Besides the name, the entire core foundation has changed.
This question came up recently by someone who had either attended back in the early days or that knew of our event, but they (understandably) saw us as it was in 2009.
I think the vibes you came away with in the 2009 and 2010 events would be recognised, but content and the core messaging has changed quite significantly.
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The event was founded on the premise that there weren’t any (dedicated) JavaScript conferences in the UK at the time, and I wanted something to fulfil my own desire to see that change. I wanted an event that I would want to attend.
The first line up in 2009 was mostly brought about by asking the question: who do I know or could reach that talk about JavaScript things? I can’t say for certain, but I suspect the outreach was "can you speak" rather than "can you speak about…".
Immediately I knew I wanted a rule that prevented speakers from repeating (this was a preventative measure to get me to reach outside of my circles).
The follow 2010 event still had a JavaScript flavour but was already showing signs of morphing into something different (albeit I wouldn’t start working on the diversity until 2012).
I remember Dan Webb (who spoke in 2010) saying that he realised at the end of the event he was the only speaker to show code in his slides.
By 2018, the 10th conference, I think the entire shape had changed. Talks like "Mentoring: Being the help you wish you'd had", "Dear Developer, the Web Isn't About You" and "Weird Web & Curious Creation" were all based in the idea of helping others and ourselves to become better Web Citizens.
People who had attended told me that the talks they saw at FFConf were talks they never expected to see - in a positive way. "Capitalism, The Web, And You" was an excellent example of that in 2019 along with "Working towards a greener world from behind the keyboard" or "Programming with Yarn" (although I've only included 3 talks, they're all superb, or certainly to me).
The talks at FFConf continue along this line of thinking. How can we learn to be better versions of ourselves - and so that we can help others.
From the talks on the day, you won't learn how to add aria roles to a tabbing system, but you will learn how your junior developers are being affected by learning from LLMs spouting code at them. You won't learn what the latest additions to JavaScript syntax is, but you will learn how the latest technology has been used to exploit your privacy and the ethics of how developers' decisions landed them there.
You won't learn what a blog post, a tiktok or chatgpt can give you. You'll come away inspired and fired up and (hopefully, usually!) excited to work. It's a hard one to measure, and hard to explain to a business "what's the ROI?", but if we are happy, keen or even excited to work, then the ROI is always a net positive.
So that's what FFConf is in 2025. It's an event chooses people over technology, that aims to inspire and motivate, and that champions a better web.
