8 things I loved about Webstock 2018
If it’s possible to fall in love with an event, then this is unashamedly a love letter.
I was over the moon to be invited to talk at Webstock this year. Webstock is renowned for being really special, and I am here to tell you it really, really is.
I ran a workshop about trying to change your organisation in a relentlessly demanding and ever-changing world, and I did a talk called ‘Digital Government: Reasons to be Cheerful’ (more on these topics in other posts).
I loved being at Webstock and am massively grateful to have had the chance to take part. Here are some things I particularly loved about it.
1. A huge heart and a lovely soul
The event is created on foundations of inclusivity, kindness and respect. This shows through in every aspect of the way things work.
There is a really clear code of conduct that communicates intent as well as rules. Everyone is truly welcome, and this is fully evident in the reality as well as in the theory.
There’s an opening ceremony to welcome everyone and set the tone. At the end, there’s a credits reel with the name of every single person who has taken part: attendees, organisers, speakers and their accompanying people, sponsors and who knows who else. It’s a lovely touch.
2. The talks are really interesting, engaging and inspiring
Every talk gets equal billing — they are all keynotes, all the same length (30 minutes) and going over your allotted time is Not Allowed. I like this a lot.
I thought I would find it really difficult to sit still and listen to that many 30 minute talks, but they all went really fast because they were all *so freaking awesome*.
The talks covered a lots of very varied ground and were engaging, interesting, provoking, inspiring and also sometimes very funny. Several of the speakers had created new talks specially for this event. (They will all be up on Youtube in a few weeks’ time.)
I was especially struck by:
- Haley van Dyck, who co-founded and built the US Digital Service and oversaw it during and for 6 months after the Obama-Trump transition. Haley was the only Obama appointee asked to stay on in the new White House. I can’t imagine how difficult this must have been. Haley was strikingly frank, open and generous in sharing lessons from her 6 years in the White House. She is brilliant and I am *so* chuffed I got to meet her and hear her talk.
- The talk on ‘AI monsters’ by Kate Crawford and Trevor Paglan — this one left me reeling, a bit. I hadn’t quite appreciated how dreadfully wrong things are going, before our very eyes. This shit is real: AI is being used extensively and at huge scale to codify, amplify and act on our worst collective instincts and prejudices. Its use is opaque and pretty much entirely unregulated. We all need to get busy learning about it, getting involved and answering some pretty urgent ethical, philosophical and even existential questions. Right now.
- Anna Pickard’s very funny and brilliantly delivered talk on ‘things you already know’. An inspiration to stick to our guns, be ourselves, draw on everything we have learned so far and not give in to the temptation to try to fit in or please other people. Excellent.
- Nat Dudley, who is thoroughly lovely and also speaks very compellingly about the need to build kindness into digital services, and in a similar vein Laura Kalbag who did a great talk about accessibility and inclusion in digital services.
- Zeynep Tufecki’s impassioned talk on diversity beyond the Benetton advert had me cheering, laughing and tear-jerked, almost all at the same time. Yes to all of that, basically.
- Lee Vinsel, whose work on The Maintainers, and his very funny and clever take-down of innovation-speak, were new to me but are now immediately and fully part of my brain wiring, like when you learn a new rule of grammar and start noticing it being done wrong, everywhere. You know that thing where you hear someone speak a truth you hadn’t realised you knew, and it makes it ok for you to think it and say it? That.
- Ines Sombra from Fastly, who exploded onto the stage and gave us half an hour of fast-talking advice on making things work quickly on the internet. A very fast and very awesome lady.
- Katrina Owen who has the sort of brain you just want to inhale somehow so you can know like maybe 10% of what’s inside. Katrina was talking about intuition and expertise. I hadn’t heard before about the turn of the last-century chicken-sexers who learned by trial and error, for 2 years, and then just knew how to tell the difference with a glance and with 97% accuracy. They, and their unexplainable intuition, revolutionised the poultry industry, apparently. (Also, I think Katrina may have secretly hypnotised us all with squiggly lines and dulcet tones; I’m not sure, I just have a hunch.)
I know, because we all kept talking about it, that I wasn’t the only speaker wondering how the hell I had ended up in the company of such a brilliant bunch of people. Imposter syndrome? Hell yes, with bells on.
3. Diversity — *this* is how you do it
I felt the speakers represented a really good diversity of people, sectors, schools of thought, approach and geography. This is *really* important because making things diverse makes them better, obv. In this case, it made for a really interesting range of talks with different points of emphasis, delivery styles and perspectives.
Gender is not the only thing, of course, but wow — I don’t think I’ve ever been to a conference with 50% women speakers. It feels *totally* different. And not one of them was there to talk about what it’s like to be a woman in tech. Brilliant, inspiring people with fascinating insights to share, very obviously there because of their awesomeness.
There is free childcare during the main event. Yep.
They give away 10 scholarship places because ‘Webstock benefits hugely from a diversity of attendees and perspectives. Everything does, right’. Yep.
This is how it should be, but it so rarely is. Massive hats off to the organisers. And on that subject…
4. The organisers are beyond lovely
You could not imagine a more lovely, kind-hearted bunch of people. Tash, in particular, is relentless in her positivity, generosity, care and attention. She brought the house down with her beautiful and moving closing address, which amongst other things made me think very differently about floristry.
This matters a lot (the loveliness, not the floristry), especially if you arrive from the other side of the world knowing not another soul who’s coming along. From the point I was asked to come and talk, I felt I was in the care of lovely, positive people.
These are people who love their community and care very deeply about giving something beautiful and inspiring to the world.
5. The special agents are brilliant
A surprisingly small group of consistently lovely, kind people somehow manage to be everywhere that matters, just before it matters, ready to do whatever it takes to make it all go smoothly.
It takes a special kind of something to build a team this happy, dedicated and effective. I am full of respect and a lot of gratitude for all the help the agents gave me for my workshop and talk — I felt I was in really supportive, competent and helpful hands, and that makes a huge difference.
6. They pay incredible attention to detail
Every single aspect of the event seems to be incredibly meticulously well-planned and executed.
The branding is strikingly beautiful and immaculate.
All the (Webstock-branded) conference swag is eco-friendly and actually useful: ‘web socks’ geddit (?); a water bottle; a notebook made out of salvaged waste paper; a printed shopping bag).
They make it look easy, when we can only all guess at how much effort has gone in to make it feel that way.
7. They really know how to take care of the speakers
When you’re talking on behalf of an organisation or team, you can draw confidence from knowing your product or topic more deeply than anyone else there and associating yourself with the credibility and authority of the organisation you’re representing.
When it’s just you, speaking on your own behalf, there’s much more scope for self-doubt and worry. This was my first time speaking at a big overseas conference about my own thoughts and in my own right rather than on behalf of an organisation I’m working for. I found it a lot more exposing and nerve-wracking than I am used to (which is a good thing because that’s how we grow, of course).
My nerves were quickly and very well calmed by the most hospitable, warm, welcoming and kind group of organisers and agents. Mike very kindly picked me up bleary-eyed from the airport, welcomed me warmly and dropped me off at my hotel. (My flight was a couple of hours late and it was Sunday evening, so I said I would get a cab, but he wouldn’t have any of it.) At that point, 38 hours into my journey, I could not have been more grateful for a friendly face.
I seem to have spent an unusual amount of time this week emotional to the point of welling up — this is a good sign; it tells you that my heart was caught, as well as my mind. The ceremony to give me my pounamu, during the speakers’ dinner, was one of those times. A pounamu is a special gift that has been blessed and infused with love and kindness. I am to pass it on, when the time is right, to someone in the next generation, and tell them the story of how it was given to me. Each time the stone is passed on and its stories retold, its mana increases. I love it.
8. It’s in Wellington!
You might think it’s a bit too far to go, and I can attest is really is a *very* long way. But it’s worth it.
Wellington is lovely; I really wish I had arranged to stay out here longer to do more exploring. It’s very compact and walkable: the harbour (for nice views, water, museums and cafes) to Cuba Street (for shops and cafes) to the beach (for, yanno, beaching) are all within about 10 minutes’ walk of each other.
It’s amazing given how small Wellington is that there are *so many* lovely places for brunch and coffee. There is even nice decaf coffee pretty much everywhere.
(Nice decaf coffee makes me very happy because decaf coffee is usually a bit like I imagine it would taste if you rinsed the ash out of an ashtray, mixed it with a bit of gritty soil, added some rain run-off from your dusty roof and then left it outside for a few days to mature.)
Go to Webstock if you possibly can. You won’t regret it.
If you get the chance to go to this fine event in future, I really can’t recommend it highly enough.
Thank you very much, everyone who made my week in Welly so very wonderful.
Love, Janet x
