Next.js Conf – Behind the Scenes (#33)

One week until Next.js Conf! I'm taking a quick break from recording, editing, and producing content to share a behind-the-scenes look at the event.

Behind The Scenes

Virtual events are the final boss for DevRel. It's the ultimate combination of community and content creation. On the community side, there's over 60,000 folks registered to hear talks from 40+ of the brightest minds in the Next.js community. On the content side, I've been helping plan, write, produce, film, and edit multiple talks for the event, including the keynote.

Four months ago, I was a DevRel team of one. Since then, I've hired four amazing Developer Advocates to join my team. I need to write an entire post on scaling DevRel teams... but needless to say, they've been a key part of making this event happen.

With a new coat of paint and some work, I've transformed my office background for the event. I'm most excited about my talk with Kelsey Hightower, where we'll show off a new feature coming to Next.js 👀

(Another) Fresh Coat of Paint

Speaking of painting, I redesigned my site. It's now running my preferred stack:

• Framework: Next.js
• Database: PlanetScale
• ORM: Prisma
• Authentication: NextAuth.js
• Deployment: Vercel
• Content: MDX
• Styling: Tailwind CSS

Along with the redesign, I converted everything to TypeScript and added Motion One to animate my Spotify player. I even had some fun CSS deep dives during development.

Bookmarks

• Partytown - Run third-party scripts from a web worker
• Build-time Type Annotation and Syntax Highlighting
• Fresnel - SSR compatible approach to CSS media query-based responsive layouts for React
• 800x80 - Weird resolution art
• Godly - Web design inspiration
• How Netflix uses AI to pick thumbnails
• Different versions of your site can be running at the same time
• My Challenge to the Web Performance Community
• Next.js SEO Course