Web Directions Year round learning for product, design and engineering professionals

Back in 2014, we tried something new, a “popup” conference. A single day, focussing on the challenges of Responsive Web Design, called “Respond“.

I pitched the idea to Maxine on November 30th, we launched it on December 15th, and it was held on February 5th. Despite the short lead time, and the fact that the entire period we were promoting it was Christmas/New Year and the quiet summer holidays, it was a great success. So the popup event became permanent.

This year, we kept the same formula, and grew the audience. But we weren’t 100% satisfied with the result (though it was definitely an excellent event, and the feedback we received was as good as for any event we’ve done).

And then it hit us. Respond was really a return to our roots in Web Design. After all, that’s where Web Directions began (we didn’t even have any JavaScript content in our early conferences, so little did people really use it back then).

Over time, Web Directions focussed less and less explicitly on Web design – on CSS and HTML, and the day to day issues people face designing for the Web. But we’ve realised there was not only still a place for this content, the need had grown significantly as we as an industry rose to the challenge of designs that responded to multiple screen sizes and use contexts.

So starting in 2016, Respond will be squarely a (Responsive) Web Design conference, covering the technologies, but most importantly, current patterns and practices in designing for the Web.

And not only has it grown from one day to two, it’s grown from one city (Sydney) to two (Sydney and Melbourne)*.

An amazing lineup

We’ve already lined up some incredible speakers, including a return from the inventor of Responsive Web Design himself, Ethan Marcotte, along with

• Karen McGrane, one of the World’s leading content strategy experts,talking about “Adaptive Content”
• Sara Soueidan, a globally recognised SVG expert
• Jen Simmons, who’s built sites for CERN, the W3C, Google, Apress, and The New York Stock Exchange on modern CSS page layout.

and many more local and international speakers.

Rare Workshop with Ethan Marcotte and Karen McGrane

We’re also bringing you the genuinely rare chance to spend an entire day with Ethan and Karen with their incredible workshop created for designers, developers, content owners, and business stakeholders—anyone who participates in making a responsive redesign happen.

It all takes place in Sydney April 5 (workshop) and 6–7 (conference) and Melbourne April 11–12 (conference) and 13 (workshop).

We’ve got early bird pricing available now, with

• Conference only tickets at $999
• Conference and Speaker dinner tickets for $1,199
• Gold tickets, including Conference, speaker dinner and workshop for just $1599.
• Workshop only tickets are $699

And if you register before January 15th, you’ll also received eBook copies of both of Karen McGrane’s and Ethan Marcotte’s A Book Apart books (four in total), including the just released “Responsive Design: Patterns and Principles” by Ethan, and “Going Responsive” by Karen.

* in fact, it’s actually three, as we’ll also be visiting Tokyo with a number of the speakers the Week after Sydney and Melbourne