What do you know returns to Sydney in October

John Allsopp 19th August, 2022 @johnallsopp

For years at Web Directions we ran an event called “What Do You Know”. Back when it started in 2011, meetups were far from the common events they are now and the opportunity for folks in the industry to get together, share ideas and connect, and more importantly to present, were fewer than they became as meetups got into full swing.

Of course, COVID had a hugely negative impact on meetups just as it did with in-person conferences.

However, as folks begin meeting again in person, we decided to team up with some great meetups we know in Sydney to resurrect What Do You Know, to be held in the Sydney CBD (venue just being finalised), on Thursday, October 6th.

As always there’ll be a bite to eat and a drink or two on us, and most importantly, some great short sharp presentations; we’d love to see all your Sydney folk there! BTW did we mention it’s all free?

Speaker on stage in front of a night club style crowd — Old School What Do You Know at the Tao Bar Sydney – JJ Halans

What do you know?

Back when we started WDYK there were a couple of different formats for evenings of talks floating around–PechaKucha (or ‘chit-chat’ in Japanese ぺちゃくちゃ) was created in 2003 in Tokyo, with a specific format, while Ignite from around 2006 took the format, but was more constrained still–all talks were 20, 30 second with auto-advanced slides.

We didn’t want to constrain speakers quite that much, but we decided that each talk was to be no more than 5 minutes (with Maxine ruthlessly keeping time) and each talk would be about 1 thing, that the speaker knows really well.

The events and the format went really well, and from 2011 to 2018 we had perhaps 2-3 dozen WDYK events in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra.

What do you know now?

When it came to re-animating the events, we had a few things in mind.

People have been to few if any in-person professional events over the last few years
existing speakers have had little chance to present in front of an audience
new speakers have had little, if any, chance to get experience in front of live audiences
meetups have had significant challenges maintaining their communities over the last 3 years or so

So our goal was to address all these.

We also recognised that so many of us have learned so much we might otherwise never have through the impact of Covid on our work, our lives, our communities, and we felt a focus on that, as evidenced by the name “What Do You know^(now)” would make for a valuable theme for the event.

So What do You Know Now?

If you’re Sydney based, and keen to get up on stage, in front of a welcoming good natured audience, and share something you know now–whether you’re a designer, developer, product person, content person, we’d love to hear from you! It’s 5 minutes, any format you like (and we’ve had many formats over the years, it’s not just speaking to slides by any means).

If you’re keen, CFPs are open ’til September 9th.

I just want to RSVP!

If you’d prefer to just attend this time around, watch some great presentations, and share a drink and a bite to eat (on us) just RSVP here. We’d love to see you!