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So that was webstock …

So. Webstock is over for another year and, in an attempt to wean myself over the legal, but highly addictive, drug that is the Webstock event, I though I’d write the roundup, the epitaph, my personal catharsis from Webstock.

Now I’m no technologist—W3C, XHTML, CSS, while being terms I understand, hold no allure for me. So the benefits to be derived from an event like Webstock are more existential. Webstock proves, through the Herculean efforts of it’s organisers Mike Brown and Tash Hall, that despite being a small lump of rock lost at the ends of the earth, New Zealand has the passion, the excitement and the desire to make a difference.

And that’s what Webstock is about really—the recurring theme, so notably wrapped up in the final presentation, was for attendees to go and make a difference—whether that difference is as simple as making their website more accessible for the disabled, whether it’s making a life change or whatever—Webstock as an event is a seed for change.

So thank you to those who made it happen—the comments from the international presenters who, it must be said, could be somewhat jaded by the multitude of events that they’re invited to and wined and dined at, were unanimous in the declaration that this event is world class—not just world class on a New Zealand level—but up there with the best.

So onwards and upwards—we all go back to from whence we came, to our day to day routine. Yet knowing that this event, if only in a small way, may be the proverbial butterfly flapping it’s wings in a rain forest somewhere that chaos theory would tell us is the agent for change.

Webstock 2009—over and out.

Comments

Vincent Heeringa

February 21, 2009 at 11:07 am

Great coverage thanks, Ben. Looking foward to digesting it all and turning it into plans for world domination. Or at least a great lunch.
What do you think was the highlight or the most surprising revelation?

Ben Kepes

February 22, 2009 at 11:45 am

Vincent - cheers. No special highlights other than the "big picture" ones. I think it would go against the raison d'etre of Webstock to pick particular highlights - Webstock as an event is aspirational - it's counter productive in my view to look at bite sized chunks of aspiration.

Of course that could just be code for saying that, in an attempt to get the words down onto blog posts, I wasn't able to digest the presentations at the time. I'll give it some though over the days and weeks to come....

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