There will be a web design conference in Sydney this year
As the saying goes, nature abhors a vacuum.
In the last 12 hours I’ve chatted with three people who expressed concern that there wasn’t going to be a web design conference here in Sydney this year as there has been for the last two years. So, while we were hoping to wait until the paint was dry and the curtains were up, I think it might actually be a good idea to share the good news. Which is….
There will be a conference held in Sydney on September 28 and 29 this year, along with some associated workshops on the 26th and 27th. The conference will focus on
- standards based design and development
- accessibility
- user centred design
- information architecture
with international and local speakers letting us in on all the latest thinking on web design, and in particular, the development of web applications.
And it will be brought to you by myself, Maxine Sherrin, and my business partner John Allsopp, two of the people who brought you WE05 and WE04. An extremely high priority for us will be to maintain and build on the spirit of those previous events, with content which is for developers by developers, in a friendly non-corporate atmosphere.
I don’t want to ruin the surprise by giving away too much more than that, but feel free to speculate to your hearts’ content in the comments, subscribe to the RSS feed so you’ll be the first to know the news, and get in touch if you have any questions at all.
All will be revealed at the beginning of May.
Tags: conference, web, webdirections, wd06
Patrick Griffiths
April 12th, 2006 at 9:09 AM
It’s sad not to see another “Web Essentials,” but It’s great to see the spirit is so blatantly alive and kicking!
You guys have been an inspiration, and have shown the world what a dab hand you are at putting together such a top-notch professional, community-focussed event.
Best of luck, although I’m sure you don’t need it.
Kay Smoljak
April 12th, 2006 at 9:20 AM
Go Maxine and John! I can’t wait. Time to raise the Perth army. The Vulcan Hotel had better watch out.
Lisa Herrod
April 12th, 2006 at 9:26 AM
Wonderful news!
I know there will be a lot of very happy people reading this today.
No doubt this years conference will build on the great achievements of the past two years and really show what we’re capable of as a community.
It’s going to be great!
Cameron Adams
April 12th, 2006 at 9:39 AM
Henry Rollins, right? OMG, you got Henry Rollins to talk about Web 2.0!
Vicki Berry
April 12th, 2006 at 9:41 AM
Looks like it’s all coming together beautifully. I’m so glad, Maxine! Thanks for all your efforts and hard work to make this happen.
I can’t wait to catch up with everyone again in September!
Maxine
April 12th, 2006 at 9:43 AM
@Patrick, Kay and Lisa - what lovely sentiments! Thankyou so much, you’ve made my morning.
@Cam - oh yes, and the good news is I’ve saved a packet on his accommodation because he’ll be staying at my place :-)
Jacqui McGirr
April 12th, 2006 at 10:32 AM
Joy of joys.
hank
April 12th, 2006 at 11:18 AM
Great!
So, Jakob on the shortlist?? woot.
Grant
April 12th, 2006 at 11:21 AM
Yes Cam, Henry Rollins will be MCing the event.. and Jello Biafra will be there running a workshop on using JSON data with XMLHttpRequest, I’m really looking forward to it
Andrew K.
April 12th, 2006 at 11:31 AM
Wooo! Time to get the finances in order then..
@Kay: Shhhh!! don’t tell the world about the Vulcan! Jeeeez ;)
Really looking forward to watching Henry Rollins bench-press Cam during his keynote. Should make great flickr material.
Miles Burke
April 12th, 2006 at 11:36 AM
We’re all very excited here on the west coast - John gave us the quick lowdown last night, and you could see the room thinking of booking flights ASAP. :)
Nick Cowie
April 12th, 2006 at 11:50 AM
Only problem I have is who will be my employer then, for me to ask for my time off.
Another member of the Perth army will be there.
Cam
April 12th, 2006 at 12:46 PM
So. Damn. Sweet. Can’t wait for this one.
Cheryl
April 12th, 2006 at 3:59 PM
Maxine - think you will need to hose your house out after that one.
genevieve tucker
April 13th, 2006 at 8:49 AM
Hi Maxine, thanks for the tip on Leisa’s blog. Just a note to let you know I got it.
Ben Buchanan
April 13th, 2006 at 11:27 PM
Looking forward to the Rollins keynote moshpit ;)
Jason
April 14th, 2006 at 10:13 PM
Excellent news! Must start saving.
The Information Architecture stuff should be interesting, haven’t really studied that properly before.
Also - please give as much notice about the other workshops as possible. I had already booked airfares and accom for last year before the Veen workshop was announced and it was too expensive to change :(
Maxine
April 15th, 2006 at 7:29 AM
Jason - glad to hear you’re exctied about the new conference. And yes, it was unfortunate that the workshop was organised at the last minute in 2005. This year the workshops will be announced at the same time as the conference itself, so please stay tuned!
Keri Henare
April 16th, 2006 at 6:30 PM
Bugger, I’ll be in America. I would have loved to attend.
Molly E. Holzschlag
April 16th, 2006 at 11:16 PM
And the world rejoices!
With Henry Rollins and Jello Biafra on the roster, how about you round it out with Mike Doughty? Then the three of them can present on standards, browser woes, usability, accessibility and information architecture all in spoken word poetry.
Now THAT would be a unique event ;-)
Gavin jacobi
April 18th, 2006 at 1:00 AM
My little world is certainly rejoicing! Just show me where to point my wallet…
WE04 and 05 were brilliant. Just brilliant. I was scared I would have to go through withdrawal symptoms this year.
Spoken word poetry is all well-and-good but what we really need is Web 2.0 explained through interpretive dance.
:-)
Cameron Adams
April 18th, 2006 at 12:09 PM
If you’re around in Sydney in June, Gavin, I’ll be delivering my entire in morse code delivered by jazz tap shoes:
http://webstandardsgroup.org/meetings/index.cfm?event_id=62
Gavin jacobi
April 18th, 2006 at 3:38 PM
Aww heck Cameron, I will be stuck in Brisbane. You should Podcast it though…
Tap, tap, tappity tap, tappa tappa tappa.
:-)
Maxine, will you be doing the podcast thing for Web Directions?
Maxine
April 18th, 2006 at 5:52 PM
@Cameron - I can’t wait to hear that podcast, though I’m not sure about your accessibility policy. I mean, requiring people to know morse code in order to learn Javascript - what’s with that?
@Gavin - we will definitely be having a program of podcasting this year, I’ll probably blog about this here as things start to fall into place. Just as it was last year though, the podcasts will only be a taste of the much wider event that will be Web Directions 06. Remember, good as it might be, the content is only half the actual experience of being at a conference or event.
Gavin jacobi
April 18th, 2006 at 10:08 PM
“…only half the actual experience of being at a conference or event.”
Maxine: at the risk of sounding like your PR manager I must categorically agree!
All the best with things falling into place.
Cheryl
April 19th, 2006 at 12:01 PM
@Max - gotta disagree with you there, I mean after I saw a photo of the Eiffel tower, Mount Everest and Ankor Wat, I thought “well I’ve seen them now, what’s the point in going?”
:)
Maxine
April 19th, 2006 at 1:39 PM
*Great* analogy Cheryl - I will be using that for sure as time passes!
Chris Dimmock
April 19th, 2006 at 1:52 PM
Great news!
WE04 and WE05 were excellent. I’m also be there for WebDirections 2006 (herewith abbreviated to WD 06).
But won’t the new name cause some brand confusion in 2040?
WD 40?
:)
Ruth Ellison
April 20th, 2006 at 3:55 PM
This is fantastic. Looking forward to it! WE04 and We05 were such a blast - I’m sure this year’s event will be bigger and better than ever.
Nigel
April 20th, 2006 at 9:42 PM
I heard Cameron Adams is giving a presentation on his latest work, aptly titled ‘Web Standards on Rails’! With it, you can build a web standards masterpiece in 15 seconds with only 5 lines of code…
Maxine Sherrin
April 20th, 2006 at 9:50 PM
Nigel: Hmmm, Web Directions is going to be great, but I don’t know that I’m in a position to promise anything quite as great as this!
Cameron Adams
April 21st, 2006 at 1:00 AM
Actually Nige, I’ll be live-coding a wiki-tagging-maps mashup using Assembler.
GOTO 1
Jason
April 25th, 2006 at 5:27 PM
@ Chris - WD40 will be useful if we’re in retirement and our techniques get a bit rusty…
ben
April 27th, 2006 at 10:31 AM
glad to hear it is on again. i will be there in the back row.
can i suggest getting Roger Johansson to visit our shores? i am a big fan of his and it would be nice to have another accent grace the stage. ;)
John Allsopp
April 28th, 2006 at 10:26 AM
Ben,
I’m afraid Roger won’t be here this year, but perhaps one day.
However there will be several different kinds of accent to choose from this year. It’s not just “the usual suspects” (though there will also be some of them:)
Nick Cowie
April 28th, 2006 at 5:47 PM
Come on John give us some hints ;-)
Do I have to start training, seeing I promised (along with Kay) to take Molly shopping next time.
Or does “several different kinds of accent” just mean you are getting speakers from both Sydney and Melbourne.
Instead of US, Canada and Brighton.
John Allsopp
April 29th, 2006 at 10:06 AM
Nick,
all will be revealed in the next week or so.
Sydney, Melboune, Brisbane, Canberra, plus accents from 5 different countries on top of that.
Stay tuned
Nick Cowie
April 29th, 2006 at 11:29 AM
> Sydney, Melboune, Brisbane, Canberra
Wot no Perthites ?
Just me being impatient as usual.
Rob Varghese
May 5th, 2006 at 9:53 AM
Well, I too was one of those concerned people, having not heard anything about WE06 and the site not being updated. But then thanks to themaninblue.com, I was relieved to read the snippet about Web Directions 06 and follow the link to here. I have linked to the feed and await first sign of the early-bird tickets!
WE04/WE05 were both fantastic conferences, so for WD06, I look forward to the latest developments in standards and accessibility plus the additions of UCD and information architecture. I know Maxine and John will do a fantastic job (are Peter and Russ onboard?!).
And John, I look forward to the after party kicking on down at the ‘Cross once again :)
Kevin from Canada
May 5th, 2006 at 6:22 PM
Wow! Excellent news. Just the other day I tried to visit we06.com and was sad to see nothing there. If the presenters are as amazing as WE05 I’d have a hard time not returning this year. Either way, best of luck Maxine and John!
Robin Gallagher
May 9th, 2006 at 10:57 AM
”..All will be revealed at the beginning of May…”
It’s the beginning of May…..
John Allsopp
May 9th, 2006 at 12:20 PM
Robyn,
just a few days away now.
The speakers are all lined up.
The workshops are organised.
The venue is organized.
We are just finalizing the registration system, and tidying up some loose ends. But we are very close to launching.
Thanks as always
john
scott g
May 10th, 2006 at 9:55 AM
cool. looking forward to the workshops especially this year. last years with Veen was really good…
Maxine Sherrin
May 11th, 2006 at 8:14 AM
Thx for all lovely comments, it really makes a difference to see people getting all excited when you’re running around like a mad thing pulling it all together.
Almost ready to go now, finalising the payment system and site. The only thing you can squeeze out of me now is that there will be 4 workshops, on the two days before the conference, and the tickets for these will be available from the get-go. Expect an announcement next Wednesday :-)
Helen Rysavy
May 12th, 2006 at 10:34 AM
I can’t wait to see what you guys are going to do, I can barely contain my excitement. Roll on next Wednesday! There should be a few of us coming down from Darwin this year!
Adam Schilling
May 15th, 2006 at 10:05 PM
Two-days to go! Exciting stuff! And, it sounds like you both have it all under control - congrats!
As an aside, what do we need to do to get Adelaide included in future WD workshops? Or, … shall I move to BNE / SYD / MLB instead? ;-)
Matthew Dean
May 17th, 2006 at 5:09 PM
Well, its now Wednesday. Where is the site??
Maxine
May 19th, 2006 at 10:59 AM
We are soooooooooo close. Isn’t there some sort of aphorism about Rome that would apply at this moment? Patience people - what’s the big hurry? :-)
Donna Maurer
May 19th, 2006 at 12:37 PM
Oh, we just all want to be the first to blog it. Don’t we guys?
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