Web developer conferences are a great way to learn about developments in the industry and understand the fundamentals of a particular topic. Today I would like to share a collection of some of my favourite talks.

1. How to Begin Thinking like a Programmer 🤔👩🏽‍💻

Level: Beginner
Event: IndyPy 2016

Andy Harris relates his years of teaching experience to shed light on the common misconceptions of both teaching and learning programming. It's a great talk for newbies and experienced devs alike.

2. Web Requests, Down to the Atom 🕸⚛

Level: Beginner
Event: Web Unleashed 2019

As the name implies, Chris Zacharias talk on the web fundamentals goes into minute detail about what happens under the hood. As mentioned in his talk, understanding the fundamentals lets us become better at identifying performance opportunities among other benefits.

3. 4 Programming Paradigms in 45 Minutes ⏲👩🏻‍🏫

Level: Beginner
Event: Ruby Conf 2017

Aja Hammerly's

One of the most important lessons I've learned is that programming languages are tools and not all tools are good for all jobs. You'll leave this talk with a better understanding of which languages are best suited to which types of jobs and a list of resources for learning more.

I enjoy the academic spirit of this talk. It will give you an insight into what students learn in a university Computer Science course.

4. 6 Things Your Junior Devs Don't Tell You 👀😶

Level: Intermediate
Event: You Gotta Love Front End 2016

While Netta Bondly's talk targeted for senior developers it is also truly encouraging for newbies. She gives helpful guidelines to ensure you provide an environment to foster the growth of your junior developers. This is a must-see for developers seeking leadership roles.

5. The UX Infinity Gems 6 Ways to Create Great UX 💎🎨

Level: Intermediate
Event: DevCon 2017

Jordan Lawerence's talk gives a great demonstration in applying the fundamentals UI/UX design in a web application.

6. What the heck is the event loop anyway? 🎉➰

Level: Intermediate
Event: JSConf EU 2014

This is one of the de facto talks available for understanding the asynchronous javascript runtime. Philip Roberts gives a visual and straightforward explanation of a unique and important mechanism in the javascript interpreter.

7. Static generated sites === great performance. What are you waiting for? 📈📱

Level: Intermediate
Event: JAM Stack Conference 2019

Debbie O'Brien's talk sheds to light on a modern methodology for building performant web applications. This talk challenges what we typically consider to be a 'static' site and what they can do.

8. The Art of Code 🎭👨🏻‍💻

Level: Intermediate
Event: Build Stuff 2019
Dylan Beattie's gives a fascinating talk on how the areas of philosophy, science, coding and art aren't as separate one might expect. It's a fun talk about having fun with code best described by the author's own words "Beautiful, yet completely useless".

Conclusion

Those are just some of my favourite talks. If you enjoyed these talks I have a public collection with more of them that I maintain at an app called keen. What are your favourite talks? Please share in the comments!