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Our 2022 Summit Keynotes

We’ve announced the program for our 6 tracks at Web Directions Summit taking place in Sydney in December (with just a handful of spots just being finalised).

So now it’s time to announce some wonderful keynote speakers.

Yiying Lu–Bridging the World through Cross-Cultural Creativity & Innovation

Yiying, as we announced a few weeks back, is our first ever Creative Director for Web Directions Summit, helping define not just the visual identity for the event, but the overall experience as well. And her opening keynote at the conference is a big part of that. It helps capture some of our ambition for the event and what we hope to achieve.

banner for Yiying's presentation. Text reads "Yiying Lu Artist & Entrepreneur. WEB DIRECTIONS SUMMIT 22 SYDNEY, DEC 1 & 2 BRIDGING THE WORLD THROUGH CROSS-CULTURAL CREATIVITY & INNOVATION product, design, front-end engineering, and more! Sydney, December 1st and 2nd, 2022"

Summit brings together designers, product professionals, engineers, and more. It brings together people from large enterprises, and dynamic agencies, from government and education and not for profits. It brings together speakers, and attendees from across the country and the world.

And after the last 3 years, which have made so much of our professional (and personal) lives so disjointed, so fragmented, we think it’s time to reconnect–to rebuild bridges. As Yiying puts it

Bridging Function & Fun, Bridging Tech & Art, Bridging East & West, Bridging Business & Culture, Bridging Work & Life.

innovation comes from learning and bridging the gaps from the seemingly opposite sides with respect and understanding of both sides. This way, we can truly generate new business & cultural values that are key to benefit our future.

Dan Hill–The infrastructures of everyday life

In 2009, shortly before he left Australia, Dan Hill closed Web Directions South (as we called it then). Dan observed

It is time for the practice of web development and design to broaden its horizons. How can the skills and experience we’ve acquired over the last 15 years of working on the internet be applied more broadly to, say, the design of cities, buildings, organisations, government and so on? 

Dan recently returned to Australia as Professor and Director of the Melbourne School of Design. We’re excited and privileged to have Dan return to close Web Directions Summit 2022, where he’ll build a bridge to that now long past presentation, and consider the

impact of tech on us—our communities, our environments, our places—via the new and old forms of shared infrastructures that tech can create, or diminish, and how they in turn embody, and shape, what we stand for as communities, societies

Banner for Dan Hill Text reads "Dan Hill Professor and Director Melbourne School of Design WEB DIRECTIONS SUMMIT 22 SYDNEY, DEC 1 & 2 THE INFRASTRUCTURES OF EVERYDAY LIFE product, design, front-end engineering, and more! Sydney, December 1st and 2nd, 2022"

Penelope McLachlan–The future of apps on the web

The “Web” in Web Directions isn’t going away–it’s always been at the heart of our programs. And at this year’s Summit we’re putting the technologies of the Web in front of everyone–because these are changing perhaps like at no other time, making the Web as a platform ever more capable and sophisticated, enabling new kinds of applications and services. We feel it’s important that not just engineering, but design, and product are also aware of what the Web is capable.

So, Penelope McLachlan, Product Manager on the Chrome Web Platform team will give us a clearer sense of the opportunities the platform presents today, and in the near future.

A decade ago, few if any people could imagine an app like Figma in the browser–but harnessing the then emerging capabilities of the Web platform the folks at Figma built something new and powerful and transformed product design. What comes next? Perhaps Penelope will inspire you and your team to build it.

Baner for Penelope's presentation. Text reads "Penelope McLachlan Senior Product Manager Google WEB DIRECTIONS SUMMIT 22 SYDNEY, DEC 1 & 2 THE FUTURE OF APPS ON THE WEB product, design, front-end engineering, and more! Sydney, December 1st and 2nd, 2022"

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Web Directions South is the must-attend event of the year for anyone serious about web development

Phil Whitehouse General Manager, DT Sydney