Speakers

The hunt for shiny front-end & UX treasures has begun! For our eight SmashingConf we’ll explore illustration libraries, design systems, refactoring, web performance, moving to a static site setup, CSS Grid techniques, performance, JavaScript and how to provide better estimates and authentication.
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Pablo Stanley
Pablo Stanley is a cofounder and CEO at Blush. Previously cofounder of Carbon Health, staff designer at Lyft, and lead designer at InVision. He gives talks and workshops around the world on product design, animation, illustration systems, storytelling, accessibility, behavioral economics, challenges of being a designer, and the art of comics.
Pablo has a YouTube channel called Sketch Together where he shares design tutorials, livestreams, critiques, and other random stuff. He also hosts different podcasts, including one interviewing Latinxs in the tech industry called “Diseño Cha Cha Cha.” He's the doodler behind Avataaars, Humaaans, Open Doodles, Bottts, and Buttsss. And a writer and illustrator of “The Design Team,” a comic series that follows the lives of designers working at a startup.
- Talk
- Creating Illustration Libraries
- On the web
- http://pablostanley.com/
- On Twitter
- @pablostanley
Eva Ferreira
Evangelina Ferreira is a Front-end developer and teacher. She currently works as a UI Developer and has been teaching web technologies at the National Technological University of Argentina for more than five years.
Throughout her career Evangelina has been deeply involved in the Argentinian web community. She enjoys giving workshops and talks and since 2015 she has been organizing CSSConf Argentina, an international non-profit event that brings experts from all around the globe to speak about web technologies.
In her spare time she loves reading W3C drafts as much as Harry Potter, creating animations and playing with her cats.
- Talk
- Ceci N'est Pas Un Bouton
- On the web
- http://www.evaferreira.com.ar
- On Twitter
- @evaferreira92
Laura Kalbag
Laura Kalbag is a British designer living in Ireland, and author of Accessibility For Everyone from A Book Apart. She’s one third of Small Technology Foundation, a tiny two-person-and-one-husky not-for-profit working for social justice in the digital age.
At Ind.ie, Laura follows the Ethical Design Manifesto, works on a web privacy tool called Better Blocker, and initiatives to create ethical alternatives to mainstream technology.
- Talk
- This One Weird Trick Tells Us Everything About You
- On the web
- https://laurakalbag.com
- On Twitter
- @laurakalbag
Ben Callahan
President and Founding Partner of Sparkbox, a design and software studio working hard to create a better web.
With a background in computer science, a career as a frontend developer, and a passion for growing teams, Ben brings a passion for the people of this industry to his work.
- Talk
- Selling Design Systems
- On the web
- https://bencallahan.com
- On Twitter
- @bencallahan
Jake Archibald
Jake works for Google Chrome as a developer advocate. You can usually find him moaning about web performance, features, standards, build tools, coding patterns, and fizzy-water drinkers.
- Talk
- Image Compression Deep-dive
- On the web
- https://jakearchibald.com/
- On Twitter
- @jaffathecake
Andy Davies
Andy is a Freelance Web Performance Consultant and has helped some of the UK’s leading retailers, newspapers and financial services companies make their sites faster.
He's co-author of 'Using WebPageTest' published by O'Reilly and author of 'The Pocket Guide to Web Performance'.
Andy is also one of the organisers of the London Web Performance Meetup.
- Talk
- Understanding Resource Priorities
- On the web
- https://andydavies.me
- On Twitter
- @andydavies
Mandy Michael
Mandy is a community organiser, speaker, writer and front end developer currently working as a Development Manager at Seven West Media in Western Australia. Her passion is front end technology and loves to experiment with new and old technologies to see how we can push the boundaries of what is possible on the web.
She is an avid supporter of local communities and a strong advocate for women in technology, volunteering at events across Perth and Australia including She Codes, Muses JS and various conferences and school events. Mandy is the Founder and Organiser of Fenders a local meetup for Front End Developers, co-organiser and Director of Mixin Conf. In its inaugural year she was named one of the Top 20 Women in Tech in Western Australia.
- Talk
- New Approaches To Designing For The Web
- On Twitter
- @Mandy_Kerr
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.
- On the web
- https://boagworld.com
- On Twitter
- @boagworld
Vlad Filippov
Vlad is a software engineer working on the Web at Mozilla. His work has roamed widely: from desktop web development, to mobile, Android and games. He loves software testing, automation, and reverse engineering. His current focus is the Rust programming language. In the moments he is not coding, Vlad plays tennis and reads comments on the Internet.
- On the web
- https://vladfilippov.com/
- On Twitter
- @vladikoff
Mystery Speaker
Obviously our Mystery Speaker is a bit of a… well Mystery. In true smashing style you can expect something wonderful, so we’re very excited.
- Talk
- Mystery Speaker