Frontend Conf is a conference for South African frontend developers by South African frontend developers.
The first Frontend Conf grew out of a dissatisfaction felt by several frontend developers around the lack of representation within the annual South African conference circuit. Whereas several communities had super successful and long-standing gatherings - for example, the phenomenal PyConZA and Wordcamp events - there appeared to be a lack of inclusive, sustainable and affordable frontend development equivalents.
Goals
Frontend Conf's goal is to create such a space - a space for all current and upcoming practitioners to share knowledge and build the human connections required to develop a more resilient South African web landscape - both for practitioners and users. This means that beyond merely focusing on core frontend development technology (HTML, CSS and JavaScript), we also seek to create a space to share knowledge and practices around the fields of user experience, visual design, team dynamics, personal growth and how the frontend development community should stand in relation to the broader South African landscape.
Above all, we want to make sure that Frontend Conf is a radically inclusive space. This means that we commit ourselves to be aware of the following social realities experienced by many South Africans - while being open to making trade-offs and learning how to speak to them:
- The real-world legacy of South Africa's turbulent political history.
- How access to tech and opportunities within the tech world tend to mirror socio-economic divisions.
- The long-standing exclusion of women from the tech industry at large.
- The role that our relationship with technology plays within the current ecological crisis.
- How being aware of the above results in more frustration and unease rather than less.
History
This is the first-ever Frontend Conf. It was initially planned as an in-person event to be held at the end of 2020. However, due to the global COVID pandemic and the subsequent national lockdown, the team had to postpone it until further notice. As more details emerged at the start of 2021, it became clear that an in-person conference would not be feasible within 2021. This means that we decided to opt for an entirely virtual, two-day conference running from the 13th (Wednesday) until the 14th (Thursday) of October.
Team
The core team behind Frontend Conf is as follows (in alphabetical order):
However, all work done by the team is exclusively after-hours and with no monetary compensation. All revenue goes directly to Frontend Development South Africa, a registered non-profit (NPC Number: 2020/159987/08) which covers the operation costs of Frontend Conf. As such, the team is limited by our after-hours capacity and leave days leading up to and during the event. If our above values and goal resonate with you, please consider getting involved as a volunteer by reaching out to info@fedsa.org.