Well, Web Essentials wrapped up on Friday night, and I can truly say it was one outstanding conference. Earlier, I think I wrote that it looked to be the largest web standards event in the southern hemisphere this year. That… was an understatement. It was easily the largest event focused exclusively on web standards in the world (outside the W3C), and the wonderful organizing team pulled it off flawlessly.
The two days were packed with so much material (and good material) that it seemed to be the equivalent of a three- or four-day conference. Dave kicked things off on Thursday with a solid keynote, and Russ followed with a modest but well-executed intro to web standards. When John Allsopp took the stage, I realized he’s probably the most under-utilized yet contagiously energetic speaker I’ve seen so far, and anyone in the U.S. or elsewhere needs to be sure to think of John if you’re looking for a dynamic speaker full of web standards knowledge.
The accessibility sessions both days captivated my attention. Joe Clark is way too self-deprecating, and despite what anyone thinks of his online persona, he’s an excellent speaker, well-timed, confident, and has a good stage sense of humor. Bruce Macguire gave a humbling talk about accessibility and discrimination that carried a different kind of gravity than all the other presentations, and Roger showed how horribly inaccessible and unusable navigation can be when not implemented well. David Woodbridge effectively demonstrated how horribly some sites function in JAWS. This was the first time I’ve witnessed someone actually using JAWS to navigate a page by headings, which put an exclamation point on their usefulness. And Mr. Dean Jackson was absolutely hillarious on stage, and proved that W3C members can get their points across much more effectively when they don’t take themselves so seriously.
The conference attendees were extraordinary, fun-spirited, and filled with challenging questions. With well over 200 attending the conference, the majority of them Australians from all over the country, Australia has clearly proven a dedication and concern for standards-based design. One need look no further than the exploding popularity of the Web Standards Group, and the consistently large amounts of folks they pull in for regular meetings. Aussies are effectively showing up the rest of the world when it comes to their thirst for knowledge and interest levels in web standards and making content accessible to all. With what I’ve experienced of this insanely hospitable and welcoming country so far, the commitment to access for all, and aggressively charging ahead to take advantage of whatever they can the right way the first time… it’s really no surprise that web standards are on fire here in Australia.
I’d like to publicly thank and congratulate John, Maxine, Russ, and Peter for an outstanding job pulling together such an excellent conference. If you couldn’t make it this year, for whatever reason (budget, distance, time off work) make sure you start planning now to attend next year. By then, I’m positive the conference will be at least twice the size it was this year, and will attract even more speakers and attendees from all over the world. My only question now is, do we really have to wait a whole year for the next Web Essentials? Maybe we can convince them to make WE an official Aussie export and begin planning a couple more conferences just like it in other locations throughout the world.
Posted in Events
14 comments (Comments closed)
Wow.
I can only wish I was there. I’ve heard so many great things about it. Thanks for the update!
It was nice to meet you Doug
Hopefully you can return for WE05 :-)
I have said it once and I will say it again, when is it coming to Indianapolis, IN :)
It was really nice to meet you Doug, don’t forget those scenic flights I told you about :-) and there are the pics????
All to often we miss all the good gatherings - they always seem to be over in the US. It was nice to have something a bit closer to home! (Well, if 2000km is close to home anyway.)
I learned a lot from your presentations, Doug - thanks for making the trip down. My head was not far from exploding after 2 days! Great event, congrats to all.
Wow, sounds like a really great event. Just took a gander at the slides from your presentation, they look great and it looks like a really informative and entertaining talk.
Wish I could have made it. Maybe next year…
Sounded like a truely awesome event, shame it’s on the over side of the world! Hopefully you can come to a base in Europe, or better yet, the UK. If Web Essentials gets larger and large the possibility of continent talks would satisfy most people! I plead, come to Europe next year I need to go!
Heh, yes, I’d really like to start planing, but conference trip CZE > AUS is quite problematic ;)
It was an absolute pleasure listening to the likes of you and Dave. Highly inspirational, thanks so much for making the trek downunder and for all you pearls of wisdom.
I made this event really at the last minute and the value I got out of it was amazing !!!! Not to mention that the presentors were fantastic and so enthusiastic. As a person who’s been enthusiastically preaching web standards for a few years now to developers who don’t care about this area at all, it’s fantastic to see how many people are now taking it seriously and starting to listen. Can’t wait to see you in Melbourne on Tuesday !!!
i second Bryan’s post- we need some serious standards education for developers here in Indiana :)
Thanks for the presentation, it was great, I especially got alot out of the how to approach a design bit.
Thanks again,
ps I think next time, instead of the Smackdown bit at the end, it is going to be a Bikini contest… =)
There was a major omission in this entry, doug.
Your presentations were a genuine highlight in a 2 day conference full of highlights.
Thank you so much for your contribution - it was nothing short of inspiring. I really appreciate the amount of effort you put into your presentations, and the genuine interest you had in sharing your knowledge, creativity and ideas.
Your presentations were two of the better ones I was fortunate enough to experience last week; and were certainly the best linked pair of presentations. I loved the way you structured them - the first one have me a real hunger for some meaty techniques; it’s a shame you couldn’t spend more time chewing over some of the advanced tricks you shared towards the tail end of your second presentation.
All in all, it was a brilliant, well-balanced symphony of accessibility and web standards design presentations - and thanks for the notable contribution your presence added, doug.
The conference sounded excellent. Shame it wasn’t in the UK. Any chance of conference notes? Slides? etc? I’d love to see a bit more of what was discussed.
Thanks
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