Events | Web Directions

Information on upcoming and past events

Since 2004, Web Directions has been organizing world leading conferences for web professionals. Our events are now held in Australia, North America, and Japan.

Upcoming events

• Sydney: Web Directions South 2008 - September 25-26
• Sydney: Web Directions Workshops - September 23-24

Previous events

We have dozens of presentations online from previous conferences. To see slideshows and hear podcasts from leading experts in design, coding, UX, interaction design, IA, data visualization, social media and networks, and so much more explore the tags to the right and take a look at our past conferences below.

• Canberra: Web Directions Government 2008
• Melbourne: Web Directions User Experience 2008
• Vancouver: Web Directions North 2008
• Sydney: Web Directions South 2007
• Vancouver: Web Directions North 2007
• Sydney: Web Directions 2006

Web Directions Government 2008

Our first Web Directions Government was held on May 19, 2008 in Canberra: a full day of in depth presentations across two tracks, from international and local experts with a broad range of real world experience inside and outside government.

• José Manuel Alonso - Improving Government through better use of the Web
• Robert Hoekman Jr - The essential elements of great web applications
• Lisa Herrod - Usability: more than skin deep
• Jason Ryan - Govt 2.0: the public management challenge
• David Hayward - Mapping
• Scott Gledhill - Real world web standards
• Ralph Douglas - GovDex: Collaborating online in a secure environment
• Patrick Lee - One paper clip, a box of matches, and some JavaScript
• Matthew Hodgson - Social computing for knowledge management
• Jenny Telford - Opening up government data
• Andrew Kesper - ABC’s election site: making the most of dry data

Web Directions User Experience 2008

Web Directions User Experience (another first) was held on May 16, 2008 in Melbourne: a full day of in depth presentations across two tracks, from international and local experts with a broad range of real world user experience expertise.

• Andy Budd - Designing the experience curve
• Robert Hoekman Jr - The essential elements of great web applications
• Lisa Herrod - User testing for the rest of us
• Donna (Maurer) Spencer - Getting content right
• Oliver Weidlich - The mobile web user experience
• Jackie Moyes - Converting research findings into business speak
• Steve Baty - Analysing user research data
• Andrew Kesper - ABC’s election site: making the most of dry data
• Mathew Patterson - Designing for email
• Jeremy Yuille - Web visualisation: do you see what I see?

Web Directions North 2008

The second Web Directions North was held in Vancouver on January 30 and 31. An incredible couple of days of web design and development enlightenment - some say “the best conference ever” - followed up with two action packed days of skiing and snow boarding up at Whistler.

• Jeffrey Zeldman – Return of the King of Web Standards
• Jared Spool – What Makes a Design Seem Intuitive?
• Daniel Burka - The why and how: UI case studies
• Douglas Crockford - Ajax security
• Cameron Adams - The future of web interfaces
• Derek Featherstone – Real World Accessibility For Real World People
• Indi Young - Innovation With Mental Models
• Matt Webb - Movement
• Eric Rodenbeck - Information visualization as a medium
• John Allsopp & Dave Shea – Designing for the Web Beyond the Desktop
• Anil Dash - Serious business: Putting social media to work
• Kimberly Elam - Five Essential Composition Tools for Web Typography
• Josh Williams - Bedroom to Boardroom
• Gina Trapani - Better Gmail
• Tara Hunt - Government 2.0: Architecting for collaboration
• Brian Fling - Mobile web design and development
• Brian Oberkirch – Simple Things to Make the Social Parts of your Service More Social
• Jonathan Snook – Working with Ajax Frameworks
• Andre Charland & Walter Smith – Developing With Adobe AIR and Microsoft Silverlight
• Boris Mann - The 3 stages of dynamic systems

Web Directions South 2007

Web Directions South 2007 was held in Sydney on September 27 and 28. This was the year we made the big move from our humble beginnings at UTS to the bright and shiny and much much bigger Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre. We also introduced the Web Directions Expo, as well as a third track, Management/Strategy.

• Mark Pesce - Mob Rules
• Rashmi Sinha - The perils of popularity
• Scott Berkun - The myths of innovation
• George Oates - Human traffic
• Scott Gledhill - Is SEO evil?
• Andy Clarke - Think like a mountain
• Cameron Adams - The future of web interfaces
• John Allsopp - Trends and predictions in web technology
• Brian Fling - Web 2.0 + Mobile 2.0 = ?
• Bert Bos - A new life for old standards
• Ben Winter-Giles - Managing agile projects within large organisations
• Angela Beesley - Wikis and community collaboration
• Andrew Downie and Grant Focas - Javascript and other coding for good or evil
• Rob Manson and Alex Young - E is for everywhere
• Aaron Gustafson - Learning to love forms
• Stephen Cox - Building ethnography into the design process
• Raul Vera - Mashups, web apps and APIs
• Paul McCarthy - Which open source tools are fuelling today’s leading sites?
• Chris Wilson - Moving the web forward
• Adrian Holovaty - Being smart about your data
• Mike Cannon-Brookes - Organisational wiki adoption
• Mark Mansour - RedBubble: Building a site for people with big imaginations
• Lisa Herrod - Usability: more than skin deep
• Laurel Papworth - Social networks and mobiles
• Justin French - Pushing beyond design
• Jonathan Boutelle - Ajax or Flash: what’s right for you?

Web Directions North 2007

Web Directions North 2007 was held in Vancouver on February 7 and 8. Our first event outside Australia was a tremendous couple of days, followed by two more days of awesomeness skiing and snowboarding up at Whistler

• Jared Spool - The Dawning of the Age of Experience
• Kelly Goto - Designing for Lifestyle
• George Oates & Paul Hammond - Web Apps: Developer to Designer
• John Allsopp & Dan Cederholm - Microformats
• Aaron Gustafson & Andy Clarke - Transcendent Design with Javascript & CSS
• Jeremy Keith & Derek Featherstone - Ajax Kung Fu Meets Accessibility Feng Shui
• Cameron Moll & Tantek Çelik - Design and Coding at the Cutting Edge
• Molly E. Holzschlag - Crimes Against Web Standards
• Kaitlin Sherwood & Steffen Meschkat - The Business & Technology of Mashups
• Veerle Pieters & Dave Shea - Finding Creativity in the Design Process
• Craig Saila & Adrian Holovaty - Old Media, New Technology
• Joe Clark - Accessibility in the Design Process

Web Directions 2006

The first Web Directions, which grew out of an older event, Web Essentials, which we had been involved in for two years previously, was held at UTS on September 28 and 29.

• Kelly Goto - The Iterative App
• Jeremy Keith - Explaining Ajax
• Derek Featherstone - Accessibility 2.0
• John Allsopp - Microformats
• Andy Clarke - Creating Inspired Design
• Mark Pesce - Youbiquity
• Derek Featherstone - Designing for Accessibility
• Kelly Goto - Designing for Lifestyle
• Jeremy Keith - Hijax
• Thomas Vander Wal - IA for the “Come to Me Web”
• Ben Barren - RSS will change everything
• Dave Greiner & Ben Richardson - The Campaign Monitor Story
• Gian Sampson-Wild - Managing Accessibility Compliance for the Commonwealth Games
• Thomas Vander Wal - IA for Web Developers
• Cameron Adams & Kevin Yank - JavaScript, APIs & Mashups
• Laurel Papworth - The Business of Online Communities
• Cheryl Lead & Ben Buchanan - Moving your organisation to web standards
• Donna Maurer - IA: a “how to”