# It's a wrap

The madness that is Web Directions South has come and gone. Four days of social networking, workshops, presos, drinks, and after-party. On top of that, I was quite busy getting the conference wifi of the ground and keep it running, together with [Nat](http://www.purecaffeine.com/2008/09/mark-pesces-closing-presentation-wds08/). And can't help myself, [taking pictures](http://www.flickr.com/photos/halans/sets/72157607444838754/) too. Presentations and podcasts of WDS08 are available [at the site](http://www.webdirections.org/tag/wds08/ "Presos").

John Allsopp introduced [Scroll Magazine](http://scrollmagazine.com/), a MagCloud print-on-demand magazine, designed by fellow Belgian [Veerle Pieters](http://veerle.duoh.com/).

Met another Belgian, [Andreas](http://my.opera.com/ODIN/blog/2008/10/10/wds08-webjam-8-and-wsg-meetup?cid=6191874), standards evangelist for Opera (Belgians are thinly spread around the globe…).

Thursday evening was [Webjam8](http://webjam.com.au/). Quickly set up two iBurst modems, one for the presenters and one for the public. And then had my big debut presenting for the Sydney crowd (of about 350), showing of [Mapanui](https://halans.com/mapanui/) in three minutes (which was more than enough :) Got some positive feedback. Also check out [TechNation Australia](http://www.technation.com.au/2008/09/26/webjam-8-goes-off/), [ZDNet AU](http://www.zdnet.com.au/insight/software/soa/Webjam-8-Photo-Gallery/0,139023769,339292281-10s,00.htm "Me at WebJam8"), [Sitepoint](http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2008/09/27/webjam08-smells-like-geek-spirits/), and this [Viddler video](http://www.viddler.com/explore/Webjam/videos/29 "Mapanui on Viddler")…

Friday an early start to make sure the wireless network was back up and running. Turns out I was too early, first one there. Jeffrey Veen's keynote was great. Played around with Microsoft Surface. Loved David Peterson's talk on semantic web. And Mark Pesce's closing keynote rickrolling the audience and then opened with a NIN track (“Just Like You Imagined” from [The Frail](http://www.ninwiki.com/The_Fragile_(halo)) (left) album from 1999), setting the tone for [This, That and the Other](http://blog.futurestreetconsulting.com/?p=76). Finishing with the after-party (and recovering for two days), on which I was happy to hear plenty of Soulwax remixes (Belgium represent)!

And if the wifi internet was slow at Web Directions, remember, it was a [volunteer-based effort](http://www.freeaustraliawireless.com/) on our own, cheap hardware, backed by 4 iBurst sponsored wireless modems.