It has been scientifically proven that Webstock is a worthwhile and beneficial undertaking both for attendees and the organisations in which they work. Studies have shown that those who attended Webstock in previous years, returned to their workplaces more energised, more knowledgeable and more connected.
Breakdown showing Webstock’s worth as an educational, knowledge-sharing, conference experience
However, in case you or the powers-that-be require more convincing, here are 10 reasons why you should attend Webstock ’11. The first five reasons are for your boss, or to help you present a business case to them. The second five reasons are ‘specially for you.
Reasons for your boss
1. You can’t afford to fall behind
The web is changing rapidly, daily. Four years ago, the term “web 2.0” was just starting to be talked about; social media wasn’t even geek-stream, let alone main-stream; and the concept of open government data would have got you laughed at. So much has changed since then. Your company and your staff need to understand these changes and what they mean and what’s coming next – for your clients and for the environment they operate in.
Webstock is the leading opportunity in New Zealand to understand these changes and the direction things are heading. Webstock provides unparalleled opportunities to meet and talk with the people who understand these changes and who are shaping the future of the web.
2. Your staff will come back better at their job
Webstock ’11 will feature topics such as Content Strategy; Data Visualisation; HTML5; OOCSS; Web Typography; Mobile Design; Improving Website Performance; Usability; Visual Communication, and Management and Leadership, to name but a few. Attendance at Webstock will enable your staff to do their work better. They’ll learn new techniques, insights and methods from those at the forefront of these areas.
Fact: if you want the best out of your staff, you need to invest in them and the further development of their skills and knowledge. We guarantee they will learn at least one thing that repays the investment in their attendance many times over.
3. Retain good staff
Now is not the time to lose good staff! The cost of hiring and training new people to replace those who leave more than outweighs the investment in keeping them motivated, happy and inspired. Supporting your staff to attend Webstock sends a message that you value them, and their contribution to your organisation.
4. You’ll be supporting the New Zealand web industry
There is so much good work happening in New Zealand. The web industry here is world-class – it also benefits from a sense of community and sharing. Webstock has played a role in fostering the community and the industry. Your support allows us to continue to do so.
5. Value for money
We bring over 20 of the best international speakers in the web world to New Zealand. No other conference in NZ offers this. Yet we charge less per ticket than many other conferences or seminars.
Reasons for you
6. The speakers
Go look. Few conferences anywhere in the world get a speaking lineup of this quality. You’ll get to meet and hang out with them, ask them questions and hear them speak on what’s most important and most exciting to them right there and then. Not some canned done-it-a-thousand-times-presentation; you get their freshest, latest and greatest thinking.
7. You’ll come back better at your job
You’ll be able to do your job better after attending Webstock. You’ll have skills, techniques and ideas you didn’t have before. We aim to cater for everyone in the web industry – developers, designers, information architects, user experience, project managers, business owners etc. Webstock will expose you to some of the world’s best in each of these fields.
From HTML5 to OOCSS to open data to accessibility; site performance to start ups to social media to mobile – the range of topics and opinions will help you examine current and emerging trends and possibilities from many different angles. It’ll help you objectively evaluate the pros and cons of various web strategies, processes and technologies and help you make decisions that are right for you and your organisation.
And the Webstock workshops will be an unmatched opportunity to learn in a practical, hands-on manner from some of the best of the best! They’ll give you the latest need-to-know info and can help you validate the current direction of your web projects and avoid common pitfalls along the way.
8. You’ll come back better networked
Let’s face it, it’s not always what you know, it’s who you know. And this works at every level – from being able to ask someone about a tricky CSS problem you have, to knowing who to talk to when you’re looking for a development partner, to sharing a coffee with someone who could be commissioning the next website you build. Conferences are about community and networking. People from all levels of the NZ web industry – public and private sector, large and small – will be attending Webstock.
9. You’ll come back inspired
Remember why you got into this industry? Remember the last time you were genuinely excited about building websites and applications? Congratulations if you do, but like many of us, you may be struggling with the day-to-day grind of any job. Webstock is a opportunity to rediscover your inspiration and to take time thinking about the big picture. It’s not a holiday – you’ll be challenged and stimulated at every step – but the positive effect on you may be the same.
10. Because it’s a conference unlike any other
We strive to give you the best speakers, the best programme to help with the flow of the day, the best range of food, the best schwag, and the best customer service – so that you’ll have the best time you can. It’s a chance to recharge, and to be inspired and excited. If you’re feeling good; if you’re feeling engaged, your brain will respond – you’ll soak up the knowledge being presented to you like a sponge! You’ll be amongst others who care about the same things you care about. And you’ll be appreciated and valued by the organisers for your support.
Webstock is not just another conference. It’s an experience!
So whether you come from the education, government or the corporate environment, if you work with any aspect of web design, development, UX/IA, content-editing or project management, this event is just what the doctor ordered. Webstock will be intense, it will be fun, it will inspire you and you should register now!
We are beyond delighted to welcome Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley to Webstock. Both will be speaking at the main conference, providing an opportunity to gain insight into how successful musicians and performance artists are utilising the power of the web for recording, publicity and promotion, and to hear their thoughts on issues such as copyright.
Amanda and Jason will be performing exclusively for the Webstock crowd at Friday night’s closing party. This will be a truly special occasion in an intimate setting, available only for those who are attending Webstock ’11. We can neither confirm nor deny rumours that Evelyn Evelyn will be making an appearance!
Amanda Palmer, also known as Amanda Fucking Palmer is an American performer who first rose to prominence as the lead singer, pianist, and lyricist/composer of the duo The Dresden Dolls. She has since started a successful solo career, is also one half of the Evelyn Evelyn duo and is currently and collaborating with her partner Neil Gaiman on the Who Killed Amanda Palmer book project.
Jason Webley is an American musician who began as a busker, playing accordion in the streets of Seattle, Washington. A true one-man-show, Webley does all of his own booking, runs his own small record label (Eleven Records) and personally manages and designs his own website and struggles to maintain profiles on a plethora of social networking sites.
In addition to his solo work, Webley organizes and headlines the
annual Monsters of Accordion tour, runs a camp for adults and children
called Camp Tomato, and performs as the other half of Evelyn Evelyn.
Amanda speaking on music and creativity in an online world
On the 3rd of November we had a wonderful evening launching The Great NZ Remix & Mashup Competition. In addition to great keynote speakers Mike Hodgson and Pamela Fox, we also had 9 wonderful presentations broadly around the theme of sharing, remixing and mashing up data and content. There was a lot of interest in having the slides available afterwards, so in the best traditions of sharing, here’s the ones we have!
Mashups as Art: The Palette, The Tools, The Canvas, and the Masterpieces – Pamela Fox
The web mashup is a work of art, and the web developer behind it is the artist. APIs and open data make up the colors of the palette, the frameworks are our tools, and the best mashups are made by developers who know how to combine these together in surprising and pleasing ways onto the canvas of the web. This talk will look at the history of this modern art form, review the growing list of raw materials, and showcase the most impressive mashup masterpieces. HTML version – (Optimized for Chrome.. heavy on the CSS3, light on the JS)
Open Data Everywhere – Get Inspired – Glen Barnes
Open Data is more than just bus timetables and crime statistics. Take a fast paced ride through examples of how we could use open data if only we could get a hold of it.
How relevant today is a 40-year-old New Zealand travel guide? Robyn reveals how Maurice Shadbolt’s 1968 book “The Shell Guide to New Zealand” has become her constant travel companion, amid its curious recommendations of tourist attractions, the historic cannon that wasn’t, and the last days of the Chinese gooseberry.
We see the results of creative data visualisation exercises all over the web but it is rare that an audience gets to peek inside the design process. Chris will provide a whirlwind tour of a geographic mashup’s creation, before turning to the matter of, “So, what does this actually mean?” Expect to see some maps…. lots of maps.
Curtailing Crustaceans with Geeky Enthusiasm – Rob Coup
As a young and time-poor yachtie I need to get a leg up over the old barnacles who spend every afternoon out racing on the harbour. Can my two friends technology & data help me kick ass and take home the prizes?
In the first of our interviews with presenters for the upcoming Masterclass series of workshops, we talked with Roger Hudson. Roger is one of the world’s leading accessibility experts and has a wonderful blend of theory and practical insight. Roger’s also one of the FullCodePress organisers.
We asked Roger about the current state of accessibility and what attendees can expect at the workshop.
Webstock: Hasn’t the accessibility battle been won already? Don’t most developers already take accessibility into account when they build websites?
Roger: Well things are getting better, no doubt about that, but there are still an awful lot of poor sites. Recently, when preparing a paper for the CSUN conference, I did a quick review of the 7 most visited sites in Australia and the 7 most visited in the US – only one of these 14 sites did not have accessibility errors on the homepage. Conference slides and speakers notes from my presentation are available here.
Webstock: How important is WCAG 2 and how widely used it is?
Roger: In my opinion WCAG 2 is a great improvement on WCAG 1 and I believe that when developers understand how to use it they will find complying with WCAG 2 easier. WCAG 2 is going to be the accessibility benchmark for many years to come, New Zealand adopted WCAG 2 in March 2009 and Australia endorsed a year later. However, the way the NZ authorities have adopted WCAG 2 is going to present some interesting challenges for the web community on your side of the Tasman. The draft of new US section 508 is also closely aligned with WCAG 2.
Webstock: What’s WAI-ARIA and why is it important?
Roger: WAI-ARIA defines a way to make Web content and Web applications more accessible to people with disabilities. It especially helps with dynamic content and advanced user controls like those developed with AJAX. Work on WAI-ARIA is moving pretty fast. To varying degrees, ARIA is now supported by several browsers and screen readers, and is likely to become a W3C Recommendation in the near future.
During the workshop I will be showing a number of examples of how ARIA can improve the accessibility of web page components including forms and slider controls. Some in the web community believe once ARIA is more widely supported it will be here for the long term, other see ARIA as a temporary accessibility fix until HTML 5 becomes fully endorsed and supported – either way WAI-ARIA is one of the exciting new things happening in the area of accessibility. An increasing number of sites are now incorporating some ARIA – for example the BBC.
Webstock: I suspect a number of developers see accessibility as being “too hard for too little return”. How do you answer that attitude?
Roger: Accessibility is not too hard. When you come down to it, accessibility is largely about following the specs and making sites that are semantically correct. There are one or two slightly tricky bits, but as I said earlier, I strongly believe WCAG 2 will make it easier for developers to make accessible sites – not more difficult! What is very hard/difficult is trying to retro-fix accessibility problems on sites that were badly made in the first place.
With regard to the ROI, even if we forget the several hundred thousand New Zealanders with disabilities who will benefit from having sites that are accessible, there is an explosion in the different devices which we all now use to access the web and accessible sites are much more likely to work effectively on these new devices.
Webstock: What are three key takeaways attendees will leave your workshop with? How will these help them do their job better?
Roger: 1) An understanding of how the different elements of WCAG 2 fit together. You’d be amazed how many people still don’t know the difference between ‘normative’ Guidelines and Success Criteria, and ‘informative’ Techniques.
2) Practical real-world examples which demonstrate that complying with the WCAG 2 Success Criteria is not difficult.
3) An ability to test the accessibility of sites with different tools and experience using sites with the NVDA screen reader.
And for a fourth, we will also a various easy ways of meeting the WCAG 2 requirements relating to multi-media content such as video material.
Webstock: Tell us a little about yourself. What’s your background, how did you get involved in accessibility, what keeps you working in this area?
Roger: I started in the film and television business as a writer/director and then became involved with the web. During 1996/7 I coordinated one of the first online teaching research projects called the Virtual Classroom. Started providing web usability services to clients in 2000 and then drifted into accessibility. I keep working in the area because I like doing it, when it stop being interesting and challenging I will probably move onto something else. You can find out more about me on the Web Usability site and my blog.
Webstock: Thanks Roger. We’re looking to having you here for the workshop and FullCodePress!
