As everyone knows, the current financial climate is less than rosy, and the first things to be cut back on are inevitably things that are considered non-essential. Sadly (and perhaps unjustly), conferences are often considered non-essential!
A friend of mine had the foresight to have a conference clause written into his contract with his current employer: they agree to send him to the Australian development conference of his choice each year. That was some smart thinking on his part!
Luckily, for those who aren’t so smart or fortunate, Sydney web conference WebDU (held at Star City Casino May 21-22) has a couple of schemes up their sleeve to help out.
If you’ve been negatively impacted by the “global financial crisis”, WebDU have a scholarship program that will (privately) award full conference tickets to people they believe would benefit. If that’s you, fill out the form at http://www.webdu.com.au/about/scholarships.
There’s also a Twitter competition going on right now, with full conference tickets being given away. Tweet @webdu with the reason why you want to go and five winners will be announced before the contest ends on the 10th of May. Winners are notified by direct message so make sure you’re following http://twitter.com/webdu.
Of course, even if you are lucky enough to land a free ticket, you still need to get there and have somewhere to stay. Fortunately, with almost every company vying for your stimulus dollars at the moment, and there are heaps of great flight and accommodation deals available. In fact, between the discounts and the need to skill up, network with your peers and get inspired to work your way out of financial gloom and doom, this might just be the best time possible to go to a web conference.
There’s going to be some great content across no less than five streams, and speakers from the US, Europe and New Zealand as well as a healthy dose of Aussies — check out the agenda. I’ll be reporting on all the action for SitePoint — will I see you there?
Disclosure: SitePoint is a media partner for this year’s WebDU conference.
Kay Smoljak
