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Web Directions South 2007 » Uncategorized

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Upcoming Search conference

Monday, February 26th, 2007

Martin Kelly runs some excellent local conferences, including TravelTech, which I had the privilege of kicking off last year, and which demonstrated to me that the travel industry gets tech in a big way.

Martin also runs Search Engine Room, on the 20th and 21st of March.

Now, search, particularly SEO has something of a bad rap among the web design and development crowd. But while there certainly are shonky SEOs out there, search is about much more than getting high google rankings.

At Web Directions North, Jared Spool gave the surprising statistic that 17 of the top 20 ecommerce site development teams in the US had 3 or fewer members, so the trend is for developers and designers to become more broadly skilled and to be able to wear many hats.

So how up are you on search? Head over to the Search Engine Room site for more info.

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Where are the Aussie Startups?

Monday, February 26th, 2007

18 months ago, Tom Coates over at Plastic Bag asked “Where are the UK startups”? The question is being asked over at the Guardian of late, all of which prompts me to ask - what about the Aussie startup scene?

A recent post by Vishal Sharma at Read/Write Web listed a few, but for mine, I don’t really feel we’ve ever had much of a startup culture in Australia, compared with energy and dynamism you get in places like San Francisco, or even Austin Texas.

But am I wrong - do we have a decent startup culture here? Is it a problem? Are we doing fine?

Or is there something in our nature that makes us rather conservative, at least in terms of business?

Would you consider starting up your own (not necessarily web) venture?

I’ve been in business with web oriented and based projects (software, training, conferences) for well over a decade now, and I must say I do feel like we are something of the exception not the rule.

I’d love to see a vibrant startup culture here - I’d love to see intelligent seed capital, an eco-system of good designers and developers, mentors for those starting out, events to help network (yes I am aware of things like the recent STIRR events (site seems down?), Dinner 2.0 (I have to admit to only hearing about these events subsequent to their happening, despite feeling pretty well connected), as well as thing like Webjam and the kinds of events we run is conjunction with Web Directions)

But, what do you think?

john

Technorati Tags: startup, entrepreneur, Australia

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Official Jeremy Keith News

Sunday, February 25th, 2007

Jeremy Keith has spoken twice at our conferences now, in both Sydney and Vancouver. He’s a wonderful, smart, lovely person, a fantastic speaker and teacher, and always a crowd favourite. It’s been an honour to have him at our conferences, and I hope that he comes to many more.

Jeremy’s second book, Bulletproof Ajax, has just been released. We’d hoped to have copies at Web Directions North, but it came out just a week or two late. Do yourself a favour and check it out.

While at WDN, Jeremy had a chat with Scott Fegette from Adobe, which is available online as a podcast. Well worth a listen too.

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Web Directions North wrap-up

Monday, February 19th, 2007

In a crazy moment on chat in the middle of last year, Derek Featherstone, Dave Shea, and founders of Web Directions South (then just called Web Directions), decided to bring the Web Directions experience to the Northern hemisphere, and chose the least freezing place in Canada in February to do so. The attraction of one of the world’s great ski resorts (and home of the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic games) on the doorstep had nothing, of course to do with it.

I won’t go into labourious detail, you can head over to the WDN part of the site for all the on and off piste details.

Despite the challenges of geography, time zone, international regulations, and more, it was, without doubt, and according to everyone, a tremendous success.

Right now, you’ll find live bogging from most session, and slides from many, at the North site, with podcasts coming soon. So subscribe to the RSS feed to keep up to speed.

But no rest for us, with Web Directions South to get sorted (bigger, and better, new venue, even broader focus, but keeping the flame for standards based design and development, and the same timeframe - end of September), plus quite a bit more happening online and off in the coming weeks and months.

Keep an eye on this site for news in the coming days and weeks.

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Douglas Bowman interview in Digital Web Magazine

Wednesday, January 24th, 2007

One of my very favourite web designers, in fact thinkers, writers, and speakers about the Web is Douglas Bowman. Web Directions actually owes a lot to Douglas. He, Joe Clark and Dave Shea were all speakers at the first conference that Maxine and I helped organize, WE04, way back in 2004. We enjoyed all their company so much that we knew we had to do more conferences. So here, some years later, we have united the original contingent of international speakers, with many others, for Web Directions North.

Im particularly pleased that we have lured Douglas out of his self imposed retirement from speaking. In fact, the other organizers thought we had zero chance of getting him to speak - but through my charm, and threat to release previously unseen photos of Douglas snowboarding in New Zealand, he relented. I should have taken a side bet on whether he’d agree or not.

Douglas also very generously agreed to do an interview with me, that Digital Web Magazine is running this week. So head on over to Digital Web and hear what one of the web’s most influential designers has to say about the present and future of the web.

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Microsoft parties at Whistler

Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007

Let’s face it, we tech folk tend to often be indoors types, and social side of conferences is often indoor-focused parties.

That’s one of the main reasons with Web Directions North we decided to add some adventure - trips to Blackcomb Whistler after the formal part of the conference is over.

The response has been pretty amazing, so much so that we’ll be adding

extra coaches for the trip up. Don’t be afraid if you have never skied or boarded before, there’ll be plenty of people just like you, and lots of people to lend you all kind of encouragement and support.

But if you are still not convinced, how’s this?

Microsoft’s browser and web development tool teams are sponsors of Web Directions North, and in addition to all their other great support, are sponsoring the Whistler Trip. On both Friday and Saturday, the fantastic GLC bar at the base of the main ski lift will be open to WDN attendees for free food and drinks from 12 noon all the way to 6pm, when the coach will pick you up to whisk you back to Vancouver.

Most of our speakers, all of the organizers, and many of your peers will be heading up the hill. So, why not take an extra day or two and join us?

We’re doing the trip at cost, $CDN120 gets you the return coach, plus lift tickets, plus an open bar and food in one of Whistler’s best bars. The trip is only open to conference goers, just another reason to get on up to Vancouver for Web Directions North

Thanks to the Microsoft browser and dev tools teams for all your support!

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Video Interviews with Web Directions Speakers

Wednesday, January 17th, 2007

During Web Directions South, Japanese web standards powerhouse Kazuhito Kidachi, who has attended all of our conferences down under, did an interview with John Allsopp about all kinds of things, but with a strong focus on microformats. Part one of the interview is here, and part two, here in English, with Japanese subtitles.

He also spoke with web standards legend, and one of our favourite people here at Web Directions, Molly Holzschlag. Part one of the interview with Molly is here, and part 2 is here.

It’s great production values, and also subtitled into Japanese for our Japanese visitors. So go and take a look.

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Pricing now staying at $895! (and check out the closing night party from Media Temple)

Wednesday, January 17th, 2007

As record snow falls continue in Whistler, Web Directions North is really heating up.

We had planned to raise the price to $CDN995 this week, but because we have had some great support from sponsors (more news on that soon) and because interest has been so strong, we’ve decided to keep the price at $895 until tickets sell out. If there are any left, we’ll have walk in pricing of $995.


So if you are keen to come and see one heck of a lineup, at one heck of a price, in fantastic Vancouver, you might like to get a move on.


But wait! If you don’t think that two fully catered days of some of the best web design and development experts sharing their know how in extended sessions (each speaker gets an hour, giving them plenty of tie to really get detailed), along with a fully catered conference reception is quite enough, how about a closing night party at a special secret location, organized by Media Temple. Media Temple really know how to throw a party, if you have ever been to South by Southwest, their now legendary closing night parties are simply sensational. They also know how to host web sites, and their upcoming gridserver looks simply revolutionary (and I thought that before they so generously offered to sponsor us).

Thanks guys for giving us such great support!

john, for the web directions north team

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WDN Student Scholarships

Friday, January 12th, 2007

I’m very proud of this, and very much hope we can do it for all our conferences.

As conference organizers, speakers and attendees, Dave, Derek, Maxine and John have long been aware that while a good conference can be an unbeatable benefit for your career, they are definitely out of the price range of those in our industry who might benefit most — students. We strongly believe that today’s students will have an important role in the future of the web.

Throughout the planning of the conference, we’ve been working on a way to make attending more affordable for full time students in fields related to web design and development. Initially we had hoped to get a sponsor on board for this, and we had some encouraging discussions to that end, but in the time we had this just didn’t prove possible.

We all feel this is an important goal for the conference and our industry, so today we introduce scholarship pricing for students. We have set aside 30 conference seats at $195 (CDN) each for qualifying students. This covers our direct costs per person but not the overall conference costs. If your company would like to sponsor the program, please drop us a line.

To qualify you must be a full-time student in a related field (design, computer science, or a specific web development course, for example) and not currently in professional employment. We are limiting the program to 30 students, and we want to ensure that those who benefit from it are those who need it the most. Please note — when you pick up your conference badge you will be required to show valid identification with an expiry date after February 10th that verifies you are a full time student.

This special scholarship pricing of $195 gives you two days of the conference, fully-catered lunch and breaks, and two receptions - one each night of the conference. This is your chance to meet with peers, industry leaders, and many potential employers, including some of the very biggest names on the web.

To take advantage, if you qualify please use our regular registration page and enter the following code to receive your special discount:

WDNSCH

We really look forward to bringing Web Directions North to the next generation of leaders on the web. See you in February.

Dave, Derek, Maxine and John

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Web Directions Discount Deadline Extended to January 14

Thursday, January 11th, 2007

Web Directions North is almost upon us — with attendees coming from all over the world, some great sponsors are helping to make the event even more special, and of course, a bumper snow fall is making the after-conference ski trip just keep getting better.

But that discount pricing deadline of $895CDN (about $USD770), originally scheduled to end on December 31st, is looming. Because it’s a tricky time of year, with all those public holidays, to arrange things, we’ve had some requests to extend it. We heard you, and the deadline for this pricing is now midnight, January 14th Pacific time.

And as one last holiday bonus, if you sign up by January 5th you’ll get a chance at winning either a free spot at one of our workshops, or one of two spots on our ski trip, so don’t delay, get in there and register now.

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Conference

Register now for the early bird price

$895

Testimonials

• Coming from a large Government department I found that the choice and range of topics were extremely useful and relevant. – Ruth Ellison, Dept of Immigration and Citizenship
• New ideas, new ways of working and some great perspectives on where the web industry was going. – Gavin Jacobi, Freelance developer

News

• Discount Pricing and McFarlane Prize deadline

  Just a quick reminder about two deadlines happening this Friday at midnight:
  
  Discount pricing for Web Directions South ending
  
  If you work in the web industry, you’ve got until Friday at midnight to get tickets to the event of the year here in Sydney for just $895.
  
  Remember too - it’s ok to register now and pay later […]

• Full programme now online

  Quick note to let you know that the full, (highly microformatted) conference programme is now online (and downloadable for any application which supports hCalendar/iCalendar through the magic of microformats and Brian Suda’s X2V).
  
  With three tracks to choose from, you’ll have a month to work out what you want to see. The three rooms are very […]