crown member taking photo of speaker on stage with their phone. Speaker is blurred.

Conferences, workshops and more for the Australian web industry–brought to you by the folks who've been at the centre of it for 20 years, Web Directions.

Featuring

web directions developersummit Sydney Nov 27 & 28 2024

A world leading conference for the people building the Web.

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web directions Next Sydney Nov 29 2024

What's next in the world of digital design, product and strategy?

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Workshops

November 28th and 29th

On November 28th and 29th we've got three very rare workshops on very timely topics by world leading experts.

Sentient Design

A workshop on resilient & maintainable CSS

Josh Clark & Veronika Kindred

November 28th 9am–5pm

Sentient Design is the already-happening future of intelligent interfaces—experiences that feel almost self-aware in their response to user needs. These are AI-mediated experiences that adapt to humans, instead of making us adapt to them. Sentient Design moves past static info/layouts and embraces UX as a radically adaptive story, experiences that are conceived and compiled in real time based on your intent in the moment.

This workshop explores the AI-powered opportunities that lie beyond the chatbot—and that will animate the next generation of our craft. This transition demands fresh perspective, technique and process. It also introduces new challenges and dangers. Sentient Design provides a framework for conceiving, exploring, and delivering this new kind of experience.

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Cascading Style Systems

A workshop on resilient & maintainable CSS

Miriam Suzanne

November 29th 9am–5pm

New CSS features are shipping at an unprecedented rate – cascade layers, container queries, the :has() selector, subgrid, nesting, and so much more. It’s an exciting time, but the list can also feel overwhelming.

Do I really need grids if I already know flexbox? What problem do layers actually solve? Should I rewrite my styles with each feature release, or stick with the tools that I know?

Join Miriam for a deep dive into what makes the language work, and how we can harness its power to develop resilient and delightful experiences that hold up across browsers, languages, and device interfaces.

Learn More Register

Web Components Demystified

dynamic, fast, resilient apps with standard web components

Scott Jehl

November 29th 9am–5pm

If you're like me, you've been hearing a lot about web components lately. Many of us are finding ways to transition to using web components more in our work, and all the while, many teams are struggling to get up to speed and figure out how web components fit into their workflows. A lot is happening with web components right now and it can be a little overwhelming to follow all that has changed.

If you're a designer or developer looking to gain a better understanding of how web components can fit into your workflow today and into the future, this is the course for you!

Learn More Register

Sideshows

November 25th to December 6th

Keen to host an event the week of Web Directions Festival? Run your meetup, host an openhouse at your company or agency. With hundreds of industry professionals in town from all around Australia and beyond why not put on a show?

to make a proposal or to learn more

Drop us a line

Into Design Systems

Hosted by WiseTech Global

74 O'Riordan St, Alexandria

November 26th 5:30pm

free

Into Design Systems is a global initiative that connects design system practitioners and enthusiasts to network and learn from one another.

A hybrid event, it's designed to accommodate your preferences. You can attend in person at the fantastic WiseTech office or join online via the live stream. This way, you can fully immerse yourself in the talks from our three exceptional speakers.

For those attending in person there'll be food and drinks before the talks.

Speakers

Our three speakers will be announced soon. Stay tuned!

Learn More & register

Future Tech Collective

Hosted by Bilue

Level 4/4-6 Bligh St, Sydney NSW 2000

November 26th 5:30pm

free

Where insightful talks spark conversations and collaboration, exploring how technology is reshaping the future of our world and our lives.

This event features Marguerite Pettit, Communications Lead, Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation and Anya Grichina, Psychotherapist, Principal at Intimate Matters

Learn More & register

Sydney Content Strategy Meetup

Hosted by Atlassian

Mon, 2 Dec, 6pm - 8:30pm

free

Join Sydney web content strategists, content designers, information architects, website managers, digital producers and UX designers to discuss crafting the best digital strategy for users.

This is a fun and collaborative meetup run by Elle from Elle Geraghty Content Strategy.

Case study

Luke Ellery will share a case study about getting Atlassian Rovo ready for launch.

About Luke

Luke Ellery is a Senior Content Designer at Atlassian, based in Sydney. With almost seven years in the content industry, Luke specialises in collaborating with his cross-functional partners to design accessible and delightful software experiences. Currently, he's contributing to the development of Atlassian's AI product, Rovo, within the Central AI team.

Learn More & register

Conferences, workshops and more

With our Developer Summit and brand new Next conferences taking lace this week, alongside workshops and more, there's plenty to choose from.

Early bird ends in

Festival Gold Pass

$1995ends Nov 15

Includes

  • Dev Summit + Next in person attendance
  • Dev Summit + Next conference videos
  • closing night party
  • Conffab Pro 12 months access

register

Dev Summit + Workshop Pass

$1995ends Nov 15

Includes

  • Dev Summit + Workshop in person attendance
  • Dev Summit conference videos
  • closing night party
  • Conffab Pro 12 months access

register

Next + Workshop Pass

$1495ends Nov 15

Includes

  • Next + Workshop in person attendance
  • Next conference videos
  • closing night party
  • Conffab Pro 12 months access

register

Sentient Design Workshop

$895ends Nov 15

Includes

  • Sentient Design workshop with Josh Clark
  • in person attendance

register

Web Components Workshop

$895ends Nov 15

Includes

  • Web Components Demystified workshop with Scott Jehl
  • in person attendance

register

CSS Workshop

$895ends Nov 15

Includes

  • Cascading Style Systems workshop with Miriam Suzanne
  • in person attendance

register

Or attend an individual conference, or workshop

In person

In-person conferences and workshops are fully catered (morning and afternoon tea and lunch) including any dietary requrements. Our conferences feature amazing coffee (and more). Developer Summit and Next also feature a reception.

Streaming

Streaming passes include access to the conference livestream on our very own platform Conffab, includiing live captioning and chat, access to the stream on demand after the event and to the conference videos when they become available.

Learn more

Learn more about Developer Summit, Next, and their associated workshops and pricing.

Our venue

Web Directions Festival including Dev Summit, Next, our workshops and closing night party 2024 will take place in November at UTS Sydney.

Getting there:

There are numerous public transport options, and parking available close by.

Accommodation:

If you're coming from out of town, there are many hotel and serviced apartment style accomodation options in and around the area.

UTS by night looking up broadway.
A complex AV setup for conference streaming

Live Streaming

Not everyone is ready, or able to get back to in-person events. Others find online conferences provide greater accessibility. So we'll be streaming our two festival conferences, Dev Summit and Next on our very own streaming platform Conffab.

Drawing on our lessons of hosting over a dozen online conferences in recent years, streaming attendees will get live captions, and be able interact with in-person attendees, ask speakers questions, and feel a close as possible without being at the venue.

Register

Partner with us

Keen to reach hundreds of the leading web engineers in the country? We bring them together in one place, fuel them with coffee and amazing talks and reignite their excitement.

We work closely with our partners and their technologies to deliver world leading online conferences. Contact us to talk more about how we work can work with you to help you be even more awesome.

Keep up to date with Announcements

Want to keep up to date with news about Developer Summit? Let us know below and we'll email you as things develop.

Web Directions Conffab

Stream and download nearly 1,000 presentations from hundreds of world leading experts at 50 conferences…and counting

With free and paid levels, keep up to date with all that's happening in our industry at your own pace.

Sign up Now Learn More

Portait of John Allsopp.

John Allsopp

John Allsopp has been working on the Web for nearly 30 years. He's been responsible for innovative developer tools such as Style Master and X-Ray, and his ideas formed the foundation for Typekit, now Adobe Fonts, and the entire concept of Responsive Web Design. He's spoken at numerous conferences around the World and delivered dozens of workshops in that time as well.

His writing includes several books, including Developing With Web Standards and countless articles and tutorials in print and online publications.

His "A Dao of Web Design" published in 2000 is cited by Ethan Marcotte as a key influence in the development of Responsive Web Design, who's acclaimed article in 2010 begins by quoting John in detail, and by Jeremy Keith as "a manifesto for anyone working on the Web".

John brings his deep knowledge of and passion for the web and all things digital to every aspect of Web Directions.

About Us

Co-founded and now run by John Allsopp, Web Directions has for nearly 2 decades years brought together leading developers, engineers, visual, IxD, UX and product designers, Art and Creative Directors, product managers indeed everyone involved in producing web and digital products to learn from one another, and the World's leading experts across this vast field.

We spend our lives thinking about what comes next, keeping up with trends in technology, practices and processes, and filtering the hype, to make sure you don't miss trends that matter, and don't waste time on hype that doesn't.

We promise attending one of our events will leave you significantly better versed in the challenges you face day to day, and in solutions for addressing them.

Crowd at a conference.

Code of Conduct

For over a decade, we've worked hard to create inclusive, fun, inspring and safe events for the Web Industry.

As part of our commitment to these values, we've adopted a code of conduct for all involved: ourselves, our speakers, our partners and our audience.

If you have any concern or feedback, please don't hesitate to contact us.