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Web Design conferences such as SXSW and An Event Apart, to name two of the many, have always been a source of current trends and best practices from experts. These multiple day events average around $1,000 (plus hotel and travel). With the slow economy budgets are tight and attendance to conferences has most likely dropped. This opens the door for workshops offered at half the price with one or two experts covering a single topic. The following are examples (past and present) of workshops that have filled a void.

Designing for the Web workshops (£325 - full day)
Prac­tical, applic­able design the­ory
Presented by Mark Boulton

Handcrafted CSS ($450 - full day)
A Day of Markup & Style
Presented by Dan Cederholm and Ethan Marcotte

For a Beautiful Web - Master classes (£373.75 - full day)
Advanced CSS styling
Presented by Andy Clarke

Adaptive Path Virtual Seminars ($129 - 60 minutes)
The Basics of Information Architecture
Presented by Chiara Fox Ogan.

Forty Training Sessions (Free?)
Mood board development, creation, and interpretation
Presented by Amy Lamp

I read web design related articles daily via the usual sources (google reader, twitter, etc.) and feel I have a good pulse on the community. Most of these articles are positive and say great things about a website, designer, product or service. An equal amount are negative and critical of a company or service. Rarely is an article critical of an individual website or designer.

There seems to be an unwritten rule to avoid honest opinions if they may be perceived as negative which unfortunately is at the expense of some real insight and understanding. Lets face it, there is less risk in saying nice things, following the popular opinion and sugar coating things. At the same time it's always open season for negative articles towards easy targets like Microsoft and Google. Overall everyone plays is safe - "your the best.. no, your the best" or "Microsoft is evil." So when I come across a real article that cuts through the niceties and tells it like it is I read it many times, add it to delicious and post it on my blog.

The following article by Noah Stokes is that "reality check" article. The successful Web Designers are doing well for themselves and not grumbling about bad clients and IE6. These same Web Designers are successful because they are professional - they consistently do great work, they share their knowledge, they add to the web design community and they promote the profession. No whining and excuses. They actively look to make things better rather than sitting around complaining about things that are not going to change any time soon. Prime examples are Dan Cederholm (as mentioned below), Jeffrey Zeldman and Paul Boag to name just a few.

Read The State of the Web Design Profession by Noah Stokes

A Boagworld web design podcast (No. 160) interview with Aarron Walter, WaSP InterAct Project Lead, on teaching web standards and the new website.

"WaSP InterAct is a living, open curriculum based upon web standards and best practices, designed to teach students the skills of the web professional. Adapt and reuse our resources. Contribute your own content and ideas."

See also What Are Web Standards and Why Do They Matter?