The Applied Arts Design & Advertising Awards Call For Entry is currently open. It will be judged by an panel of highly regarded industry professionals, in a rigorous process developed over our two decades of awards experience. All entries must be received by May 7, 2010. Eligible for entry are all forms of commissioned, published, unpublished and personal work created between May 2009 and May 2010. The competition is open to entrants from any country. For more information, a complete list of categories and to access our online entry form, please visit AppliedArtsMag.

The FITC Toronto 2009 officially ended yesterday. Congrats to the award winners. My overall experience was pretty good. I've attended FITC in the past four years and they are getting better and better. This year, I've learned a lot of new things about Flash, particularly the multitouch Flash content and mobile Flash. In this post, I'm going to share my thoughts on some of the presentations that I've attended.

Weebly is an online site builder (with visual editor) for anyone to create a website without having to know any coding. They are hosting a theme design contest with $13,000 in prizes: first prize = $10,000, second = $2,000, and third = $1,000. The contest will be judged by Andrew Wilkinson, Dustin Curtis, Jason Putorti, Michael Cronan, Rob Martin and Scott Thomas. The theme submission deadline is April 30th, 2010. For more details, visit their contest page.

The Future of Web Design (FOWD) is returning to New York City on 16^th & 17^th of November! If you haven't heard of FOWD, it's a conference which brings together the web industry's leading designers and delivers two days of workshops and talks from the likes of Dan Cederholm, Jason Santa Maria, Molly Holzschlag, Joshua Davis, Vimeo and lots more. I have one conference pass to giveaway. Enter a comment in this post before November 3^rd, 2009 for your chance to win a ticket.

Update: The winner is: #178.

I have 5 last minute DelveUI workshop tickets to give out. Comment in this post before Jul 31, 2009 for your chance to win one. DelveUI is a two-day workshop that focuses on UI design. The event will take place August 5 and 6, 2009 at the Pfizer Auditorium in Brooklyn. This is their first year, but the speaker list is impressive. Visit delvenyc.com for more details.

Hi guys! I have these amazing giveaways for you, sponsored by Microsoft. Before I go to the prizes, I would like to mention that Microsoft is having a web event called Make Web, Not War '09 in Toronto on Jun 10th (full day), and Vancouver on Jun 2nd (half day). Visit their site for details and registration. Write a comment about the event before Jun 12, in this post, for a chance to win: Microsoft Expression Studio, Gears of War 2 (Xbox game), or 250GB LaCie External Drive.

I'm excited to announce that I will be speaking at WordCamp Toronto 2009. I will talk about various ways to use WordPress and provide tips on how I setup my WordPress sites (this site, Best Web Gallery, and IconDock). The event will take place in downtown Toronto between May 8 - 10, 2009. I have five tickets to giveaway. For your chance to win a free ticket, submit a comment in this post before May 4, 2009.