webDU 2008 Wrap Up

Well, webDU has come and gone for another year, but I have a feeling that this year was different. I knew that numbers seemed to be up on previous years from discussion I had been having with Geoff and the Daemon team. These guys are first class event organisers, not to mention first class people, and I very much appreciate the work they do each year to run webDU. It just seemed to me that the number and enthusiasim of delegates, the quality of the sessions, and the overall vibe of the conference was on a higher level to previous years. It was great to be around - motivating, inspiring, and a lot of fun.

The content
As per ususal the main technologies were covered - Flash, Flex, AIR, Colf Fusion, Mobile, CSS, AJAX, JavaScript, 3D. I managed to see both keynotes (a rarity for Day 2 since the evening activities of Day 1 normally wipe out a lot of us for an early start the next day!) and both were great. Mike Downey and Greg Rewis had their schtick down pat for showing off AIR and some new features of Flash, Dreamweaver and Fireworks CS4. Tim Buntel on Day 2 had a great session on the next top 5 trends we'll see in web, and although remaining sceptical over timing (as we all have been really Tim), he did outline Mobile (Flash Lite, AIR Mobile) as a big trend to watch for in the coming years.


Some other sessions I attended was Mobile Web 2.0 with Gary Chan from Forum Nokia (talking on WRT and the opportunities for web developers on Nokia), Michael Wise and his crazy box of fun (hooking up Flash to Wii remotes, multi-touch surfaces, RFID and GPS), and Brian Chau on ActionScript 3.

Mobile
From a mobile point of view, I think we did ok (as well as Gary, I spoke on FLV and Flash Lite 3) for a web conference. This was my 5th webDU, and 4th as a speaker, and every year I speak on Flash Lite. I have a feeling that next year I will have some better opportunities to speak about, but for the main, I felt that we covered the mobile aspect pretty well considering that most people come to webDU for Flex, AIR, CF and Flash. There may be some photos circulating soon that show the extent that I went to in order to draw a crowd to my session - and that's all I'll say right now.

A shout out to Gary, Ung-Ping, Hawa, and the other nice lady on the Forum Nokia stand whose name embaressingly evades me at this moment (!) to say thank you for getting involved with webDU the way you did.

The fun
The "event" this year was a little bit more relaxed than the banquets of previous years. This year, we had the total run of a bowling/bar/laser tag/karaoke entertainment centre for the night. I will say that while my bowling score was pretty average, it was enough to snatch victory for me on the final frame :) A word of warning - playing laser tag with Darren Tracey and Mark Mandel can be hazardous to your health, if you are on the opposing team. The trading card game was a massive success and I look forward to seeing the concept trademarked, patented and rolled out for large licensing royalties at other "big technology conferences" by Kai and Minty ;) Well done boys.



We have the speaker party on tonight which always proves to be a lot of fun and a great time to hang out and get to talk with some really clever people in a very relaxed setting. I won't ever forget Mike Downey doing Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen at the karaoke machine one year, or watching Ted Patrick kick everyone's butt on Wii Tennis. Ahh, these are the memories :)

So for all of you who have always heard about webDU but have never made it, it's getting better every year so make sure that 2009 is the year you finally come to one of the best conferences in the world.

UPDATE: Just reading through my Google Reader this morning and found Alessandro has already spotted some of my webDU antics via Flashmagazine.