(Note 2026-09-02: This is a recap of Web à Québec 2019. The roles, affiliations, technologies and statements reported here reflect what was presented at the event.)
Here is a glimpse of the talks I had the chance to attend on the first day of Web à Québec!
Aaron Draplin, Draplin Design Co
Draplin Design Co founder Aaron Draplin spoke eloquently about his life and how he created the lifestyle he wanted.
His exuberant, pop-art design style has appeared in projects for the United States government, Bernie Sanders’s campaign and NASA.
Take a look at the Draplin Design Co website.
Ross Simmonds, Content isn’t King anymore
We saw a demonstration of why content is no longer king. Distribution is! From constant algorithm changes to featured snippets that keep visitors inside Google’s ecosystem, Ross showed why it is risky to keep all your eggs in one basket and why distribution should be diversified. As he put it, content isn’t king anymore, distribution is. He suggested finding the community interested in your subject, creating relevant content for it and distributing that content within the community.
Visit Ross Simmonds’s website: https://rosssimmonds.com/
Tin Kadoic, Airbnb
Designing designers time
The title “designer” means something quite different today, and is much broader than graphic, web or UI/UX designer. Tin Kadoic explained that designers should manage their careers as they would design a product, and should be intentional about the skills they learn. They need to learn what will help them reach the place they want to go.
He also made a detour into his view of a good manager, explaining the difference between a “Talker-Talker,” a “Talker-Maker” and a “Maker-Maker.” He said that the best managers are the best individual contributors who are forced to become managers to accomplish their goals. They are “Maker-Makers” who become “Talker-Makers.” He did not have much praise for “Talker-Talkers,” however!
Visit Tin Kadoic’s website: https://blackduke.com/
Daria Hvizdalova
AI != Robotics: Backend Enablement
In a fascinating talk, this engineer from the Czech Republic explained the difference between robotic process automation (RPA), which can be carried out entirely through software, and industrial automation, which combines software and hardware to replace people in tasks that are too dangerous or at which humans are inefficient. Surprisingly, industrial automation processes were generally at level 1. The robots were programmed to perform a very specific task, with no ability to adapt and no sensors that would let them change their behaviour according to their environment. She also discussed cobots, robots that work alongside humans in industrial settings, noting that they were not yet very effective.
She also explained the difference between narrow AI, capable of performing a single task such as playing chess, and broad AI, the term used in the talk for an AI capable of reasoning and learning by itself. We are still a long way from broad AI!
Visit Daria’s LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dariahvizdalova
Lea Pica
The PICA Protocol™: Your Prescription for Healthy, Actionable Data Storytelling
Lea Pica is a leading authority on data storytelling. She presented her approach to detoxing corporate visualizations through the PICA protocol: Purpose, Insights, Context, Aesthetics. To have an impact, a visualization must have a specific purpose and answer a business question. It must provide an insight, an angle that is not immediately visible in the data. It must be analyzed in context, which means checking whether other sources of data might confirm or contradict what it presents. Finally, it must follow clear aesthetic principles so the message is not lost in the medium.
Visit Lea Pica’s website: https://leapica.com/