jQuery Chicago Roundup!

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With just over a month until we set forth for the Windy City for the first jQuery Conference in Chicago, the moment’s opportune to bring you up to speed on what we’ve got in store for you this September!

Whatchu Talkin’ Bout?

Our speakers and talks are the highlight of any jQuery conference; our lineup in Chicago is no exception. We aim to cover a broad selection of subjects from across the realm of web development, from our jQuery Foundation projects like jQuery, jQuery UI, and jQuery Mobile (so we’ll be having talks from project leads Dave Methvin, Scott González, and Alex Schmitz) to the new frontiers where JavaScript now treads (so we’ve got Lisa Deluca talking about using Arduino and Cordova together, and Micah Ransdell talking about Netflix’s adoption of Node.js). We know you want to know more about the future of the open web platform, and that’s why we’re happy to have folks like John K. Paul to go over coming changes to the language in ECMAScript 6, and TJ VanToll and Kevin Hakanson to discuss new browser APIs for form validation and cryptography.

A lot of you come to conferences to learn practical things you can take home with you, and that’s why we’re excited about sessions from (among others) Brian Arnold and Cory Gackenheimer on debugging techniques and Phil Dutson on the process of building a jQuery plugin.  We know, however, that there’s a lot more to releasing code than, well, writing code, and we’re happy to have Kassandra Perch, Alex Sexton, and Kelly Andrews joining us to talk about how to choose and use tools to ship and support the projects we work on. And we know some of you travel to conferences for the fun and games, and we’re thrilled to have Sara Gorecki and Bodil Stokke on hand to talk about building games with web technology.

This is just a handful of the speakers and subjects that’ll be on our Chicago stage(s), and we invite you to take a few minutes to check out our entire program to see what else is on the docket!

Can You Hack It At #jqcon?

Of course you can! In Chicago, however, we’re partnering with MaxCDN, DigitalOcean, and MediaTemple to officially encourage you to do so! We’ve got a wealth of data about how folks use the jQuery CDN at code.jquery.com, and it’s up to you to help us understand it. The hackathon starts the night before the conference on September 11th, and you’re free to use any medium you see fit to play with the data, whether it’s a web application or a robot. Our sponsors have stepped up to reward three participants with bountiful rewards, so we hope you join us to team up, explore, and build!

Coming Home to Roost

We’re partnering with Bocoup for the second time this year to extend our trip to Chicago with Roost, a two-day intensive class on building modern web applications taught by Ashley Williams, Ben Alman, Irene Ros, and Mike Pennisi. Roost is targeted at developers who already know JavaScript, jQuery, HTML, and CSS, and are looking to understand how to develop a better workflow for building, testing, and maintaining their applications and incorporate technologies like Backbone, RequireJS, Stylus, and more. You can check out the full training curriculum and schedule to find out exactly what’s planned.

Accommodations

Both jQuery Conference and Roost are taking place at the Sheraton Chicago in the heart of the city, so the hotel’s a convenient place to stay for the purposes of both your edification and your vacation. We’re only able to offer a discounted rate of $269 per night until August 15th, so make sure to make your reservation in our room block as soon as you can! Staying in our room block is a really helpful way you can help the jQuery Foundation fulfill some of the large financial commitment we’ve made by setting up shop in Chicago.

Brought To You By

Our sponsors and foundation members make a huge difference in our ability to host an awesome jQuery Conference for the community, and we’re happy to take a moment to thank them right here! So here’s a big THANKS to Diamond sponsors WordPress and IBM, Platinum sponsor MediaTemple, Gold sponsors MaxCDN, Bocoup, BrowserStack, Mandrill & DigitalOcean, and Silver sponsors Pebble & Accenture. (We’re still welcoming sponsors – if you’d like to have your company be a part of #jqcon, please reach out!)

Student Discount

We’re glad to be able to offer a discount to current students interested in attending jQuery Conference or Roost. Please get in touch with us for more information on how you can save $150 on tickets to one event, or $200 on a combination ticket. We know the discount is modest, but this is only the second time we’ve been able to offer a student discount of any kind, and we hope it helps. Please be advised that if you use this discount, you’ll need to show a valid student ID at registration.

Join Us

The summer’s been flying by and we can’t believe we’re only five weeks out, and we hope you’ll consider joining us on our trip (or that you’ve already booked your ticket!). Check out the conference site for more on our program and speakers, lodging, and to buy your tickets. If you have any questions, always feel free to get in touch with us on Twitter or via e-mail.