Webstock Reviewed
By Ludwig Wendzich
Webstock is a magical time for over 800 people, every year. If you speak to anyone in New Zealand who touches the web, chances are that they love Webstock and have to be there for every showing. In fact, even the suits who walk alongside those who touch the web have fallen in love. It’s a love that’s been cultivated by its organisers Natasha Lampard and Mike Brown, aided by their respective partners in love, Ben Lampard and Debbie Sidelinger.
Word of this magical week has spread throughout the rest of the world wide web and the conference now sees regular attendees from all over the globe. It’s not just delegates who scramble to attend; speakers in the wider speaking-circuit have started mini-campaigns amongst their speaker friends, who happen to be Webstock-alumni, to get their names on the coveted speakers list.
This year, the overarching theme amongst the talks was to take some time out from the startup culture: the idea that you work yourself to death now, get paid out early and then enjoy the rest of your life. The truth is, most people don’t get paid out and instead spend their years nose to the grindstone, missing life. You should love your work and experience the joys life has to offer.
A full run-down of the speakers will forever remain on at the Webstock website, and shortly we will start to see the talks appear on the website as well. Though these talks are brilliant, there is one aspect that you will be missing if you rely on them alone: the love, the atmosphere and the full-Webstock experience.
Webstock is a name that is full of promise. Webstock is a conference that always lives up to that promise and even over-delivers. And that’s because the people behind this conference really love what they do. They really love their craft. It shows.
View more photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/webstock06/6888259275/in/photostream
Leave a Reply
February 22nd, 2012 at 1:46 am
I was talking to a designer from the New York Times who had flown over for the event, ‘best conference ever’. We are so lucky to have Webstock in NZ. C u there in 2013!