Webstock: Not Your Standard Conference

Webstock: Not Your Standard Conference

New Zealand's first major web conference features renowned international speakers

Web Standards NZ are proud to announce Webstock, a two-day conference about all things web, preceded by two days of workshops. Taking place on May 23rd through to May 26th 2006 in the Wellington Town Hall, this conference not only gives New Zealand audiences a chance to see big name international speakers at home, but provides international audiences with an excuse to visit New Zealand and see a truly outstanding line-up of web expertise.

Webstock is aimed at anyone who works with the web, whether they are a designer, developer, analyst, content-editor, information/solution architect, or a decision maker. There will be something motivating, exciting and immensely valuable for everyone.

Speakers include Ben Goodger, the lead developer of Firefox; Kathy Sierra, Java guru and author of the Creating Passionate Users blog; Joel Spolsky, the author of the popular 'Joel on Software' web site; Kelly Goto, the co-author of the highly acclaimed book 'Web Redesign: Workflow that Works'; Russell Brown, blogger, journalist and the creator of websites PublicAddress and HardNews; Doug Bowman, the designer behind sites such as Blogger, Wired News, Capgemini, and Adaptive Path; and Dori Smith, Web Standards Project steering committee member and author of numerous books. For a complete list, visit the Webstock site, webstock.org.nz.

Mike Brown, the chair of Web Standards NZ, expects interest in the conference to be high. "We've never had an event like this in New Zealand before. Given the excellent speakers, there's likely to be a fair bit of interest from overseas as well. I expect the conference to be sold out." Registrations will open early in the new year. "Space is limited", advises Brown. "I'd recommend people sign up to be kept informed about when registrations open."

Webstock promises to be a conference with a difference, and will have a uniquely New Zealand feel. Inspired by the spirit of the great rock festival Woodstock, the organisers of Webstock hope to start a revolution in the way that people create and think about websites. They see web standards as a "code for freedom". Web standards are not about leaving users behind or adhering to inflexible rules; standards can enable sophisticated beautiful sites to work as well for everyone tomorrow as they do today.

Note to editors:
Web Standards NZ is a non-profit, non-affiliated group of enthusiastic and dedicated web professionals. Passionate about standards, best-practice and excellence in the web space, they have a major goal - to raise the standard of web design, development, management and maintenance in NZ.
http://www.webstandards.net.nz/

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