We realize that Bluffton, SC is a tad off the beaten trail. We like it that way; we find small town life extremely charming. But that means it's doubly important we keep on our toes and in touch with what's going on in the great big world of advertising and design. Sometimes that world visits our neck of the woods—the upcoming Geekend event in Savannah in a couple weeks' time, for instance. But more often we go to it, like I did earlier this month when I travelled to Chicago to attend An Event Apart, an intense two-day web design and development conference. My brain is buzzing with ideas to explore—using concept models rather than site plans as the base of a site's architecture, JavaScript libraries to equalize the browser playing field, and selective CSS3 attributes to improve a site's look and function. I was witness to a pronouncement on the slow death of plug-ins (including Flash!) over the next two years, and I watched bemusedly as speaker after speaker hammered home the importance of modular design. Can't wait to get started implementing some of these ideas!