welcome to the edge of the web!

Last Thursday, WebJam 8 was held in Sydney, on the first evening of the Web Directions South conference. 19 presenters showed their stuff, with the top presentations by Mr Speaker (Turn Tubelist), Diana Mounter (How I build cool stuff for government (and I’m not a backender)) and Dmitry Baranovskiy (Raphaël the JavaScript Library). Notable mention is also due to Perth presenter Nick Cowie, who kicked off the evening with Using Twitter for Business.

AWIA was one of the sponsors, and the big announcement at the end of the night was that WebJam 9 will be held in November in Perth, after the Edge of the Web conference!

The WebJam format is simple: presenters stand up and get 3 minutes to present their idea, project or concept. The audience then votes for the best presentation via SMS, and prizes are awarded to the winners. It’s fast-paced and fun, with prizes and bar tabs throughout the evening as well as a lot of hooting and hollering.

A previous WebJam was held in Perth in August 2007 and was a huge success, with 15 presenters and over 70 attendees. ICCARUS, a 3D data visualisation system from Scouta, was the big winner on the night, with honourable mentions for Nick Cowie and Gary Barber.

On a special note, WebJam organiser Lachlan Hardy will be celebrating his 30th birthday on the night – so let’s make it a big one for him!