Rachel Andrew gives a comprehensive overview of modern CSS layout techniques, focusing on CSS Grid and Flexbox. She explains how these new layout methods provide better control over alignment, responsiveness, and separation of content from display compared to older techniques like floats. She discusses browser support, feature queries for progressive enhancement, and practical implementation strategies.

This talk provides a comprehensive introduction to CSS Grid, covering its evolution from early web layouts through to modern implementation. The speaker demonstrates practical examples of building a note-taking app layout using CSS Grid, discusses browser support including IE compatibility issues, and shares various learning resources. The talk emphasizes CSS Grid's advantages over older layout methods and shows how to implement responsive layouts with features like auto-fill and subgrid.