Web Directions Year round learning for product, design and engineering professionals

Today we’re announcing the first round of our speakers for Code in Melbourne in June.

This is a detailed post about the thinking that went into our Code conference program–if you just want to see what’s lined up, why not jump straight there? But if you’d like to know why what’s there is there, read on! 

The coming vibe shift in web development?

The last decade has seen the Web evolve at breakneck speed. The rise and growing dominance of frameworks and the SPA architecture. The growing complexity of our foundations–JavaScript, CSS, browser APIs. Performance and increasingly security moving toward the front end.

But we’ve been sensing a vibe shift–a taking stock after this frenetic period. A questioning of some long held assumptions. Is this an illusion or is there really something in the water?

A vibe shift is the catchy but sort of too-cool term … for a relatively simple idea: In the culture, sometimes things change, and a once-dominant social wavelength starts to feel dated

A Vibe Shift Is Coming–Will any of us survive it?

Some long time React stalwarts have recently been expressing concerns about the direction and momentum of that project–expressing being “increasingly miffed about the state of React releases”, and being “kind of annoyed at React…it’s just gotten too confusing and frustrating…really hard to understand.

When longtime React developers, with high profiles in our field say “It’s frustrating to see that there hasn’t been a release since June 2022. It’s frustrating that the core team all spouted “use a framework!” with React 18”, it’s fair to say there’s something is going on.

These articles aren’t isolated examples, but of course this isn’t an argument that you should just abandon React/Angular/FrameworkX–that’s hardly a meaningful reality. But it is food for thought. Nothing lasts forever. Well maybe Windows…

Meanwhile Web Components have been having a bit of a resurgence (well maybe more just a surgence), and people are beginning to realise it’s not Web Components or… but Web Components and… They play nicely with others (even React!) and are deployed at massive scale by the likes of Microsoft, Github, and Youtube.

And even the very idea of SPAs–Next.js founder Guillermo Rauch called them “a zero interest rate phenomenon”–so central to how web apps have been developed for a decade, and the long held idea of a dichotomy between websites and web apps are being called into question.

The Code program

So as we sat down to program our Code 24 conference we felt we needed to address the unsettled state of the Web platform and Web development in 2024. And help you navigate it. 

• We’ll be bringing you up to speed with the details from the latest State of CSS (and JavaScript and other State of Surveys) from key collaborator on the project Hui Jing Chen. 
• Speaking of Web Components and Github, Keith Cirkle from Github will be delivering some hard won knowledge about the uses and challenges of using Web Components. 
• With Jake Ginnivan we’ll revisit our roots in traditional web apps and learn how we can use the same motivations that made SPA’s so popular and re-apply them in a way that will make the web a better place.
• We’ll be updating you on a whole range of new CSS features and JavaScript features. Diving deep into real world accessibility for Web Apps (or should that be web sites?), and getting our heads around the state of JavaScript engines (server, browser and edge)
• We’ll be covering performance including the latest significant changes to Core Web Vitals, and security, and much more.

And that’s just the start!

We know (do we ever know–it’s our job) how much hard work it is to keep up with developments and trends in our field–so get along to Code, in Melbourne in June and let us do the work for you.

If ever attending Code were going to be valuable it’s now, at a time of such significant transition.

With amazing discounts for juniors, freelancers, and not for profits, and with super early bird pricing now, we’d love to see you there.

Can’t make it in person? We’re streaming too.

Around 10% of our audience is there online not in person and we’ve built a fantastic experience for you if that’s your preferred option. With real time and excellent captioning, and embedded chat to connect with other online and in-person attendees, we can’t promise it will be just like being there-but it sure beats missing out altogether.