What can you do with just 10 kilobytes?

An Event Apart and MIX Online challenge you to show the web (and the world) what you’re made of by packing the best, coolest thing you can imagine into a mere 10,240 bytes of HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, plus any required images and ensuring it runs in multiple browsers. Think you can do that? Submit your entry to the 10K Apart Challenge and you could win one of over $10K in prizes!

Waiting for the Grand Prize winner: admission to any An Event Apart of their choosing and a $3,000 Visa cash card to use as they see fit. For three Runners-Up, admission to An Event Apart and a $1,000 cash card await. Furthermore, all winners, including those who earn an Honorable Mention, will receive a print copy of Jeremy Keith’s acclaimed HTML5 For Designers.

To make things a little bit easier, the rules allow you to use hosted versions of jQuery and Prototype without counting against the limit. You can similarly use TypeKit to make your fonts extra-sweet and not lose ground in the race to first place. The merits of every entry will be assessed by our panel of judges: Whitney Hess, Jeremy Keith, Nicole Sullivan, Eric Meyer, and Jeffrey Zeldman. Can you impress—nay, inspire—such a lineup? There’s only one way to find out.

Earning a place in the 10K hall of fame won’t be easy, but it will be a truly satisfying accomplishment for those who can do so. Will one of them be you? Show us what 10K can do!

The Topics You Need For Web Design in 2010

An Event Apart achieves this level of relevancy via topics like “Mobile First!” with Luke Wroblewski, former design chief design architect for Yahoo!, who explains the three reasons web applications should be designed for mobile before you even think about designing the desktop PC version.

We stay focused on web design’s new challenges as leading designers and CSS experts Eric Meyer, Andy Clarke, Ethan Marcotte, and Dan Cederholm cover the ins and outs of CSS3—including reconfiguring your page layout to suit the device on which it’s viewed, via flexible grids, flexible images, and CSS3 media queries.

Above all, we focus on creating great user experiences, as illuminated by Whitney Hess, Aarron Walter, Kristina Halvorson, Jared Spool, Erin Malone, Jeremy Keith, Jeffrey Veen, and Jeffrey Zeldman.

Our First Three Shows of 2010 Sold Out

This emphasis on cutting-edge skills and emerging best practices as taught by many of our field’s leading lights may be why every An Event Apart show this year—Seattle, Boston, and now Minneapolis—has sold out.

If you’ve missed your chance to attend these events, you’ll be happy to know that there are still two more opportunities to attend An Event Apart in 2010: a three-day show September 16-18, in Washington, DC; and a two-day event November 1-2, in beautiful San Diego, California.

The DC show includes A Day Apart, an optional one-day learning event on HTML5 and CSS3, taught by Jeremy Keith (author, HTML5 For Web Designers) and Ethan Marcotte (co-author, Designing With Web Standards, 3rd Edition and Handcrafted CSS). Visit aneventapart.com to learn more. You can register just for An Event Apart or just for A Day Apart — or save over $100 when you register for all three days.

Tickets for An Event Apart DC and An Event Apart San Diego are first-come, first-served, and, judging by how things have gone in the first half of the year, both shows will sell out. Don’t miss your chance to master the new techniques and opportunities of web design in 2010. Register today!

If you can’t be with us in Boston, there are three shows still to come this year: An Event Apart Minneapolis on July 26–27; An Event Apart Washington, DC (with optional A Day Apart on CSS3 and HTML5) on Sept. 16–18; and An Event Apart San Diego on Nov. 1–2. Tickets are first-come, first-served, and are going fast. Don’t miss this year’s An Event Apart for people who make websites.

• Dan Cederholm — Author, Bulletproof Web Design
• Kristina Halvorson — Author, Content Strategy for the Web
• Whitney Hess — Strategic Partner, Happy Cog
• Jeremy Keith — Author, DOM Scripting
• Erin Malone — Co-author, Designing Social Interfaces
• Ethan Marcotte — Co-author, Handcrafted CSS
• Jared Spool — Founder, User Interface Engineering
• Jeff Veen — Author, Art & Science of Web Design
• Aarron Walter — Author, Building Findable Websites
• Luke Wroblewski — Author, Web Form Design
• Eric Meyer — Author, CSS: The Definitive Guide
• Jeffrey Zeldman — Author, Designing With Web Standards, 3rd Edition

Save money when you register early

There are twelve great sessions in all, from the leading creative minds in web design and development. And because An Event Apart is a uniquely single-track event, you never have to decide which session to skip, which session to see. Come see them all!

Register through June 28 and save $100 off your conference pass. Hurry: tickets are first-come, first-served, and seating is limited.

HTML5 is the emerging standard markup language, and unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that it’s exciting, powerful, and controversial. But what does it mean for people who design websites? How does it differ from XHTML 1.0? What new semantics and capabilities does it offer, and how can we work with it in today’s browsers? No one is better poised to answer these questions than leading AEA speaker Jeremy Keith, fresh on the heels of his presentation at AEA Seattle and the publication of his new book, HTML5 For Web Designers, coming May 4, 2010 from A Book Apart.

• Learn about the history of HTML5 and the design principles that drive its development.
• Find out how new native form controls can provide a level of accessibility that stopgap emulated solutions could never match.
• Come to grips with the new structural elements and ARIA roles introduced in HTML5.
• Learn about new rich media elements that you can start using today.
• Figure out a strategy for migrating to HTML5.

The other big news in standards-based web design is CSS3, and there’s nobody better equipped to take you through the ins and outs of working with this emerging and much more powerful standard design language than AEA favorite Ethan Marcotte, co-author (with Jeffrey Zeldman) of Designing With Web Standards, 3rd Edition (New Riders, 2010).

• Learn what’s new in CSS3.
• Master progressive enrichment with CSS3 that works today.
• Explore web fonts and the future of type.
• Enjoy flexible color with RGBA.
• Experiment with transitions and transformations for happy modern browsers.

A Day Apart DC follows An Event Apart DC on Saturday, September 18. It is a day of concentrated learning you don’t want to miss! You can register just for An Event Apart or just for A Day Apart — or save over $100 when you register for all three days. Dozens of your colleagues have registered already, so don’t put it off–claim your seat today!

Boston, capital of Massachusetts, land of Puritans, patriots, and host of the original Tea Party. Center of high technology and higher education. Where the John Hancock Tower signs its name in the clouds and the sky-scraping Prudential Tower adds a whole new meaning to the term, “high finance.” Beantown. Cradle of liberty, Athens of America, the walking city, and five-time host to America’s leading web design conference.

Act now to save $100 off the regular admission price of An Event Apart, the design conference for people who make websites, sponsored by Adobe, Aquent, Extensis, and Media Temple. Join us May 24-25, 2010 at the Boston Marriott Copley Place in Boston’s beautiful Back Bay for two jam-packed days of learning and inspiration with…

• Dan Cederholm — Author, Bulletproof Web Design
• Andy Clarke — Author, Transcending CSS
• Kristina Halvorson — Author, Content Strategy for the Web
• Jeremy Keith — Author, DOM Scripting
• Ethan Marcotte — Co-author, Handcrafted CSS
• Jared Spool — Founder, User Interface Engineering
• Nicole Sullivan — Co-author, Even Faster Websites
• Jeff Veen — Author, Art & Science of Web Design
• Aarron Walter — Author, Building Findable Websites
• Luke Wroblewski — Author, Web Form Design
• Eric Meyer — Author, CSS: The Definitive Guide
• Jeffrey Zeldman — Author, Designing With Web Standards, 3rd Edition

The usual price for two days, twelve great speakers, and twelve sessions on web standards, best practices, great design, and inspiration (plus meals, a party, and swag) is $995. But if you register by April 23, which is now just over a week away, you’ll pay only $895.

Seats for this event are limited and going fast, so don’t delay a moment longer—register today!

As is our way, the survey will be open for the next week and should literally take no more than a minute to finish. Please take just a few seconds to let us know where you’re planning to go—your input is always appreciated!

A couple of weeks back, we asked you to take a moment and tell us about your favorite social networks. Just over 850 of you responded—partly thanks to people spreading the word on various social networks—and here are the top five vote-getters:

1. Twitter
2. Facebook
3. Flickr
4. LinkedIn
5. Ning

Interestingly, while we had quite a few people fill in the blank with their favorite social networks, none of the write-in candidates came close to cracking the top five.

Thanks to everyone who participated, and be on the lookout for our next quick survey by subscribing to our newsletter, RSS feed, Twitter account, Facebook page, Flickr tag, LinkedIn group, and Ning network!

• Dan Cederholm — Author, Bulletproof Web Design
• Andy Clarke — Author, Transcending CSS
• Kristina Halvorson — Author, Content Strategy for the Web
• Jeremy Keith — Author, DOM Scripting
• Ethan Marcotte — Co-author, Handcrafted CSS
• Jared Spool — Founder, User Interface Engineering
• Nicole Sullivan — Co-author, Even Faster Websites
• Jeff Veen — Author, Art & Science of Web Design
• Aarron Walter — Author, Building Findable Websites
• Luke Wroblewski — Author, Web Form Design
• Eric Meyer — Author, CSS: The Definitive Guide
• Jeffrey Zeldman — Author, Designing With Web Standards, 3rd Edition

Save money when you register early

There are twelve great sessions in all, from the leading creative minds in web design and development. And because An Event Apart is a uniquely single-track event, you never have to decide which session to skip, which session to see. Come see them all!

Register through April 23 and save $100 off your conference pass. Hurry: tickets are first-come, first-served, and seating is limited.