Wishful Thinking

Every year at the Web Conference, I have heard from attendees that they enjoy gathering with like minded people to network and share ideas. A few years ago, we extended the networking opportunities beyond the conference day by providing a reception for all conference attendees.

This year, a special networking opportunity that has been under consideration for several years will take the place of the reception at the conference. Following the town meeting, you may join with other conference attendees at your choice of several local restaurants to further the conversations of the day and extend the fun. We are calling this activity Restaurant Hops (sounds fun, doesn't it?).

The conference planning committee will make reservations for the group and provide a host or hostess, however the cost of dinner will be your responsibility.

There will be limited seats available at the various restaurants, based on their group size restrictions. The seats will be filled on a first-come-first-served basis. The restaurant choices will be listed on the registration form and where possible, a link will be made to their menus. We also hope to pull together a page on the conference site for this information.

We are looking into ways to provide transportation to the restaurants from the Penn Stater and back again. The registration form will ask you to indicate whether or not you will want to take advantage of this option. That will be the only way we'll know if it is needed, and the size of the van or bus.

We hope you will join in on the fun and sign up for a restaurant hop. We trust it will extend the day in a unique and fun way.

P.

I'm getting ideas. Literally.

It has been a long, and wonderful day for me at "An Event Apart" in New Orleans, and it is far from over. My day started out with breakfast and a terrific conversation with Jeffrey Zeldman. How fortunate was I that he chose to sit down beside me?

About thirty minutes later, I listened to his presentation that brought to mind the conversation Kevin Morooney had with Web developers at the last Web lunch. I'll give my interpretation of what he said that reminded me of Kevin's talk.

One topic his presentation touched on was how we as Web developers are not valued as much as we ought to be valued. He suggests that part of the problem may be created by the lack of standardized job or position titles for our field. Also, the Web community has many and varied ways to approach site development, which can effect the quality of each site. The qualifications to become a Web developer are not clear cut or prescribed in any way. A recent survey of Web developers indicated that about half had no training in their college careers that was related to Web development. Additionally, the image of a Web developer seems to have been harmed by the crash of the DotComs. As a result of these factors, among others, we are not valued as highly as say, an architect.

Kevin had some practical ideas of how we can go about changing how the Web is valued in our units. You can view a recording of his talk by visiting https://breeze.psu.edu/p78235580/.

After Jeffrey Zeldman's presentation, I happened to be standing in the coffee line with Jason Santa Maria. We had a nice conversation about Pennsylvania since he is originally from the Philadelphia area, and his brother went to Penn State. Jason's presentation on "The Design of Communication" was about an hour later, and I hope we will be lucky enough to talk him into visiting his home state in the future so that he can share his insights at the Web Conference.

Ok, so I'm having fun name dropping...I told you that I was having a wonderful day. I feel fortunate that in my position, I am able to travel to this conference. I'm listening to a number of potential keynote speakers and having a good time seeing how the conference is run.

I'll be back in State College next week...energized and ready for the final push for our Web Conference.

P