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

Web Directions South 2013 has launched, and whether like a dozen or so people you’ve been to every edition, been a few times, or never been at all, we really want you to be with us on October 24 and 25 for our 10th birthday!

Since we began one of the very first ever conferences for web professionals in 2004, each time we come to putting together the program, we go right back to the drawing board. We ask what is it you most need to hear about today, and who are the best people to talk about these topics.

The low risk option would simply be to find some well known speakers, and cover whatever is being hyped right now. But that’s never been our way.
Instead, we scour the world for the true experts who are innovating on the web. People you may not have heard of, but who really know what they’re talking about, because they work day to day at the leading edge of their field.

We also felt after last year that perhaps we’d lost a little focus, and really spread the content out across too many tracks. So for this year we’re bringing back the focus and there’ll be just two tracks, simply called Design, and Development.

Our Design track covers web, user experience, and interaction design, with an eye firmly on the horizon in these exciting times. Content, big data, the disappearing interface, animation and thinking beyond the web, beyond mobile. Come along and get inspired by the possibilities.

Our Development track covers JavaScript, HTML5, DOM, and all things front end engineering (security, performance and more). As with our Code conference, it’s a mixture of in-depth keynote-style sessions, and shorter, condensed, highly specific presentations.

Then our famous four keynotes at the beginning and end of each day, bringing everyone together for some inspiration, as well as a few challenging ideas: certainly something to talk about with all the new connections you will make at the parties that close out both days of the conference.

Workshops

And just in case that’s not enough for you, on October 22 and 23, the two days before the conference, we have 5 optional full day workshops and masterclasses, each one a deep dive lead by a practising expert:

• Aaron Walter – Designing for emotion
• Matt Magain – Sketchnoting 101
• Axel Rauschmeyer – Diving deeply into JavaScript
• Relly Annet Baker – Creating web content
• Pasquale D’Silva and John Allsopp – Animating your user experiences

If you’re travelling from out of town, we’ve got some info about convenient hotels at our site – but the best tip is to get in early and grab a bargain!

We’re really excited about the lineup this year, we know it’s going to be something worthy of a 10th birthday celebration, and hope you’re going to be able to join us.

Code conference “Show Reel”

want to know what all the fuss is about? Check out the show reel from the recent Web Directions Code conference, a 3 minute slice of atmosphere and sound-grabs from speakers and audience members, as well as a hand picked selection of videos from past conferences.