UX, and performance. The event takes place at Barbican Centre and can be attended in person (sold out!) or online.

📆 28 February 2026
💰 £60–£100 (~€70–€115) – online £20 (~€23)
👉 More information on their website.

Web Day Out, Brighton (UK)

Web Day Out is a one‑day, in‑person event in Brighton. It aims to teach web developers and designers what they can actually do with web browsers today by diving deep into practical HTML, CSS, and JavaScript platform features you can use in production. It features a curated lineup of speakers giving hands‑on talks about browser capabilities, performance, accessibility, and progressive enhancement and intentionally avoids sessions on frameworks or theoretical topics. It’s organised by Clearleft (mainly Jeremy Keith) and designed to help attendees stay up to speed with the current state of the web platform in a single day.

📆 12 March 2026
💰 £225 (~€260)
👉 Tickets and information
👀 beyond tellerrand Podcast with Jeremy Keith, also about Web Day Out

Smashing Conference, Amsterdam (NL)

SmashingConf Amsterdam 2026 is our friendly, inclusive multi‑day conference. This time in Amsterdam, targeting UX designers, UI engineers and front‑end professionals who focus on real‑world design, usability, accessibility, modern CSS, design systems and related web and interface topics. It takes place at the historic Pathé Tuschinski and combines talks and deep‑dive workshops. Single‑track and social side events help attendees learn practical skills and network. We also offer an online attendance option so people worldwide can join live.

📆 13–16 April 2026
💰 €725 (Students €362), Workshops €665
👉 Full information and tickets

beyond tellerrand Düsseldorf 2026 (GER)

beyond tellerrand. My little baby. My passion and my joy. I run this event for 15 years now and want to celebrate. With you. I have announce a handful of speakers for this year already and it is going to be great. If you want to get latest news and announcements, please subscribe to the newsletter.

📆 27–28 April 2026 (side events before and after)
💰 €349 (Students €99)
👉 Information and tickets

Accessibility Club Summit 2026, Würzburg (GER)

The Accessibility Club Summit 2026 is a two-day community-driven event in Würzburg, Germany for developers, designers and accessibility enthusiasts to share knowledge, experiences and best practices around digital accessibility. It’s organised by tollwerk (mainly Joschi Kuphal) and combines a BarCamp format of participant-led sessions on the first day with hands-on community workshops on the second. Hybrid participation (in-person and remote) possible.

📆 9–10 May 2026
💰 €30 – pay-what-you-can/want (Barcamp Day), Workshops €25–€50
👉 Full information and tickets

CSS Day, Amsterdam (NL)

CSS Day is an annual conference in Amsterdam that brings together CSS experts, implementors, and educators to explore the current state and future of CSS. The 2026 edition runs with fourteen speakers presenting talks and demos. Organised my a small team around PPK, it’s a highly focused event for developers and designers looking to deepen their CSS knowledge and connect with the web community.

📆 10-11 June 2026
💰 €816,75
👉 All info and tickets

Head in the Cloud, Espelkamp (GER)

Head in the Cloud is a summit for cloud, DevOps, tech, and agency professionals organised by mittwald, bringing together experts to explore technology, collaboration, and digital innovation. The 2026 edition takes place at the open-air mittwald Campus. With sessions spanning Cloud & DevOps, Technology, and Culture & Creativity, the event is designed not only for developers and engineers but also for designers and creative professionals looking for inspiration and cross-disciplinary exchange. Oh hey, and I am speaking 🤗 …

📆 25–26 June 2026
💰 Free (Festival Pass), €236,81 (Masterclass on 25 June)
👉 Information and registration

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There are plenty of other events I’d love to attend and that I am looking into right now. Depending on time and other (family) things happening on or around those dates you might also find me at OFFF (16–18 April), All Day Hey! (7 May), All Flows (14–15 May), Pixel Pioneers (19 June) and others.

Where will we meet? What events are missing that I should attend?

I will list events of the second half of the year later ;)

A morning jog via fields and forest with Toffie, our dog.

I haven’t had much time to read anything online between October and now. beyond tellerrand Berlin needed all my attention as well as the post event stuff afterwards and now Düsseldorf.

But I am slowly catching up on my RSS reader unread count. One post I just read was “The Lifeblood of the Web” which is a perfect “convince your boss” document with reasons why anyone should attend events.

That’s when you realize: the Web isn’t just a bunch of servers and websites. The Web is the people building it. The Web is community.

Very true as well as …

That’s what’s so invaluable about conferences, about in-person events in general. They are like a cheat code, like a magic door – you enter, and suddenly, you find yourself on the inside of the conversation. The faces, the names, the people behind the blog posts – they become real. And you stop feeling like just being an observer of the Web community. You are now a part of it.

As well as all the rest he writes and with which he brings back lots of lovely memories.

Thanks for being part of the ride, Matthias!

⇾ Visit: The Lifeblood of the Web – Matthias Ott

Very happy that two events I am involved in are on Manuel’s list.

With Smashing Conference running for 13,5 years and beyond tellerrand running for 15 years now, I don’t take that for granted and am happy that this is the case after such a long time.

⇾ Visit: Manuel’s Favourite Front-end and Web Development Conferences

Jeremy says:

I haven’t “upgraded” my iPhone to iOS 26 and I have no plans to.

Same here. I really don’t understand such “upgrades”. And Jeremy’s example is only one very small bit. Everything looks broken, inconsistent and barely usable

⇾ Visit: Liquid Glass is so F**k’d Up

David Bowie. 10 years gone already, but forever here.