Cofamedia Blog

I was fortunate to attend the recent World Wearable Congress 2015 (#wwc2015) in San Francisco last week. I attended the inaugural Glazed Con conference in 2013 and back then there only about 200 attendees. This year there were over 1000 people from all over the world including Germany, Iran, Hong Kong, Russia, Israel and yes even a flying Dutchman.

The world of web development continues to change as the latest trends are revealed. Many careers offer continuing education to further develop the necessary skills to remain on the cutting edge; anyone in the web development niche understands how important it is to stay on top of the game in the industry. An important component of maximizing your skill set is to participate in the many conferences that are geared at helping you gain new connections, reveal the changes that are occurring in the development arena and explore hundreds of vendors with the best new products available. It is probable that several of these conferences are in your area or close-by.

2015 – The Year of Wearable Technology
Last year definitely proved to be a major one for wearable technology, including smart watches, smart jewelry and fitness bands. Apple announced their upcoming watch and Samsung released a plethora of devices. Start-ups like Pebble and Misfit were introduced to the scene, trying to get a slice of the market alongside name brand players like Microsoft and Google. In fact, an estimated $52 million in sales was reached in 2014. So how will 2015 stack against the previous year?

According to The Guardian, the launching of wearable headphones that monitor and measures your heart's electrical activity and sends the information to your smart phone is right around the corner. The Apple Watch is not the only thing to look forward to this year; a hair slide that can tell you how much ultraviolet exposure you've had on a hot summer's day is also expected to launch this season as well.

Recently I had a discussion with a Search Consultant whom mentioned how times are changing in regards to SEO and digital. He mentioned he had a client whom is extremely savvy and probably could be running some aspects of the SEO campaign themselves. These situations can be tricky as the client is very easy to communicate with for efficacy but on the same coin may challenge the authority of strategy from time to time.

In today's modern world your business revolves around much more than just the basics like supply and demand. What used to work for business owners isn't as effective in today's constantly-changing technological markets. Even the most important aspect of business – sales has drastically shifted; face-time used to be of extreme importance in closing a sale but now designing web platforms to pop or ranking higher on search engines is just as important of an aspect to closing a sale.

What Separates Magento As a Leading eCommerce Platform

The rise of technology has provided business owners with a variety of new opportunities to enhance growth and promote sales in a cost-effective manner. With the ability to master trends such as social media, paid media, search engine optimization and website design/development companies now have the advantage of  being specialized in one leading platform or skilled trade and dominating that niche. Businesses that have not managed to integrate into the technological world may find their brand diminishing, even if they were previously at the top of their industry's tier. E-Commerce makes it possible for consumers to buy and sell online with no barriers of distance or time, providing an important element of convenience.

Any serious web developer or designer knows that there are web conferences and expos taking place all around the globe that enhance skills, creates rapport among other professionals and should be engaging. Events are available that offer something for everyone, regardless of background. The industry is constantly changing; what worked a year ago most likely won't work this year. It is impossible to stay one step ahead of the game without learning about the newest trends in development and refreshing your wealth of knowledge. Here's a list of some of the most well-regarded web development conferences for the 2015 year!

At Cofa Media, we are an International Web Development company. We have offices in San Diego, Amsterdam and Belgrade. Our team spans two time zones, three countries, four cities and we collectively speak six languages. We have embraced the different cultures we work with and in fact, believe that is our biggest asset. It sets us apart from other companies, because we have a tremendous library of perspective to choose from. It also widens the types of clients we can serve and has made us better communicators.

It hits you in an instant. Like a brick wall. “If I knew then, what I know now, I would have never gone down this path.” That’s an actual client quote, after we had built the client exactly what they’d asked for, despite our multiple warnings. See the client was in a hurry. They didn’t want to take the time to do a Website Discovery and they said they knew exactly what they wanted.

When you work with open-source software, you are so close to it, it’s hard to understand why everyone isn’t using it. Still there are some people that need convincing. When speaking with new potential clients we often get the same questions,

When we think of Web Development, it’s very broad and can encompass hundreds of different applications, frameworks and libraries. When you narrow that list to Enterprise Web Development, that list inevitably gets shorter. The truth is, some platforms just don’t scale.

When building websites back in the 90’s, we had to build every page from scratch. If something changed for one page, we had to make the change on every page. For larger sites, this was a nightmare. Maintenance was tedious and almost impossible to do by yourself. If you decided you wanted to change the design of your site, you basically had to throw out the old site and build a new one.