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What Do You Know Brisbane – Wrap-up

Thanks so much to everyone who braved the elements and came along to the biggest Brisbane What Do You Know so far! Last Thursday was a great night with eleven lightning presentations on anything and everything web, from Sproute to narcissism, and now we are well and truly pumped for Web Directions Code in Melbourne in May.

Things kicked off from 6pm with drinks and nibbles courtesy of our most excellent sponsors, SilverStripe. A couple of people asked me about the music on the night – it was the playlist from Web Directions South last year, which you can listen to anytime right here.

First cab off the rank on the night was Andy Fitzsimon (@AndyFitz), who introduced us to the idea of generative design and showed how it is being used at places like Redhat. This is a trend to watch for sure! Andy’s slides are here.

Sarah Bock’s (@bock_sarah) presentation on Narcissism and the Web seemed to strike a chord with a lot of the audience. Sarah has been good enough to write a blog post based on her preso – it certainly is a fascinating subject, and one we need to be aware of as not just participants in the Web, but also its creators.

Next, Jilly Magee (@chinkystickens) showed us how Data is the real king (and yes, content is data!). As well as her slides, Jilly has also shared a write up of her presentation.

Louis Stowasser (@louisstow) then took us through a live coding demo, using Sproute to re-create Hacker News. You can dive deeper into Sproute here, and here is a tutorial that does something similar to what Louis covered in his demo.

Then we had Katie Miller (@codemiller) who told us all about Beer in the Cloud with Node.js and OpenShift. Here’s the app she built, and here’s its source code.

Leading into the break we had Shane Weddell (@shaneweddell), who told us the SilverStripe story, also known as “how to build a successful business by doing the opposite of what everyone tells you to do”. Which was convenient enough, because next up we had a quick break for refreshments with drinks and food courtesy of SilverStripe.

After the break Luke Brooker (@lukebrooker) continued the beer theme of the night with an interesting and inspirational presentation called Craft as in Beer. Check out the slides, as well as a write up of the presentation for some insights into how Luke approaches web design and development as a craft. Oh and here’s the documentary he spoke about, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, it’s well worth the watch!

Next up we had Ash Kyd (@AshKyd) who talked about the world of maps post-Google. If you’re looking to do cool stuff with maps, make sure you check out his write-up.

Ben Cull (@benjii22) showed us The State of Payments in Australia, and I’d have to say, compared to a few years ago, things are looking pretty good. Check out his preso for an overview of some of the more interesting options around out there these days.

Anna Gerber (@AnnaGerber) then showed us the ins and outs of building an open web of things – here are her slides if you want to follow up on this exciting new area.

Then to finish off the night Brandon Sheppard (@BrandonSheppard) showed us how to optimise for ecommerce.

It was a fun night! Hope you were able to make it along, and hope to see you next time we’re in your town!

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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