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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…)

About 9.50AM yesterday morning it started to rain.  As we are currently in Wellington I wasn’t entirely surprised but the main issue was that at 10AM we were supposed to be running the Webstock Photo Walk.

The idea came about shortly after Derek Powazek and Heather Champ cancelled their trip to NZ for Webstock.  Heaps of us were disappointed but I talked to the Webstock team & we were all in agreement it didn’t have to mean there couldn’t be a photo walk and/or a photo exhibition at the conference. We started to put something together.

Despite the rain, a group of about 12 people gathered in Civic Square - mostly members of the Webstock  Flickr group but a few other dedicated photographers as well.  The consensus was to keep going even if it did rain off and on through the day - which of course, it did!

We walked over the bridge from Civic Square and down along the waterfront towards where the Chinese New Year stuff was happening at TSB Arena. After a coffee stop, we kept going through Post Office Square and on down Lambton Quay and up onto the Terrace.

After being almost removed from the grounds of Parliament (especially Tim with his extremely large lens) we walked down past Defence House, through the railway station and back up along the waterfront, weaving around a slightly different path to what we had on the way down.

We were pretty tired by this time and had lost a few walkers, but we ended on a high note with a reflected photo of us all, watched some kids jump off the pier and then had lunch at Felix.  

It was awesome to meet everyone and as most of them are also Webstock attendees, I’m pleased to have made a bunch of new friends to hang out with while we’re down here.  I met so many awesome people at Webstock 06 that it’s cool Webstock 08 is starting off the same way.  

Attendance list as follows (and apologies from my fellow organiser, debsidelinger):

• your correspondent
• darren
• starla
• _elysium
• msneato
• heimatseeker
• dollierv
• drtimwright
• differentperspective
• -caro-
• etherelly
• nathandonaldson

Check out the photos from the Webstock Photowalk on Flickr and of course you’re welcome to join the Webstock Photo Exhibition group!

In the original Webstock line-up, Heather Champ and Derek Powazek were going to lead a photo workshop. They aren’t able to make it to Webstock anymore, but we’re going to have a photo exhibition and walkabout day anyway. Photos will be displayed digitally at the conference venue and archived online as a set.

The theme of the photo exhibition is FREEDOM. Interpret it how you like, but the basis of this comes from Webstock: Code For Freedom so we’d like photos that are conference theme related as well as ones that interpret this laterally.

To submit photos for consideration at this point please add them to the Webstock 2008 Photo Exhibition Flickr group. Other submission methods may be opened up later, depending on demand.

Images will need to be at least 1280 x 800.

The walkabout group details will be confirmed later, but keep Sunday 10 February free.

I came into work this morning to some bad news: due to personal reasons, my internet heroes Derek Powazek and Heather Powazek Champ will not be able to make it to Webstock. This means no photo workshop with them and no speaking spots during the conference.

Derek and Heather have long been heroes for a number of reasons - their involvement in projects like the Mirror Project, JPG, Fray and Flickr. Since 2002, I’ve had a quote of Derek’s linked on vortex, which I feel isn’t just limited to the topic it describes:

My advice to anyone running a personal website: Put your head down and don’t listen to anything anyone says about it. Ignore any dire pronouncements that include the words “genre,” “medium,” or “revolution.” Avoid referer logs, popularity rankings, and vanity searches at all costs.

Use whatever tool makes sense to you. Write your code by hand or not. Distrust all political parties. Never put a label on yourself unless you’re sure it’s really what you are, and even then don’t. Avoid cults of personality, even when they’re your own.

Remember that a personal website’s only defining characteristic is that it’s personal. And, as such, no one has to “get it” but you. It doesn’t have to “advance the medium” or “make the world a better place.” It just has to make your world a better place. It has to fill some need in your life. It has to make you happy.

Do what you love, baby. And don’t stop doing it for anybody.

I just hope that whatever has prevented them from coming to New Zealand sorts itself out (and hopefully for the better). We’ll miss you Derek and Heather - but the onus will be on the other speakers now to work that bit harder to make Webstock as amazing as it would have been.

EDIT: I suggested to Tash and Mike from Webstock that we have a photo meetup anyway…they seem keen to organise something around that idea, so stay tuned if you were booked for Derek and Heather’s workshop.