webstock 2008

Absolutely stoked to be heading to webstock beginning the week of 11th February here in Wellington. One of the highlights for me will be hearing Kathy Sierra speak in person. I had been an avid reader of her blog until a series of bizarre online threats stopped her from posting, and I have also seen impressive footage of her delivering presentations before. She really has a handle on how to create a user experience that will have people returning for more and I love her diagrams and pictures, many of which she has now included on her last blog post.

Will be interesting to hear from a kiwi presenter now living overseas. Craig Nevill-Manning originally from Canterbury now works for Google in New York and created their product search service aka froogle. He's going to talk about how the large scale collection of data makes information more useful. Interesting, especially given all the controversy over the ownership of personal information on the web. There will also be a fireside chat with local hero Sam Morgan. Hope to hear about the difficulties he faced getting TradeMe up and running in Wellington, the attitude of local business to his success and future developments for the site.

I just cannot wait and want to thank organisers and sponsors for arranging a scholarship programme so that young early stage businesses like myself can come along and benefit from being exposed to the high calibre of speakers, and networking opportunities. I also get a t-shirt - woohoo!