Webstock 2012 Less Than A Month Away

It has been almost 6 years since the first Webstock in Wellington, and I still remember fondly the inaugural conference.

What was memorable for me was the week that I spent with Tony Chor (then Group Program Manager for Internet Explorer) and his authentic and humble presentation on Internet Explorer.

In Webstock 2008 I got a chance to deliver a 5 minute presentation aptly titled ‘The Internet Is Not Private Get Over It!’

Looking back on this talk it is interesting to observe how much has changed in regards to social media and how much hasn’t.

In 2008 at Webstock both Verb and ourselves chose to create Photo Booths with our stands something that was not lost on the expressive attendees! We took the low tech approach with Playing Cards, a camera, a Vegas backdrop and a MIX08 Valentines theme. While Verb built and entire digital, flickr enable photo booth in .NET!

The results on the day complemented each other quite well.

At Webstock 2010 I tried something different and covered the stories of Webstock from behind the scenes.The highlight of this for me was Adam Greenfield (from 2008 to 2010 he was Nokia's head of design direction for user interface and services) and his Wellington Webstock Walkshop. Check out his presentation on public spaces.

With less than a month to go until Webstock 2012 I am really looking forward to the return to New Zealand of two high profile Microsoft employees.

Scott Hanselman (Microsoft Principal Community Architect for the Web Platform) and danah boyd (Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research).

If you are .NET web developer in NZ you absolutely must scoop  up one of the last tickets to attend Scott’s workshop ASP.NET MVC: From Baby Ninja to slightly older and more competent Ninja. At ($375 or $495 w/ Webstock Ticket) this IMO is the best value training you’ll get to grow in awesomeness at your chosen profession.

danah boyd (named "High Priestess of the Internet" by the Financial Times) is one of the world's foremost experts on the culture of technology. She features on the latest cover of Fast Company where she talks about Generation Flux.

She argues that the best place "to create steel walls is in businesses outside your core cash cows. The role of a big company is to keep the cash cow rolling, and then build the new."

If you haven’t got your ticket to Webstock yet register before the late bird kicks in on Monday the 23rd Jan.