2016 schedule

##2016 schedule of talks

Refresh Austin meets the second Tuesday of every month, rain or shine! Here is the schedule for this year, and upcoming talks.

###Upcoming

####October 2016

First talk: Working with voice APIs and Voxable

Speaker: Matt Buck (@techpeace)

Second talk: Evaluating job offers

Speaker: Brian Showers, RetailMeNot

####November 2016

First talk: Psychology of Motivation

Speaker: Scott Hudson

Description: Learning to code in my early twenties without any prior training in hopes of landing a job was one of the hardest things I've ever attempted, and staying motivated to continue grinding through problems was incredibly challenging, especially early on in my journey. At the time, I never expected to use any of the concepts I picked up studying Exercise Science in undergrad. Looking back, one course, The Psychology of Sport and Motivation, turned out to be an invaluable resource that I have used repeatedly throughout my programming journey. The goal of this talk is to introduce others to these concepts in the hope that it will help others the way it helped me.

Second talk: Topic TBD Jon Loyens (data.world)

####December 2016

No talks — AWBASH!

###Past talks

####January 2016

First talk: Securing Applications Without Compromising User Experience

Speaker: David Vo, Sr. Application Security Consultant, Nvisium

Software is typically developed with the end user in mind. As software developers, we go to great lengths to ensure that users can have a seamless experience. However, allowing users to conveniently access their application allows attackers the opportunity to attack users with just as much ease. The eternal struggle that designers and developers face is striking a balance in design and security in order to not compromise the user but optimize his/her satisfaction. This talk will explore some practical strategies that can be implemented in order to improve the security posture of most applications without compromising on the user experience.

Second talk: The State of Refresh

Overview of 2015, and what topics do you want to hear in 2016?

####February 2016

First talk: Bots on bots on botkit

Speaker: Michael Way

The rise of the chat bots is upon us. There's a new tool to help making chat bots as simple as possible. Botkit is a node based open source project for all you need for a chat bot and possibly beyond. This is an introduction to botkit and what may be in store for the next generation of applications.

Second talk: Getting to 90,000 ft and back again in 1-piece

Speakers: Tom Dickman, Shaun Dubuque, Developers, Retail Me Not

Ever wonder what the weather is like at 90,000 ft or itching for a good use for that new GoPro camera? Perfect, join Tom Dickman and Shaun Dubuque, both from RetailMeNot's Innovation group, as they discuss the do's and don'ts of launching a payload into the far reaches of the atmosphere. This talk with touch on everything from atmospheric sensors, GPS tracking at high altitudes, launch timing/planning, and the building of custom tracking software so you can track your balloon in real-time and improve your chances of a successful recovery.

####March 2016

No meeting due to SXSW!

####April 2016

First talk: Copywriting in Git

Speaker: Michael Neal, UI/UX Designer

Attention copywriters and creative writers! Do you find yourself roaming from platform to platform, purchasing app after app, in search for the perfect distraction free writing environment that also accommodates your revision workflow, supporting experimental drafts and multiple collaborators? Why not build your own? Come see what the buzz is all about at this refresh talk, we'll lightly cover what it is like to use the free tools that developers use everyday and how you can use these tools to create your own personalized, distributable, distraction-free, writing environment for free.

Second talk: Life after bootcamp — Fighting stigmas, continuing education

Speakers: Grads from The Iron Yard, Dev Bootcamp, MakerSquare, General Assembly, Bloc, and Austin Coding Academy

Last year, we talked with fresh-off-the-boat bootcamp graduates to learn about their experiences attending a bootcamp, how they selected a bootcamp, and how they are looking for a job for the very first time in tech. This year, we're following up with more coding bootcamp grads to find out what life is truly like after a bootcamp.

####May 2016

First talk: Lightning talks

• Mateo Clarke — Civic Hacks: how to hack your city

• William Yarbrough — Cross-device experiences & designing without screens

• Ryan Joy — Bash on Ubuntu on Windows

• Alex Jones — A look back at 10 years of Refresh Austin

Second talk: #Prop1 discussion

Speaker: Joshua Baer

Let's discuss the recent outcome of #Prop1 and what it means for the Austin tech community, what we can do to move forward.

####June 2016: Javascript edition!

First talk: Javascript lightning talks!

Second talk: The Economy of Keystrokes

Speaker: Kyle Simpson

####July 2016

First talk: Impostor Syndrome

Speaker: Casey Hunt

Description: Impostor Complex: not officially recognized as a psychological disorder yet experienced by nearly everyone. As a Hybrid, I am a little bit of everything and therefore am none of those things. I’ve been an impostor all my life, literally living the mantra, “fake it ’til you make it.” Me, you, a half hour and some uncomfortable honesty. Let’s be impostors together and maybe, just maybe, I’ll help you figure out how to deal.

Second talk: Digital Security and Privacy for Non-Hackers

Speaker: Dan DeFelippi

Description: As geeks we’re expected to know everything about protecting ourselves in a hostile online environment. Data breeches are on the rise and media hype makes it sound like everyone is out to get you. Unless you work in computer security it’s hard to know the facts. This talk outlines the actual risks and simple steps you can take to protect yourself.

####August 2016

First talk: Style Guide Driven Development

Speaker: Adriana de la Cuadra

Design and development silos are very common on many projects impairing implementation and creating unhappiness among the team. Style Guide Driven Development proposes to marry these two concepts to create a happier relationship by using a Live Style Guide that both designers and developers can use to not only document but also do their work! Learn how to incorporate this approach into your development workflow and on the way how you can use the open source tool DocumentCSS to create Live Style Guides and multi-version documentation.

Second talk: Custom Properties in CSS - the What and the How

Speaker: Derek Gulledge

Description: Custom properties are a fairly new technology in CSS and can be utilized in interesting ways. This talk will explain what they are how you can use them.

####September 2016

First talk: Blurred Lines

Should designers code? Should they generalize or specialize? As a community we constantly reiterate these same arguments. What makes a great team is when each member’s lines of responsibility blurs into that of others. At thoughtbot, designers have a wide range of responsibilities from business strategy to graphic design, to implementing a great user experience in the app. Kyle discusses why this has been successful for their teams and how designer and developer lines blur together at thoughtbot.

Speaker: Kyle Fiedler (@kylefiedler) leads a design team of about 30 designers at thoughtbot. He enjoys working through complex problems and coming up with simple solutions using tools such as research, design thinking, design sprints, and jobs-to-be-done to help him best understand what a product is trying to solve. He loves shipping early and iterating.

Second talk: Hackathoning a Salary

Speaker: Hannah Oppenheimer (@opihana)

Description: Get rich quick! Or not. Either way, participating in a hackathon can be a rewarding (and weird) experience. I was lucky enough to win a few hackathons, earn $60,000 doing it, and even got a real job out of it. I’ll tell you what my teams did well, what we failed miserably on, and how it actually helped us become better developers and designers in a startup environment.