React Live Amsterdam with Emma Wedekind and all you need to know about component libraries

This September 13 (which is a Friday, btw 😁) a conference will take place in Theater Amsterdam (dubbed “Most impressive Conference Venue I have ever been to” by the creator of Vue.js Evan You).

React Live with Emma Wedekind

This time around the focus will be on live coding with React on the immensely large screen. You can expect 13+ presentations from the World’s leading React & React Native developers covering best principles and tools of the React ecosystem. In particular you will hear talks about React animations with SVG, state management with React hooks, React design patterns, React 16 updates with the newest releases, as well as plenty of other goodies.

One of the speakers will be Emma Wedekind who will tell us how to transform a component library to be accessible and how to build a style guide with Gatsby.

I got in touch with Emma recently and asked her a couple of questions to let the readers and potential conference attendees to get to know her better.

Tell us briefly about yourself and how did you become a developer and a public speaker?

I’m a Software Engineer based in Karlsruhe, Germany. I moved to Germany from the US a year and a half ago and have been traveling Europe ever since.

What are you working on at your current company/project?

I am building a design system from scratch!

What OSS stuff/hobby projects have you been working on in the last 6 months?

I have been building Coding Coach — an open source project aimed at connecting mentors and mentees (for free)! I also co-founded the Ladybug Podcast, a female-hosted code & career.

Do you have a favourite computer science concept/topic you love to geek out about?

I love implementing algorithms and data structures in JavaScript!

Is there anything in particular you love about React?

ALL OF IT!

What do you think is the current biggest challenge facing React/React Native?

I think that hooks was a huge paradigm shift for the community, but the core team has done a great job.

If React/React Native hadn’t been invented, what would you be using?

Vue.js

How many conferences have you spoken to in the past and what do you like about them the most?

Only one before, but I have 10 scheduled this year!

I see you are active on social media? What do you mainly use it for?

I use it to network and promote my blogs, podcasts, and open-source projects!

Have you ever been to Amsterdam, do you have any special plans for your free time there?

Yes! I was there for Vue.js Amsterdam! NO fun plans yet.

Our focus will be live coding, are you looking forward to it?

I’m terrified, but also excited!

What would you like to tell all the people who are still deciding whether to come to the conference and hear your talk?

The organisers are doing a great job, the venue is amazing, and you’ll learn some amazing things from amazing humans!

Thank you for your time answering my questions and we all look forward seeing you on the stage in Amsterdam!

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This interview style article is a part of series dedicated to get to know some of React Live Amsterdam speakers in advance. Stay tuned for more :)

I am a developer working for PassionatePeople agency in Amsterdam and we build awesome apps with all major frameworks for a variety of clients. You can drop me an email to iam@harijs.dev, follow me @FrontendNL or check out my LinkedIn and Github profile page.