webstock 2008: a roundup
Webstock 2008 was an event and a half, as expected - amazing speakers, a list of books to search out and read, new friends, new and/or improved ideas. It has taken me a few days to process the intense days (2 workshops, 2 days of conference proper) I had last week. I have been a Webstock evangelist for the past 2 years, and the second time is just a big fat double underscore to support that.
One of the things that I always enjoy about Webstock is feeling like I am part of something bigger than just the individual projects, a team of people and a single organisation. Webstock makes it possible to feel like a part of something larger and more important.
The first time I went to Webstock was in 2006. It was a REVELATION about why I do what I do, that New Zealand isn’t as far away as it can be and that what we do matters. It was a textbook illustration of a situation where you have no expectation of what something will be like. You then have such a great experience that you are shocked and awed. Webstock 06 probably even went ABOVE that.
Webstock 2008 had a lot to live up to. While I think it was a better conference in a lot of ways, it was different because I am different and it couldn’t still be that first over the top experience. It is harder to maintain excellence than to do it just the once, and I give a standing ovation to Webstock for being able to, not only operate, but inspire people at such a high level.
Webstock in 2008 inspired me to improve the way I do my job and to keep on loving the internet as much as I do. It also showed me though that the talent that we have in New Zealand is rapidly closing the gap on the international “experts” - perhaps soon enough my friends will be the ones taking to the conference circuit rather than the other way around. At the close of the conference I decided to mark this by asking both international and local web-lebrities to sign my lanyard programme - some of the people I asked to sign are also people I count among my friends.
If you are reading this and you decide who gets to attend this in 2010 - SEND MORE ACCOUNT SERVICE STAFF. Support the people who support and lead your teams right through the project. Don’t just get stuck on the studio - think about the project managers, account managers and account directors who are the “face” of your company in those boardrooms and on those phones and in email every day.
Inspire them and you will see the benefit in team performance, high quality output and that extra % lift - and if you don’t, figure out why you have people on your team who don’t love the internet.
Webstock is not just about web standards or data or achieving great design. Webstock sessions are not just about web standards, CSS and liquid layours. There are sessions about content, project management and about trends / ways of working (data, rich media, managing design, not being “stuck”). It’s also about usability and lolcats and how people learn - all applicable completely across the board.
There is talk and requests of Webstock becoming a yearly event. I actually think as awesome as it would be to attend something like this every year that there are several reasons for keeping it happening every other year. It’s a huge event to put on and of extremely high quality - it’s hard to say if it would be as special or as high quality if it was on every year. A week out for staff (or even 2 days for the conference multiplied by many staff) is a high cost to a business with lost time, conference fees, airfares, etc etc. I also wonder if our industry really has enough solid movement to talk about changes (not just passing trends/issues) every year…maybe we do but 2 years is a really good benchmark to see how far we’ve come (especially with teh mini Webstocks they run periodically in between). Unless the quality can remain as high or the venue can alternate between locations in the country I think that Webstock is awesome as a two yearly event.
I can’t end this post without the rundown of some highs and lows:
WIN
- Speakers - in fact, this was triple win, especially scott berkun and michael lopp.
- New friends.
- Inspiration.
- Craftstock - such a cute idea.
- The amazing sign language translators.
- The organising team - I don’t know how you do it.
- Swag.
- Venue, food, branding.
LOSE
- The wifi - hideous and I’m sure quite stressful for the organising team.
- Sessions running late (people need to stick to their allocated times and get off the damn stage).
- Name tags with names too small to read well from a polite distance.
- Stalls which don’t actually promote companies so you can’t tell who they are (though the photobooth was cool, I didn’t know until after the conference what Verb do - and was their URL on their stand? Also I thought the Scoop chillout space was Wanda Harland’s…)
