Workshops and presentations, oh my!

9 October 2008

6 comments

Another Web Directions is in the can and – true to form – it was one of the best yet.

I had a huge amount of fun giving grief to the other developers on the JavaScript Libraries Panel, and with Web Directions as my artistic patron I even delved into the dark side – Flash – to produce a Twitter/Flickr visualiser that threatened to upstage Mark Pesce.

But this year I also took the time to relax and enjoy what everyone else had to offer. The standout for me was Daniel Burka, who was perhaps the first designer I've seen that offered up some tangible design advice in a presentation (as opposed to purely theoretical theorising). He pulled apart the comment system for Digg and stepped through how and why they made decisions about its re-design. A great insight into the mind of a great designer.

With Web Directions done for another year though, it's time to move on. And I'm equally excited about two other conferences which I'll be involved with in coming months.

The first of these is the inaugural Edge of the Web 2008 in Perth, where I'll be giving a half day JavaScript workshop and a presentation: Designing with Creative Code.

I'm quite excited about my presentation, as it's probably the most conceptual talk that I've given to date (that means I won't be waving at code on-screen). Hopefully it will get people excited and thinking about new stuff they can try.

The second conference to be mega-excited about is Webstock 2009 in Wellington, New Zealand. Mike Brown and his team have lined up a jaw droppingly good bunch of speakers who look like they won't be talking about web development – exactly what I like to see at a web conference; something to broaden your horizons. And if you're interested, I'll be adding to the voices with another of my JavaScript workshops.

I can't wait to bathe in the buzz at both of these events. Hopefully I'll see you there!

Categories

webstock09, eotw08, wds08, webstock, eotw, webdirections, appearingat, conference