JavaScript rules the world, and staying up-to-date with the latest JS developments is a must. So sit down and relax while watching amazing talks from 2020 and 2021 online conferences.
What's your library of choice: React, Angular, Vue? Whichever that may be, JavaScript powers the web. That's why we made the following list of the best JS talks to help you stay in the loop. It doesn't matter if you're a beginner or a pro looking for advanced JavaScript courses — we've got you covered.
The list features hands-on tutorials on data visualization or neurotechnology but also talks regarding the philosophy and the future of the language. So dive in and enjoy!
Shawn Swyx Wang: The third age of JavaScript
The way we write JavaScript in 2030 will be completely different than in 2020, predicts Shawn Swyx Wang. And he says why: the slow death of IE11 and rollout of ES Modules will converge toward a new generation of JavaScript tooling. These tools are faster, typesafer, and polyglot, leading to better developer and user experience, and you can get familiar with them in this talk.
Charlie Gerard: Building brain-controlled interfaces in JavaScript
Neurotechnology uses technological tools to understand more about the brain and enable a direct connection with the nervous system. Research in this space is not new; however, its accessibility to JavaScript developers is.
Over the past few years, brain sensors have become available to the public, with tooling that makes it possible for web developers to experiment with building brain-controlled interfaces. As this technology is evolving and unlocking new opportunities, Charlie Gerard looks into one of the latest devices available, how it works, the possibilities it opens up, and explains how to start building your first mind-controlled app using JavaScript.
Stuart Langridge: You really don't need all that JavaScript, I promise
JavaScript is the way to add interactivity to your sites, provide a slick and delightful user experience, and make everything fast, easy, and clean. But at some point, everything changed: the tail started to wag the dog instead, and development became Javascript-first.
In this video, Stuart Langridge talks about how you maybe shouldn't rely on JS as much as you're told to and gives some practical strategies for building sites without reaching for a JS framework as the first, last, and only tool for making the web happen.
Lin Clark: Making JavaScript on WebAssembly fast
JavaScript runs many times faster in the browser than it did two decades ago. And that happened because the browser vendors spent that time working on intensive performance optimizations in their JavaScript engines. Because of this, JS is now running in many places besides the browser. But there are still some environments where the JS engines can't apply those optimizations in the right way to make things fast.
As Lin Clark explains, her team at Fastly and she are working to solve this, beginning a whole new wave of JavaScript optimization work. In this talk, she'll show you how to improve JavaScript performance for entirely different environments using WebAssembly.
Alexander Esselink: Future of Svelte
"I've been looking for a good reactive application platform for a long time. At some point, a friend of mine introduced me to Svelte, and I immediately fell in love with it," says Alexander Esselink, aka Dexter, a full-stack developer at Passionate People. In this talk, he'll give you a comprehensive introduction to the future of Svelte, which is one of his favorite tools for building web applications.
Gil Fink: Using data visualization to fight Covid-19
The year 2020 will be remembered as the year of the Covid-19 pandemic. During the lockdowns, Gil Fink was involved in building a web app for the government health department. The app visualized the chain of infection and helped decision-makers understand the characteristics of the virus spreading and other aspects. In this talk, Gil speaks about how he used D3 and React to build the app.
Chloe Noh: DIY data visualization in JavaScript
As long as you have an idea about what you want to show, you can use JavaScript to collect and visualize data, says Chloe Noh. In this video, she'll show you her process of data visualization, from selecting the main subjects and key indices for storytelling to choosing the right type of visualization charts.
Jason Mayes: TensorFlow.JS 101 – ML in the browser and beyond
Discover how to embrace machine learning in JavaScript using TensorFlow.js in the browser and beyond in this speedy talk Jason Mayes. Get inspired through a whole bunch of creative prototypes that push the boundaries of what is possible in the modern web browser and take your first steps with machine learning in minutes.
By the end of the talk, you will understand how to recognize an object of your choice, which could then be used in any creative way. Familiarity with JavaScript is assumed, but no background in machine learning is required.
