diff --git a/app/controllers/admin/conference_controller.rb b/app/controllers/admin/conference_controller.rb
index 0027ff77..571d14ab 100644
--- a/app/controllers/admin/conference_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/admin/conference_controller.rb
@@ -15,10 +15,13 @@ class Admin::ConferenceController < ApplicationController
 
   def create
     @conference = Conference.new(params[:conference])
-    if @conference.save
-      redirect_to(admin_conference_path(:id => @conference.short_title), :notice => 'Conference was successfully created.')
+    if @conference.valid?
+      @conference.save
+      redirect_to(admin_conference_path(id: @conference.short_title),
+                  notice: 'Conference was successfully created.')
     else
-      render :action => "new"
+      redirect_to(new_admin_conference_path,
+                  flash: { error: @conference.errors.full_messages.join('! ') })
     end
   end
 
diff --git a/app/views/admin/conference/new.html.haml b/app/views/admin/conference/new.html.haml
index 1b78f27d..f77d9d0b 100644
--- a/app/views/admin/conference/new.html.haml
+++ b/app/views/admin/conference/new.html.haml
@@ -1,14 +1,17 @@
 .row
   .col-md-6.col-md-offset-3
     = semantic_form_for(@conference, :url => admin_conference_index_path) do |f|
-      = f.inputs "Basic Information" do
-        = f.input :title, :hint => "The name of your conference as it shall appear throughout the site. Example: 'OpenSUSE Conference 2013'"
-        = f.input :short_title, :hint => "A short and unique handle for your conference, using only lower-case letters, numbers and underscores. This will be used to identify your conference in URLs etc. Example: 'froscon2011'"
-        = f.input :social_tag, :hint => "The hashtag you'll use on Twitter and Google+.  Don't include the '#' sign!'"
-        = f.input :contact_email, :hint => "Contact email address for your conference. Will be used as reply-to address in emails sent out by the system."
-      = f.inputs "Scheduling" do
-        = f.input :timezone, :as => :time_zone, :hint => "Please select in what time zone your conference will take place."
-        = f.input :start_date, :as => :string, :input_html => { :id => "conference-start-datepicker", :readonly => "readonly"  }
-        = f.input :end_date, :as => :string, :input_html => { :id => "conference-end-datepicker", :readonly => "readonly"  }
+      = f.inputs 'Basic Information' do
+        = f.input :title, hint: "The name of your conference as it shall appear throughout the site. Example: 'OpenSUSE Conference 2013'",
+                          input_html: { required: 'required' }
+        = f.input :short_title, hint: "A short and unique handle for your conference, using only lower-case letters, numbers and underscores. This will be used to identify your conference in URLs etc. Example: 'froscon2011'",
+                                input_html: { required: 'required' }
+        = f.input :social_tag, hint: "The hashtag you'll use on Twitter and Google+.  Don't include the '#' sign!'",
+                               input_html: { required: 'required' }
+        = f.input :contact_email, hint: 'Contact email address for your conference. Will be used as reply-to address in emails sent out by the system.'
+      = f.inputs 'Scheduling' do
+        = f.input :timezone, as: :time_zone, hint: 'Please select in what time zone your conference will take place.'
+        = f.input :start_date, as: :string, input_html: { id: 'conference-start-datepicker', readonly: 'readonly', required: 'required' }
+        = f.input :end_date, as: :string, input_html: { id: 'conference-end-datepicker', readonly: 'readonly', required: 'required'  }
       = f.actions do
-        = f.action :submit, :button_html => {:class => "btn btn-success pull-right"}
+        = f.action :submit, button_html: {class: 'btn btn-success pull-right'}
diff --git a/app/views/layouts/application.html.haml b/app/views/layouts/application.html.haml
index c844c4a3..e9e9e0af 100644
--- a/app/views/layouts/application.html.haml
+++ b/app/views/layouts/application.html.haml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-!!!
+%html{:xmlns => "http://www.w3.org/1999/html"}
 %html
   %head
     %meta{:charset => "utf-8"}
diff --git a/config/initializers/formtastic.rb b/config/initializers/formtastic.rb
index 69eaae95..b676d4a0 100644
--- a/config/initializers/formtastic.rb
+++ b/config/initializers/formtastic.rb
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ Formtastic::FormBuilder.required_string = "(required)"
 # You can opt-in to new HTML5 browser validations (for things like email and url inputs) by setting
 # this to false. Doing so will add a `novalidate` attribute to the `<form>` tag.
 # See http://diveintohtml5.org/forms.html#validation for more info.
-# Formtastic::FormBuilder.perform_browser_validations = true
+Formtastic::FormBuilder.perform_browser_validations = true
 #
 Formtastic::Helpers::FormHelper.builder = FormtasticBootstrap::FormBuilder
 FormtasticBootstrap::FormBuilder.default_inline_hint_class = FormtasticBootstrap::FormBuilder.default_block_hint_class