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

Twice in my career have I’ve felt the ground really shift under our feet. The first was the late 1990s and early 2000s, when standards-based development, progressive enhancement and CSS layout rewired how we build for the web. The second was the early 2010s, as responsive design and a modern JavaScript ecosystem took hold.

My genuine belief is that we’re at the start of a third such revolution.

Large language models, agents, and protocols like MCP aren’t a sideshow; they’re already changing how we design, build, and maintain software. A year from now, many of us will be working in very different ways. Waiting to “see how it plays out” only makes the climb steeper later.

So when bringing together the programme for Web Directions Developer Summit this year we had this at the front of our thinking. In November we’re bringing together practitioners who are doing the work now—shipping with agents, modern CSS, identity APIs, resilient architectures and design systems that actually meet the moment, to help you not only keep up, but get head.

What the program covers

This is a front-end conference in the broadest, most practical sense: the browser platform, the patterns and architectures behind it, and the emerging AI-powered workflows that will shape both what and how we build.

• Agents and MCP in the real world. From building agents in JavaScript to connecting your front-end tooling through the Model Context Protocol—what’s actually working, and where it fits.
• What’s beyond the browser? How AI clients and assistants are reshaping software, and why the next platform must remain open.
• Architecture that reduces risk, not velocity. Pragmatic patterns like BFF and local-first—where they help, where they don’t, and how to embrace them without drama.
• Modern CSS, minus the contortions. Native capabilities for rich interaction (scroll-timeline, view-timeline, state queries), and what’s changing in form controls.
• Design systems for an AI workflow. Treat automation as a first-class participant. Make “open by default” your strongest foundation.
• Performance, resilience and the network. Offline-capable AI web apps with Service Workers, caches, OPFS/IndexedDB, and WebGPU.
• Identity that’s finally usable. Passkeys, FedCM and Digital Credentials—browser-level capabilities to start adopting now.
• Accessibility that isn’t box-ticking. Where automation helps, where it harms, and how to raise the bar.

Explore the full program and speakers here:
→ Developer Summit program & speakers

Why attend (or stream)

• Signal over noise. We curate for what will change how you build—or help you decide what not to chase.
• Breadth with depth. From the “back of the front end” to the “front of the front end,” it’s everything that lands in the browser—and the workflows that deliver.
• A pragmatic path into AI-powered development. Concrete patterns for agents and MCP: what to adopt next, and what to defer.

Practicalities

• Where and when?: Sydney, November 19–20, 2025
• Attend in person or stream

→ Register now for Developer Summit