One thing I’ve really wanted to do of late is attend the IA Cocktail Hour in Canberra. It always sounds like they have so much fun and actually learn stuff at the same time. It’s rare that you can mix Fun, Alcohol, Learning and Canberra in the one event, but I think they’ve got it sorted.. and I want to give it a go too.
In a strange twist of fate, I’ve been invited to present at the Web Directions Gov08 Conference on May 22nd, which isn’t an IA Cocktail Hour event, but I’m sure there’s going to be some of the same crowd there. And surprise surprise! There’ll be lots of Fun, Alcohol, Learning and Canberra there too.
I’ll be presenting something on Accessibility and the User Experience, a talk based on the one I gave at Web Directions South 07… but better and more interesting, funnier and well, if Cameron Adams is in the room, there might even be a re-run of last years hilarity where he fell asleep during my presentation! Only this time *I will* have a camera ready.
Web Directions Government is a full day two track conference (May 19), plus an optional extra day of workshops (May 20). Presentations will focus on the concepts, technologies and techniques for meeting the challenges of eGovernment:
- José Manuel Alonso (W3C) - eGovernment Lead
- Robert Hoekman Jr (Miskeeto) - Interaction design and user experience
- Lisa Herrod - Usability and accessibility
- Scott Gledhill (News Digital Media) - Real world web standards
- Sebastian Chan - Social media and government (workshop)
- Cameron Adams - Frontiers of Javascript (workshop)
- Jason Ryan (NZ State Services Commission) - Government 2.0
- Jenny Telford (Australian Bureau of Statistics) - Opening government data
- Matthew Hodgson (SMS) - Social computing for knowledge management
- Ralph Douglas (AGIMO) - GovDex for secure online collaboration
- Patrick Lee (News Digital Media) - Javascript with legacy systems
- Andrew Kesper (ABC Online) - Ajax for dry data
It’s all very exciting! I’ve only ever been to Canberra once before, and never to present. I’m really, really looking forward to seeing all my Canberra friends on their home turf for a change… it’s going to be fun!
