@madpilot makes

A couple of days ago, the regular ol’ Port80 meet up was on. However, this one was a little different. Firstly, we tried out our new venue – the Velvet Lounge in Mt Lawley. We booked a room so we didn’t have weather and other punters to contend with. It just so happens that the room has a stage. And it was on this stage that the first set of Port80 mini talks took place.

The idea behind the Port80 mini-talk is simple: Two local gurus get up and talk on a (web-related) topic for 10 minutes. It is a great way to share knowledge between the tightly knit web industry and a great opportunity of Perth designers and developers to show their wares. Because of our small population and isolation from the rest of the country attending conferences is both expensive and difficult, so these mini talks are a great way to build community.

Brian Madsen started off the proceeding with a talk about the new expressions suite from Microsoft. Since most in the room would have written off Microsoft products for anything web related, it was great to see that Microsoft are now taking standards a little more seriously.

Then it was my turn with a little talk entitled “Out of my way JSON! If CSS can be unobtrusive, so can JavaScript” where I go on to explain the benefits and techniques involved in un-obtrusive JavaScript.

You can view the slides (S5 format) for those of you who weren’t there on the night (Brian said he will upload his soon) and I’m busy doing some post-production on the audio in preparation for some podcasty goodness. That will include transcribing too for those that want to skim read the talks.

I think the night was really successful – and we are currently looking for some more speakers! So if you are in Perth or going to be in Perth on March 8, 2007 and you have a topic you can babble on about for 10 minutes, drop me a line! Even if you don’t want to talk just yet, I hope we can see you there next month. It’ll kick off about 6 o’clock.

Photos by Kay Smoljak.