We are so proud to finally flip the switch to launch our 2012 YOW! Conference website! Yahoo! Have a squeeze around and let us know what you think. Have you also marked your calendar for the conference?
This year is the first time we have decided to cap conference attendance numbers to 500. This has not been an easy decision to make, but one that we’re sure every attendee can appreciate. We want to continue ensuring a quality experience for you and to do that, we’ve learnt 500 is that magic number.
Over the next couple of weeks, we will be announcing our speaker line-up and maybe, trickle through some of the topics up on offer. Yes, we can be such a tease.
In the meantime, if you haven’t been receiving news blasts from us or would like to spread the love to colleagues (or your boss), sign up on our mailing list to receive YOW! Night and Conference updates and notifications.
And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @yow_oz, like us on Facebook and join us on LinkedIn.
We get asked “what is a YOW! Night” from time to time, and so here’s (almost) everything you need to know about a YOW! Night.
Try me! I’m a sample!
A YOW! Night is a really little taster of the type of things we get up to at the main event - the YOW! Conference. This is especially great if you have never been to YOW! before, but would really like to get to know us, our speakers, partners and the amazing supporters, including attendees.
YOW! Nights are held throughout the year in various cities and everyone is invited! In fact, if you are an attendee, we encourage you to bring along a friend or colleague.
Here are some past YOW! Nights we’ve held over the years.
So run me through what happens…
Typically YOW! Nights are in the evenings, so most attendees rock up to register 15 - 30 mins before kickoff. This is the perfect opportunity to grab a beer (or other suitable beverage) and maybe some nibbles to do a little networking.
After kickoff, the invited speaker delivers a talk for 45 mins to an hour. Most speakers encourage as much interaction and dialogue as possible with attendees. It is all about learning and discovering what’s going on in the industry. And it’s not just the new and shiny stuff that we talk about. The old classics get plenty of airtime.
And of course there is a Q&A, which is when the fun really starts to happen.
And how much does it cost to come along?
Each YOW! Night is different, but it is a $10 price to help offset the costs of speaker travel, venue hire, food and lots of drinks. Our regulars figure they get $15 - $20 worth!
And the beer. Did we mention there’s beer?
Sounds great! Where do I sign up?
We offer a number of ways for you to get the latest updates from the YOW! front.
- Our very own Dave Thomas visits the GOTO Conference and Community in Chicago and talks about the work he’s doing around the world, including YOW! Australia
- Don’t Forget the “Ruby” in “Rails” pointed out some recommended resources, including Gary Bernhardt’s ”Destroy All Software"
- Michael Nygard outlines 8 rules for dealing with complex systems
- Martin Thompson discusses much of the “folklore” concerning what’s involved in persuading Java to trade at an ultra high frequency
- Probabilistic Data Structures for Web Analytics and Data Mining: Using these data structures both as temporary data accumulators in query processing procedures and as a compact replacement of raw data in stream-based computing
We are so excited to have our keynote speakers for 2012 include:
In addition, we have several popular returning speakers including: Mike Lee (@bmf), Michael Nygard, Martin Thompson (@mjpt777), Dave (from LMAX) as well as numerous new ones, many of which have not been heard in Australia. Of course there are more great speakers to come!
