Happy birthday to my blog. Exactly 365 days and 83 posts later (yes, an average of 4.4 days), I have achieved my promise of blogging for a year, after a number of fruitless starts in the few years prior to this time last year.

It’s been a fun ride. After initial hesitations of topic searching, I think I have found my voice. It could be summarised as rants about web design and development, lists of human resources and small business tips, social commentary and a mix of humour and personal posts thrown in for well roundedness.

Some posts have been quick to write and publish, others have gestated for weeks as an idea before pen to paper or keyboard to Wordpress, I have had weeks of silence, followed by days of posts every day, however I am fairly happy with the end results.

A HUGE thanks to you, the reader, who without your involvement simply incrementing my stats, commenting on posts that have caught your eye, linking to my blog or sending me an email, I probably would have assumed no-one was reading or caring, and stopped months ago.

Thanks also to my wife and family, who have put up with my ‘additional to heavy workload’ hobbies, and to those who have given me advice, kept me motivated or simply wrote comments to my posts which inspired me to continue.

Roll on the next twelve months!

Image: Train lines at Moora, Western Australia.

With less than a week to go before I fly to Sydney for Web Directions South, I thought I’d whip up my own itinerary of what has caught my eye in their star studded program.

Tuesday 26th
I arrive very early, so my highlight will be chilling out with the other West Coast Bloggers and Perth Port 80 peeps as we kick back and relax before Web Directions takes up all of our time.

Wednesday 27th
I’m going along to Kelly Goto’s workshop, ‘The Iterative App‘. If you know me, you know I dig terms like workflow, process and user cases. I’m really looking forward to a day of hearing from Kelly.

Maybe I could be a touch biased, but then the eve of Web Directions will also see the Pumphouse Bar, minutes away from the venue hold a Port 80 get together in the evening. See this post for details.

Thursday 28th
Jeremy Keith talks on Ajax with ‘Explaining Ajax’. I may not call myself a developer, but Ajax is something I get.

As all my staff know, I’m always up for food. I just hope this year there’s more vegetarian stuff for the likes of me and other non meat eaters.

I am really inspired by Campaign Monitor, and proud to see Australians do so well on the world stage. Dave Greiner and Ben Richardson will be speaking on ‘Designing a web application on the side – the story of Campaign Monitor’, which I am sure will be five stars.

Web Direction organiser, blogger, software developer, speaker and web guru, John Allsopp is also speaking on Microformats, and given the Bam Creative site is now using hCard (so I think I am an expert!), I’m keen to hear what he says.

Third and final talk not to be missed, Derek Featherstone is speaking on where accessibility is heading, with Accessibility 2.0: Where do we go from here?

What dodgy karaoke bar will the Perth contingent appear at on Thursday evening? Stay tuned for the details (oh, and Adrian, I’ll be keeping my camera close this time!).

Friday 29th
I wish I was going to the Breakfast with Molly Holzschlag, where Molly will be speaking on the topic, ‘Defining the new professionalism’, but I’m torn between getting up early and learning or sleeping off the expected late night shenanigans.

Creating inspired design by UK designer Andy Clarke sure sounds like a good way to spend a mid morning.

I’m honoured to have been asked to introduce two speakers on the last afternoon. I’ll be mumbling my way through an introduction for Thomas Vander Wal, and his talk ‘Information Architecture for the “Come to Me Web”’.

Then I’ll also be introducing one of the great crew I met last year, Derek Featherstone with his presentation ‘Designing for accessibility: More simple techniques that make a difference’.

Then the obligatory Friday drinks, this time hosted and sponsored by the great crowd at Sitepoint.

Saturday 30th
If this is anything like last year, it’s a hungover morning of shopping then lunch then chilling out before catching a plane that evening back to Perth. Web geek bliss in Sydney!

What’s your plans?

Image: Bee on Plum Blossoms.

As many of you know, there’s a huge contingent of Perth people crossing the country for Web Directions 06. What better time to organise a Port 80 event whilst we’re there? So now we’re pleased to announce…

Port 80 (the Australian Web Industry Association) is hoping to open a chapter* in Sydney!

That’s right folks – Sydney folks (and those visiting for Web Directions 06) get to find out what those in WA, VIC, ACT and in the USA have known for a while;

1. Meeting colleagues and peers in the web industry is great
2. It’s even better on the first Wednesday of the month, with a beer in hand.
3. Hey, lets start a club and have a reason to go to the pub!

The Wednesday evening of Web Directions week, that’s Wednesday 27th September, starting at 6.30pm, come along and meet your peers in the industry, have a drink, talk about where the industry is heading and be a part of the local web industry. There’s no lectures, no sponsor talks, it’s all very informal and friendly. It all happens at;

Pumphouse Bar
17 Little Pier Street,
Darling Harbour

For a map to the venue (a few minutes walk from UTS), please visit http://www.pumphousebar.com.au/location/
For more information about Port80, see http://www.port80.asn.au

* We’re saying ‘hoping to open a chapter’, because we don’t have anyone who has volunteered to organise meets in the future. Let us know if you’re keen to help via committee@port80.asn.au

Update: John Allsopp says it even better than I could. Read this.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Photo: Welcome to Moora sign, Moora, Western Australia