If you can’t make it to Ottawa, are interested in other workshops, or if you’d like us to bring the workshop to another location, let us know where and when you’d like us to make the workshop happen and we’ll be happy to investigate bringing it to your area or to your in-house team.

If you can’t wait until June 15th, you might also check out what we’re doing at other conferences in the next few months (please, check out the full list of events where I’m speaking)

Web App Summit, Newport Beach, CA, April 19-22

I spoke at the Web App Summit last year, and it was a fantastic experience; I’m really excited that the UIE team has asked me back for the 2009 Web App Summit. This event brings together an amazing pool of talent — the attendees, the conference organizers and the other speakers.

In addition to my main conference talk, I’m turning out a new full-day workshop for this conference that pulls together foundational concepts in Ajax technology and design with best practices for implementation and execution. The workshop — Designing Great Interactive Experiences for Everyone: Implementing Ajax and Accessibility — is for those that are looking for a kick start with Ajax, those that are looking for opportunities to use Ajax in their new or existing web apps, and those that need to ensure they follow best practices for developing with Ajax.

Use the promo code FEATHER to get your discount.

Access U, Austin, TX, May 11-14

Access U 2009 is full-on accessibility. I’ve been speaking at Access U since 2005 for Knowbility. If you’re looking for more accessibility than you can handle, this is the place to get it. From Accessibility 101, to CSS, JavaScript, Accessibility Policy, PDF, Flash, and a lot more. New to this conference is the UPA track.

I’m also debuting a new full-day workshop: Breaking New Ground: Designing for Accessibility with Emerging Technologies. The workshop takes a look at different technologies: PDF, Flash, Flex, Silverlight and others from a fresh perspective: how do we work with these technologies in a modern world where WCAG 2.0 is the standard and the days of WCAG 1.0′s “use HTML or it isn’t accessible” are gone.

An Event Apart, Boston, MA, June 21-22

No workshops for me this time, just a brand new presentation that explores “Accessibility – Experiments at the Edges of Experience.” In this talk we walk through a host of examples of accessibility at the edge, looking at solutions that solve problems and shine light in some of the murkiest, greyest areas of accessibility for web sites and apps.

Use the promo code AEAVIP for your discount off the registration fee for An Event Apart Boston 2009.

What does all this have to do with An Event Apart you might ask? Well, my plan was to head to San Francisco and train at least three or four times while I was there — a couple of runs, a swim or two, and I wouldn’t fall far off my schedule, save for the day traveling home. Easy, right? Not so much.

I met up with Eric Meyer at SFO, headed to the hotel, checked in then went with Eric to eat. Once we were done that, we explored a small portion of San Francisco then headed back to the hotel. A short hour later, and we were on our way to the speaker dinner. Follow that with:

• two days of the best food I’ve ever eaten at a conference
• social drinks and good conversation with Daniel Burka, Ben Bykowski of optiem, Andrew and Arquay of CBS interactive, Greg Storey, Luke Dorny and many more at the media temple opening party
• more drinks at the AEA post festivities at the House of Shields with Hillary, Wes, Jeremy and Lauren of objectadjective
• more food and drink at 21st amendment with Ruth, Dan, Ryan, Ethan (wish you guys could have stayed longer) and…

Well… you get the picture.

Combine the food, drink and time spent in sessions when I thought I might have a chance to workout can be best summarized thusly:

Total workouts while in San Francisco = 0
Total pounds gained while in San Francisco = 6

Yes, 6.

And all the richer? Well, that has everything to do with the richness of the conference experience itself. I speak at quite a few conferences and I’m not often able to make the time to see all of the other speakers/sessions. This time, I did. I couldn’t help it — I wanted to be there for all of the sessions. All of the speakers were engaging, the audience was intelligent, eager and switched on and the overall organization of the conference was impeccable.