The conference itself was great. It passionate, well-run and low-key, in a good way. Perth, and West Australians, don’t seem a people and a place built on hype, and the conference reflected that. People just pitched in to get stuff done, and the speakers captured that vibe and were available throughout the conference. And it was great to listen to people saying things like, “This is the first conference like this I’ve been to, and I didn’t know what to expect, but I’ve come away inspired again!”. Or that someone was sent along to check the conference out, but next year, 4 or 5 from the organisation will be attending.
It’s hard to pick out speaker highlights from the conference, but I will mention both Derek Featherstone and Russ Weakley. They gave excellent, thought-provoking presentations, and I’m looking forward to seeing them both at Webstock in February. Edge of the Web has had a great start, and congratulations to all involved in pulling it off!
The West Australia Web Awards, or the wonderfully named “WAWAs”, were held last night. It was a black tie dinner, or the geek equivalent, and had a great buzz throughout the evening. As much as anything, it was a celebration of the web industry in West Australia, and as elsewhere, it’s something that should be celebrated.
What this trip has also done, though, is reinforced to me the value of attending conferences like Edge of the Web, and Web Directions and Webstock. A huge part of the value stems from the face to face time you have with people. It’s not something that can be replicated. Sitting next to someone and chatting while waiting for the next speaker, catching up over a drink at the end of the day, and even the semi-lucid ramblings after midnight – all of those create and reinforce connections. They provide opportunities that would never have occurred otherwise. And they make you feel part of something a little larger.
People come back from (good) conferences inspired, energised and more knowledgeable. They also come back more connected to the industry. If you’re an employer or manager, thinking about sending staff to Webstock, take into account these other, more intangible benefits of people attending. The benefit are definitely there.
Over the next couple of months we’ll be publishing interviews with some of the speakers and sponsors of Webstock 09. We think they’ll have a lot of interesting things to say, and it’ll also give you an idea of what to expect next February.
Our first interview is with our media partner, Idealog magazine.
Idealog started in December 2005. In that time, they’ve won business magazine of the year each year since launch; last year Matt Cooney, the editor, was business editor of the year and art director, Adrian Clapperton, was designer of the year (business). They also won the Qantas Media Award for best feature website.
We spoke with Matt Cooney from Idealog.
Webstock: Matt, what sets Idealog apart from its competitors?
Idealog: It’s business as unusual, as a recent cover puts it. You won’t read in Idealog about hedging, stock prices, boardroom politics or the supply chain. We’re about ideas and the people who have them, and how an insight is taken to market.
It’s a great beat, ranging from biotech to special FX. We cover design, music, science, fashion, advertising, technology, moviemaking, marketing, and other creative pursuits. And because a healthy creative economy requires a creative society, our stories venture beyond traditional business topics into art, urban design, education and social entrepreneurship. We hope that Idealog will appeal to fashion designers and scientists — and that perhaps they’ll realise how much they have in common.
Idealog is more than a magazine: we also have an events series and Idealog TV, and we’ll be introducing a social network in 2008.
Webstock: You call yourself, “the voice of the creative economy”. Does New Zealand have a “creative economy”? And if so, is this going to be more, or less, important, in the face of the global economic recession?
Idealog: New Zealand has some standout creative stars — Peter Jackson and Richard Taylor, for example — it’s known internationally for the quality of its advertising, the indie music scene is on a tear and the fashion industry gets stronger every year. But creativity to us includes fields like science and technology.
Creativity and intellectual property are more important than ever. That’s how we can add value to our primary industries, but exporting ideas and IP is also the most effective way of reaching offshore markets. It’s the perfect riposte to issues like food miles and methane. Thnk of Ponoko, Starnow and Xero — or Weta, NOM*D and Hamilton Jet — export businesses built with a bit of cash and a lot of talent.
Webstock: Who’s the most inspiring person you’ve interviewed, and why?
Idealog: It’s you, Mike. Runners-up include Steve Ballmer — not for his insights, but for his sheer manic enthusiasm; and Josef Roberts, the guerilla marketer who launched Red Bull in NZ and Oz when it was barely known and is now trying to turn Burger Fuel into a global brand. He’s received a lot of stick for the Burger Fuel float — and it’s a tough mission — but I wouldn’t bet against him.
Rod Drury is a local hero — a serial entrepreneur who inspires everyone around him — and Ray Avery is a social entrepreneur who really is changing the world.
Webstock: Is print dead, or dying? What’s the future for magazines like Idealog?
Idealog: Woah … where to start …
The short answer is that one day print will be dead. But let’s not write its obituary just yet.
My personal belief is that there will be a market for many years yet for quality magazines: well-designed and -presented mags with longer-form content. Vanity Fair, for example, probably isn’t going anyway just yet, and we aspire to that standard. We put almost all our content on our website but it’s definitely nicer to read the feature stories in print. Web just doesn’t have the user experience yet.
The web does have other advantages, of course, so we do put our content on the website and add web features: Idealog TV, user-generated content, a creative directory, blogs, podcasts, comments, a weekly newsletter and links to cool stuff.
We’re preparing for the future, investing what we can in the website although we don’t yet make much money from it, becoming the country’s first carbon-neutral publisher and printing with sustainably-produced paper and ink. What remains to be seen is whether there is a large enough local market to sustain a rich range of media websites. My fear is that many small independent publishers won’t survive the decline of print. The downside of being an English-speaking country is that the local voice can be lost.
Still, it’s a point of constant frustration to me that established media, especially newspapers, haven’t cottoned on better to the web. Putting all your print content online and calling it your website is totally short-term. There’s no business model there. And there’s so much newspapers could be doing in personalisation, localisation, aggregation and otherisations. Maybe someone else will … VCs, we await your call …
Webstock: What’s Idealog’s perception of Webstock? Why did you become a sponsor?
Idealog: I was a web developer for years before returning to journalism, so I was blown away by the speaker list at the first event — it was clear Webstock was the product of webheads who had invited the people they’d want to hear. And Wellington is just the spot for it.
The second Webstock built on the first, and now that it’s an annual event its momentum can only build. More power to you!
Webstock has been asked by leading scientists to conduct some research. They’re concerned about how people act under pressure, and in particular, how certain types of people act under pressure.
Let’s be frank – people who attend Webstock events are smart. (They’re also charming and sexy, but that’s another story for another time.) But how do smart people react under pressure? Do they crumble? Do they lift their game a notch and shine? That’s what we’ve been asked to research.
We’re calling it our Primary Investigation into Serious Smartness Under Pressure. You can find out all about it here.
Despite some of our members’ pinko commie Chomsky-loving hippy leanings, Webstock is not a politicial beast. But sometimes a political issue comes to you and you need to say something.
Changes to the much debated Copyright Act have recently been passed into law. (The wonderful Peter Gutmann spoke at a Webstock Mini last year on the (then) proposed changes.) Of particular note, and not in the good use of “particular note” way, has been a last-minute change to include Section 92a of the act, saying, in effect, “that ISPs have to have a policy to implement cutting off people’s Internet if they are accused of repeatedly infringing copyright.”
Others have written more eloquently and knowledgeably about this change and the process by which it occurred. Please go read these posts, we think it’s important.
Webstock believes the internet and the web has fundamentally and irrevocably changed things.
There’s a real and exciting opportunity for New Zealand – as a nation – to benefit immensely from this change. We’re committed to helping in our own way and like to think that by learning from and connecting with some of the best in the biz’ (both the amazing speakers and the super smart attendees), bold and inspired ideas with the potential to immensely benefit our community and NZ, can come out of Webstock.
It’s sad and it’s wrong that our elected representatives in parliament fail us and remain wedded to outmoded models and beholden to opportunity-limiting dinosaur industries. It feels like fiddling while Rome burns. Boo Politicians boo.
We’re delighted to have Kelly back at Webstock. This will be the third time she’s been here, making her and Russell Brown the only two speakers to have presented at every Webstock. Kelly’s workshops are invariably sold-out. They’re informative, they’re of immense value and everyone who attends walks away with something they can apply immediately to their work. Kelly’s workshop for this Webstock promises to be just as valuable. She’s been increasingly incorporating an Agile approach into her philosophy and toolkit over a number of years and the workshop, entitled “2.0 Workflow: The (Fr)Agile Truth” will look at balancing an Agile approach with a user-centered focus. It will be a topical and immensely useful workshop.
Through his blog, his book and the workshops he’s conducted at many other conferences, Joshua Porter has established a reputation as someone who gets what design means in an online social space. As the web has grown and matured, design has increasingly taken centre stage, and as we’ve come to understand this online medium more and more, our notions of what designs means have changed. Joshua’s workshop, “Social Design: From Strategy to Interface“, will start with a strategy for design and move into hands-on, practical work about putting stuff on a screen. It’s for designers, managers and strategists, and if feedback from workshops Joshua has conducted at other conferences is anything to go by, will be great value.
Welcome to Webstock Joshua, and welcome back Kelly.
