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Speakers

Sarah Drasner speaking at SmashingConf Toronto 2019.

We will be diving deep into web performance, accessibility, design systems, HTML email, internationalization, UX, copywriting, tooling—and we branch out to—practical CSS & JS.

With Luke Wroblewski, Robyn Larsen, Brad Frost, Sophie Tahran, Harry Roberts, Mystery Speaker and others. Jump to all speakers ↓

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Smashing Conf has been so amazing. What an incredible line up of speakers! I feel so lucky to have been here and experience this and day one isn’t even over ❤️ #SmashingConf

  • Luke Wroblewski

    Luke Wroblewski

    Luke is currently a Managing Director at Sutter Hill Ventures. Earlier he was a Product Director at Google after it acquired Polar in 2014 where he was the CEO and Co-founder. Before founding Polar, Luke was the Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder of Bagcheck which was acquired by Twitter in 2011.

    Luke is also the author of three popular Web design books (Mobile First, Web Form Design & Site-Seeing: A Visual Approach to Web Usability) and worked as the Chief Design Architect (VP) at Yahoo!, Lead User Interface Designer at eBay, and Senior Interface Designer at NCSA: the birthplace of the first popular graphical Web browser, NCSA Mosaic.

  • Miriam Suzanne

    Miriam Suzanne

    Miriam is an artist, engineer, and open-web advocate. She’s a co-founder of OddBird, Invited Expert on the W3C CSS Working Group, and Sass core contributor who enjoys pushing the boundaries of web technology.

    These days she’s working on specifications for Container Queries, Scope, and Cascade Layers in CSS; extending the Sass color module to support wide-gamut colors; and learning to crochet socks.

  • Marcy Sutton

    Marcy Sutton

    Marcy Sutton is a freelance web developer who works with organizations as a lead accessibility engineer and teacher. In the past Marcy has worked on accessibility testing tools including axe-core, JavaScript frameworks, websites and web applications.

    Marcy’s focus on access and user experience was recognized by O'Reilly in 2016 with a Web Platform Award. When away from the keyboard, Marcy can be found hiking with her dog, riding bicycles, adventuring in her camper van, or cooking something delicious.

  • Brad Frost

    Brad Frost

    Brad Frost is a design system consultant, front-end developer, speaker, writer, musician, and artist located in beautiful Pittsburgh, PA. As a principal and design system consultant at Big Medium, he helps teams establish and evolve design systems, establish more collaborative workflows, and create better software together. He is the author of the book Atomic Design, which introduces a methodology to create and maintain effective design systems. He co-hosted the Style Guides Podcast and has helped create several tools and resources for web designers, including Pattern Lab, Styleguides.io, Style Guide Guide, This Is ResponsiveDeath to Bullshit, and more.

  • Sophie Tahran

    Sophie Tahran

    Sophie currently leads up UX writing for The New Yorker at Condé Nast. (She’s still working on winning the Cartoon Caption Contest, though.) Past lives include establishing a UX writing practice at InVision and wearing many hats at Lyft.

  • Henri Helvetica

    Henri Helvetica

    Henri is Head of Developer Community at WebPageTest, who has turned his interests into a passionate mix of site performance engineering and pinches of user experience.

    When not reading the deluge of daily research docs and case studies, or auditing sites, Henri can be found contributing back to the community: Toronto Web Performance Group meetup + Jamstack TORONTO organizer + curating conference content or volunteering his time for lunch and learns at various bootcamps.

    Additionally, you can find him frequenting conferences and touching base w/ the community - all with a radiant smile. Otherwise, Henri focuses on running the fastest 5k possible (surprise surprise).

  • Chris Coyier

    Chris Coyier

    Chris is a web designer and developer. He created and runs CSS-Tricks, a website all about building websites, now going strong for 10 years.

    He is also the co-founder of CodePen, a playground for front-end web development. It’s a social development environment for front end designers and developers.

    Chris has spoken at events and given workshops all over the world, as well as written two books: Practical SVG and Digging Into WordPress.

  • Dave Rupert

    Dave Rupert

    Dave Rupert is the lead developer at Paravel, a three person web shop based in Austin, TX. He co-hosts the Shop Talk Show with Chris Coyier, a weekly sound effects podcast that also covers web design.

  • Rémi Parmentier

    Rémi Parmentier

    Rémi Parmentier is a French front-end developer working at his own small web development agency, Tilt Studio. He loves to learn, and enjoys even more to teach.

    This led him on a joyful quest to understand and demystify HTML emails coding. Rémi runs workshops, gives talks and writes articles on his blog to help others code better HTML emails. Rémi also likes collecting Game Boy consoles and listening to Sufjan Stevens.

  • Robyn Larsen

    Robyn Larsen

    Robyn Larsen is a front-end developer, entrepreneur, and speaker. Robyn is also an active community member who advises numerous startups across multiple industries and frequently mentors women in tech and STEM. She is is a member of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) with Microsoft and Avalanche Canada.

    She builds tools for entrepreneurs on the International team at Shopify, teaches Zero to Launch workshops for entrepreneurs through Embrk, she is a globe trotting, adrenaline junkie currently living the remote dream in Singapore.

  • Zach Leatherman

    Zach Leatherman

    Zach is a builder for the web with Netlify. He’s currently fixated on web fonts and static site generators. His public speaking résumé includes talks in eight different countries at events like Beyond Tellerrand, Smashing Conference, CSSConf, and The White House.

    He is an emeritus of Filament Group, NEJS CONF, and still helps out with NebraskaJS.

  • Harry Roberts

    Harry Roberts

    Harry is an independent Consultant Web Performance Engineer from the UK. He helps some of the world’s largest and most respected organisations find and fix their site-speed issues.

    He is both a Google- and a Cloudinary Media- Developer Expert, and has consulted for clients from the United Nations to the BBC, General Electric to the Financial Times, and a whole host more.

    When not doing client work, he writes, teaches, and speaks about the entire gamut of front-end performance. When not doing work at all, he’s probably out on his bike.

  • Rachel Andrew

    Rachel Andrew

    Rachel Andrew is a front and back-end web developer, author and speaker. Author or co-author of 22 books including The New CSS Layout and a regular contributor to a number of publications both on and offline. Rachel is co-founder of the CMS Perch and Notist, Editor in Chief of Smashing Magazine, a Google Developer Expert and an Invited Expert to the CSS Working Group. She writes about business and technology on her own site at rachelandrew.co.uk.

  • Paul Boag

    Paul Boag

    Paul Boag is a leader in conversion optimisation, digital strategy and user experience design. He has been working with diverse organisations such as The European Commission, PUMA and Doctors Without Borders for over 25 years. Through consultancy and training, he helps organisations better connect with today’s digital consumers.

    Paul is also a well-respected figure in the digital sector. Author of six books, including Click,  Digital Adaptation and User Experience Revolution. Finally, he is a prolific writer for numerous publications, including his blog, and regularly speaks internationally.

  • Vitaly Friedman

    Vitaly Friedman

    Vitaly Friedman loves beautiful content and doesn’t like to give in easily. When he is not writing or speaking at a conference, he’s most probably running front-end/UX workshops and webinars. He loves solving complex UX, front-end and performance problems.

  • Mystery Speaker

    Mystery Speaker

    Obviously, our Mystery Speaker is a bit of a… well, Mystery. In true smashing style, you can expect something wonderful. Make sure to set your alarm on day two of the conference, because you don't want to miss this.


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