July 2010 Meetup

Posted by Jason Beaird

July 20, 2010

Greetings Columbia web peeps! We’re nearing the end of July which means it’s almost time for another informative Refresh Columbia meetup. Accessibility is one of those topics our clients often ask about and a key benefit we point to when promoting web standards; but how much do we really know about it? We’re sure to know a lot more after Will McCain’s talk this month. Also, we’ve covered content management systems in the past, but we’ve never been given the CMS lowdown by an honorary superhero. Kris Black is sure to save the day with his stories of suspense, site design and Squarespace.

Thirsty Fellow I’m excited to announce that we now have over 150 people subscribed to our email list and 128 fans of our Facebook page, but we typically only have 20-30 people show up at our monthly meetups. While we work hard to line up interesting and relevant talks each month, the main purpose of Refresh is to build a community of local web designers, developers, freelancers, project managers, business owners, animators, videographers, photographers and anyone else whose personal and professional endeavors focus on the web. If you’ve never made it out to one of our meetups before or if it’s been a while, we hope you can make it out this month. Since our meetups start at 6, we like to pick a place to hang out afterwards for dinner and drinks. This month we’ll be headed to Thirsty Fellow for some great local pizza and nerdy conversation. Even if you can’t make it to the meetup, feel free to join us at Thirsty Fellow around 7:30pm.

This Month’s Talks:

Access Denied

Will McCain (@aisyrn) – SC Assistive Technology Program
We all want the world to appreciate the work we do, but not everybody is able to get around the Internet with the same ease. That’s where Assistive Technology comes in. Will is going to give a brief overview of the primary standards for Internet accessibility. Next, he’ll give a demonstration of common problems that users with disabilities have to overcome along with examples of some of the technology that they use to deal with them. He’ll wrap up with suggestions on how to avoid common accessibility and usability problems.

Squarespace Superhero

Kris Black (@krisblack) – krisblack.com
When it comes to content management systems, there is no shortage of options to choose from. Kris has been using Squarespace to build websites for his clients since 2004, long before he was hired by the company as a customer support architect. He’ll be talking about what Squarespace is, how it differs from all the other CMS options out there & why you should give it a try for your next website project.

Featured Book:

Thanks to the user group partnerships advertised in the sidebar, we give away a free book at each of our meetups. This month we’ll be giving away a copy of Rework by Jason Freid & David Heinemeier Hansson. We’ll choose a random attendee from the sign-in list, so be sure to show up and sign-in for a chance to win.

When: July 28th, 2010 at 6pm
Where: USC Swearingen Faculty Lounge – 301 Main Street (map)
Topic: Accessibility & Squarespace
RSVP: On Facebook

Monthly Meetup