How we plan our program

Web Directions South 2007 is the fifth conference that Maxine and I have been involved with. In the 4 years or so since we started down this path, a lot has changed in the web world. Things which were very much at the pointy end of the profession, like standards, accessibility, the focus on user experience, even validating HTML are now part of the mainstream of the industry.

Rather than simply focus on these over and over, each year we’ve tried to look over the horizon a little while keeping our feet on the ground with ideas and techniques you can make use of right now.

In 2003, as we started to plan our first conference, RSS, virtual worlds, user generated content, even blogging were cutting, even bleeding edge. Designing for the mobile web, building online communities, Ajax, were all off in the distance, or non existent. There were no Google Maps Mashups, or even Google Maps. The terms Web 2.0, Microformats and Ajax had not even been coined.

Fast forward to the web industry in 2007. Sites like Digg, and Chicago Crime are literally reinventing news, even your great auntie Mavis knows about virtual worlds like Second Life, while Myspace features in the news, the business and the technology section of the newspaper on the same day.

Each year, we aim to keep abreast of the key developments, covering issues like Microformats, Ajax, RSS, with leading experts innovating in exciting new fields. Each year we work to bring to Australia the expertise which will make our attendees better web professionals, to help them keep abreast of the design, technological, business and other developments central to our industry.

We could of course keep focussing solely on designing great user experiences with HTML, CSS, Javascript over and over again, but there is so much else going on as well we want to cover. So, while we still cover these foundations, with speakers like Andy Clarke, Aaron Gustafson, George Oates and Bert Bos, we also keep trying to find the freshest speakers, and ideas.

• We’ve seen Web 2.0 - now what will Mobile 2.0 look like?
• How can Flash and AJax be used be best used to allow us to do really clever things in web app design?
• How can we make every piece of data we put out on the web as smart as it can possibly be?
• How can I make a wiki really work for my business or organisation?

And we keep innovating with events like the Startup Bootcamp, WebExpo and WebHack, and of course ever better parties.

And while you might not have heard of every last one of our speakers, you will have heard of what they are doing. You’ll be using the tools they helped design and build. This year our speakers have been instrumental in developing amazing technology like Flickr, Chicago Crime - one of the first ever Mashups - Google Calendar, Slideshare, Wikipedia, Greasemonkey, Django, VRML, microformats, even CSS.

And on top of all that, we have a couple of amazing speakers still to announce.

We scour the planet for smart, innovative, entertaining experts. Those who walk the walk, as well as talk the talk. We bring them to Australia, and throw a week long party for them, and for you. We want you to leave excited, with a swag of new ideas and techniques, ready to do what you do better, or do something brand new. The only shame is that Web Directions isn’t on tomorrow!

As you can probably tell, we can’t wait.

[tags]wds07[/tags]