{"id":13942,"date":"2024-08-29T09:16:16","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T08:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/?p=13942"},"modified":"2025-10-21T12:25:33","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T11:25:33","slug":"oliver-lindberg-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/oliver-lindberg-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Oliver Lindberg, Founder & Curator of Pixel Pioneers Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Oliver Lindberg is the founder & curator of Pixel Pioneers, a popular web development & UX\/UI conference. He is also an award-winning editor and content consultant, with experience across the digital marketing landscape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were thrilled that Oliver was able to take some time to speak to us about how he got started in the web industry, what it\u2019s like curating & running a conference, and his thoughts on how AI will change the industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hi Oliver, thanks for speaking with us today. Can you start off by explaining how you got started in the web industry?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My background is in journalism, and this year I\u2019m celebrating my 20th anniversary in the web industry!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I first got involved with it through my time on .net magazine, which started as a kind of fanzine for the internet before it evolved into the leading print publication for web designers and developers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was its editor for a few years and as a brand extension also co-founded a conference for web designers called Generate. We did editions in London, New York, San Francisco and even Sydney.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016, I decided it was time for me to start my own thing and went freelance.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back, the timing was perfect: Both the magazine and the conference folded right at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time I ventured out on my own, I had fallen in love with the web community. I really enjoy curating and producing engaging, useful content that connects with people all over the world. And that\u2019s what I now do as an independent editor, content consultant, and conference organiser.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congratulations on the 20-year anniversary! So, for those who aren\u2019t familiar, how would you describe Pixel Pioneers?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pixel Pioneers<\/a> is an affordable community conference for front-end developers and UX\/UI designers that helps them build better websites or apps and become better at their jobs. This June we ran our 6th edition<\/a> already!\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And where did the idea for Pixel Pioneers come from?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love bringing people together for in-person events, but a lot of industry conferences are very expensive.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to create an affordable conference and bring it to the doorstep of a vibrant tech community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s important for me to create an event that didn\u2019t just leave attendees inspired but that they left with lots of practical takeaways that they could apply straight away on their return to the office.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We therefore have a Call for Speakers<\/a> that\u2019s open all year round, and I personally review each speaking proposal and hand-craft the schedule until the mix is just right.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Web dev and UI\/UX can be quite broad topics, how do you cater to different experience levels when planning an event like this? <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diversity is an essential part of Pixel Pioneers, and this applies to the speakers, the attendees, and the topics alike.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We make sure that the talks are accessible to all experience levels, from beginners to pros, and that there is a variety of topics covering all kinds of aspects related to front-end development and UX\/UI design.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s nice to see developers attend with designers as it improves collaboration between the two teams. <\/em> <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

To broaden the range of the attendees, we also offer a massive ticket discount for students and run a diversity scholarship scheme<\/a> that enables members of underrepresented or marginalised groups in tech to attend the conference free of charge.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You mentioned that you\u2019ve now run 6 editions of Pixel Pioneers, over that time, how have you seen the conference space change? I imagine covid had a significant impact?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the pandemic I had to put Pixel Pioneers on pause for a couple of years. So it was amazing to see the community come out again in person when we restarted the conference, and in 2023 we even sold out! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, COVID and the big waves of layoffs we\u2019ve since seen in the tech industry have had a significant impact on conferences \u2013 especially smaller, independent ones like Pixel Pioneers.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Many events didn\u2019t come back or were cancelled due to skyrocketing costs and poor ticket sales. <\/em> <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Education budgets have been slashed, and at the same time social media isn\u2019t what it used to be, and so we have to do more \u2013 and more varied \u2013 marketing to get the word out about the event.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Independent events also rely on sponsorships, both to help cover the costs and to keep the ticket price low, and I\u2019m hugely grateful for 20i\u2019s continued support over the last few years.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do think that it\u2019s cyclical: When the economy is booming again, education budgets will go up as well.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while we\u2019ve sadly lost many great events, I believe there\u2019s always space for smaller community events as their atmosphere is so much more enjoyable as what you experience at the big corporate conferences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning together and the chats that happen in the breaks that can lead to new friendships, relationships, and even new jobs and projects \u2013 that\u2019s what a community conference is all about.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being in the web space, it\u2019s hard to ignore the rise of AI. We recently ran a survey which showed that 90% of web designers, and 82% of devs use AI in their work on a weekly basis – what do you think the future holds for the industry with regards to AI?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s been a lot of hype around AI but I don\u2019t believe that it\u2019ll make designers and developers redundant.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, AI is already creating some new jobs (such as the role of the  \u2018AI engineer<\/a>\u2019) and tools like ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, and Adobe Firefly can significantly boost our productivity.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Machines have no soul, of course, so we still need people to add a unique human touch to whatever AI is generating.<\/em>  <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Ethics are massively important, too, and as AI is prone to errors and bias, we also need to employ critical thinking and fact check anything that AI returns to our prompts. This means not treating AI-generated outputs as sources of truth but using AI to augment our work instead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more on the impact of AI on web design and development, watch Christian Heilmann\u2019s excellent keynote from last year\u2019s Pixel Pioneers conference:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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