CO Creative Careers Festival

1. // Proposed Session 1:
HOW TO ONE-UP MICROSOFT SHAREPOINT
with 1 LAPTOP, 2 YEARS & 3 KIDS
.EVENT DESCRIPTION.
High school seniors Ryan Atallah, Carson Kahn and Ved Topkar explain the
challenging and exciting endeavor of designing, developing and deploying a dynamic,
in-house web application from scratch. As the only student-built web CMS serving the
secondary education industry, their handmade architecture had to replace—and then to
outplay—competing legacy software solutions from corporate development teams of
hundreds. They’ll discuss the process of realizing their product with limited time and
resources, as well as the entrepreneurial opportunities that stem from their venture.
.SCHEDULE & FORMAT.
We’d like to hold two sessions, one in a morning time-slot, and one repeat session
in an afternoon time-slot. We plan to talk/present on our own to begin, and then to
expand to a question-driven session for the final half-hour or so.
.SPACE LIMITATIONS.
This aspect of the session might be better left to the planning committee, and we’ll
put more stock in your judgment than ours. We foresee three equally appealing options:
highly restricted attendance (15-20), an audience-sized attendance (35-50), or else
virtually unbounded attendance, any of which we could play upon to maximize the
session’s overall appeal and the efficacy of its format. Please let us know what you
believe would serve our purposes and communication best.
.TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS.
We’ll need to employ a MacBook Pro, connected to a projector. We can bring the
monitor adaptor if need be, but we don’t have access to a portable projector of
reasonable quality. A USB hub or splitter with multiple mice might be helpful as well.
.OTHER INFORMATION.
Reference the site we’ve constructed at fairviewhs.org, or contact us for more info.

2. // Proposed Session 2:
WEB PARADIGM IN FLUX: ENVISIONING THE YOU-DRIVEN
FUTURE of DIGITAL INTERACTION DESIGN
.EVENT DESCRIPTION.
17-year old creatives Carson Kahn, Ryan Atallah and Ved Topkar extrapolate on their
experiences in digital media to visualize the future of interaction design, especially in the
web space. Participate in a hands-on lesson highlighting the exciting possibilities of HTML5
and CSS3 incorporating UI design, video and motion-based media, and mobile computing
devices all. Explore some of the tools emergent in shaping the future of digital applications,
information and advertising alike in this dually informational and interactive session.
.SCHEDULE & FORMAT.
We’d like to hold two sessions, one in a morning time-slot, and one repeat session in an
afternoon time-slot, each following our (proposed) first session. We plan to intermix our own
discussion with a lesson, the materials/resources for which will be prepared in advance to
maximize creation time and minimize laborious code-writing, etc.
.SPACE LIMITATIONS.
The format would be effective with registration capped at 10-20 attendees per session.
Of course, some working knowledge of HTML, CSS and basic design would be prerequisite.
.TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS.
As Ms. Beth Campbell mentioned the availability of computer labs, we envision the
session in that setting, which we assume contains most of the necessary arrangements.
.OTHER INFORMATION.
We understand your request for references or qualifications to ensure the most positive
outcome for all involved. The following page containing our biographical snippets will detail
some of the “credentials” apposite to this session, focusing on our experience in web design
and development beyond what is apparent in the first session we propose. Please don’t
hesitate for a second in contacting us to discuss this proposition further, as we’re more than
willing to provide any info that could be helping in organizing these events. Thank you!

3. // Pertinent Personal Information:
BIOGRAPHICAL & AFFILIATIVE SNIPPETS
.CARSON KAHN.
A senior in the IB Diploma Program at Fairview High School in Boulder, Colorado, Carson works as a
digital media designer and content strategist at Vetica Interactive, the North American web application
production studio responsible for DraftboardApp.com. He has been semiprofessionally involved in
related fields for about six years, as a freelance web developer, contractual graphic designer for local
healthcare providers, and as a user experience strategist at two digital advertising agencies. Carson
teaches seminars in social media marketing and SEO at the Boulder Digital Arts Society. He’s one of the
small group of high schoolers that redesigned the Fairview High School website, and is currently
working on the production of another web app in the education market, called Planboard App. Find him
online at carsonkahn.com, or by way of Vetica Interactive designvetica.com.
.RYAN ATALLAH.
Ryan is a 17-year old web developer, graphic designer and filmmaker currently enrolled as a senior
in the IB Diploma Program at Boulder’s Fairview High School, where he helped to spearhead the
students that redesigned the front-end and redeveloped the back-end of the school’s website and
content management system (vide fairviewhs.org). As a freelancer, Ryan has developed in-house
websites and apps for a variety of local and international clientele, from Peak to Peak High School to
Finnish environmental & industrial metrics corporation Vaisala. As a filmmaker, Ryan has shot and
produced an array of short films, commercials and wedding videos, including a nationally award-
winning documentary on Woodrow Wilson entitled “Wilson’s League for Peace”. Find his design
portfolio on the web at ryanatallah.com.
.VED TOPKAR.
Ved is an IB Diploma Program senior candidate at Fairview High in Boulder, and one of the
founding members of the FHS Student Web and IT Services Program out of which the school’s new site
was born. Though he serves as Colorado’s 2011-2012 Youth Governor and delegate to the Conference
on National Affairs, Ved is also a new media advocate specializing in motion graphics, 3D modeling,
video production and support workflows. Ved boasts a strong background in IT and hardware
consulting, a few regional titles in competitive Rubik’s Cubing, and an internship at the University of
Colorado Department of Electrical Engineering, where he researches the propagation mechanics of
electromagnetic radiation through synthesized tissue structures. You can find Ved’s personal site and
tech culture blog at vedtopkar.com.