
This year we have 4 Workshops to choose from. They’re full day workshops, so you can really get stuck in and learn loads about the topic you’re most passionate about.

Workshops Day ~ 27 June, 2011
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1:
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How to build a Web App from A-Z
Having a great Web app idea is only the beginning of the fun. Taking that idea from your head and getting all the way to launch is no easy task and unfortunately there aren’t any official instructions. In this workshop, Mike will give you tips on the complete process of building a Web app, from A to Z.
What you'll learn:
- Building; your Web app, your company, your team
- Marketing; with and without money
- Product management; so you know what’s right to build
- Metrics; to track your progress
- Financing; the 5Ws of fund raising – who, what, when, where, why and how
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2:
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Add Location to Your Next Application
Much like social features, location enables a new view into our data and provides a more meaningful context with which to filter our data with. There are a lot of great tools out there for adding location features to your application. Add GeoIP to your website to improve UX. Add location filtering to your mobile application to provide greater search relevancy.
In this workshop, Schuyler Erle will discuss terminology, the basics of geography, where to get data, and how to build basic services on top of that data.
What you'll learn:
- Location; terminology, history, uses
- Data; where to get it, how to use it, licensing issues
- Building; location SOLR/Lucene, GeoDjango, PostGIS
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3:
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Next Generation Branding for Your Web App
Learn the new rules of online marketing from someone who has been there and done it. Alex will show you how to get the biggest bang for your buck online and make your site not just stand out from the crowd but be THE center of attention.
What you'll learn:
- How do I become part of the conversations surrounding my brand?
- What’s the best way to use social marketing tools to engage with my users and get ahead of the competition?
- How are some of the biggest brands in the world crushing it on the web and why
are others failing?
- How do I create relevant experiences for our users
- How do I build a powerful, positive brand?
- What’s the most effective way to change one-off visitors into loyal users?
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4:
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Understanding Big Data
With open source projects like Apache Hadoop it’s now possible for any company to get meaningful insights about their site, users, and business from really large amounts of data. The NoSQL movement has also created a surge of new ways to store data in non-relational manners to make working with large amounts of data easier. This workshop will dig into these technologies so that you’ll learn how to use them within your own infrastructure.
What you'll learn:
- Tools available; Hadoop, Pig, HDFS, etc.
- Basic algorithms: TF-IDF, recommendation, NLP, etc.
- Best practices: Working with big data, machine learning, sanitizing data

We’ve got an amazing line-up for you this year. It’s two full days across two tracks, so that’s two times as much content as last year! We’ve also got four full day in depth workshops so you can really get stuck in to the topic of your choice.
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Afternoon Break: 12:00 - 12:00
A chance to grab a coffee and a snack. The perfect pick me up for for the last stretch of the day.
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Lunch Break: 12:00 - 12:00
Break for lunch on us. Networking, some time to catch up with each other, and a bit of a breather before the afternoon sessions start up!
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Morning Break: 12:00 - 12:00
Time grab a coffee, a snack and a chat!
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Closing Remarks from Day 1: 12:00 - 12:00
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Track 1:
12:00 - 12:00
Building your Startups Infrastructure
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12:00 - 12:00
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12:00 - 12:00
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Track 1:
12:00 - 12:00
The GitHub Effect: Forking Your Way to Better Code
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Track 1:
12:00 - 12:00
HOWTO: Securing Your Ecosystem
Twitter has one of the largest APIs and developer ecosystems of any site by usage on the planet. In part, its success was born out of the easiness and openness of its API. In early 2010, Twitter decided to move its platform from one using basic authentication to one using OAuth over the course if 6 months. This is the story of how Twitter decided to secure its platform while remaining open and easy to use and by not losing or alienating any developers in the process. There are lessons to be learned in how to create a platform properly in the beginning, and how to manage and migrate the community you gain.
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Track 1:
12:00 - 12:00
Shark Tank
4 startups go head to head and pitch their ideas to our 4 top panelists.
Details on how to enter coming soon.
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Track 1:
12:00 - 12:00
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12:00 - 12:00
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Track 2:
12:00 - 12:00
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Track 2:
12:00 - 12:00
..Formerly Known as the Consumer: how to build web apps for customer empowerment AND make money
Online advertising is built on the assumption that the Holy Grail lies in mining consumer data in order to target for better conversion.
The fact is that we ARE a consuming society. We buy new digital cameras, we shop for the best price and quality of groceries and we need to replace our shoes periodically. Some of us even enjoy the process. But what we don’t enjoy is spam, frustrating searches confuscated by over-zealous SEO practices and feeling like our privacy is being invaded by every website we visit. Hunt, in conjunction with the community around Vendor Relationship Management (VRM) project out of Harvard and her startup cofounders has been working on this issue from the other angle…an angle that puts the customer at the center of the universe. An angle that she believes benefits everyone, vendors included. Hear what her and others are doing to balance the universe of consumption.
Track 2:
12:00 - 12:00
Best of Vegas
Based in Vegas? Top of your game? Are you a high roller in the Vegas web community? – we want to hear from you, and we want our audience to hear from you! If you can deliver a 20 minute presentation about your business, why its worked, what’s made it special and the unique opportunities that Vegas presents – click here – you might just hit the jackpot.
Track 2:
12:00 - 12:00
Five Metrics You Need to Measure for a Successful Web App
In this talk Ryan will share and explain a valuable spreadsheet model that will help you track the five vital metrics in your recurring revenue web app. We’ll cover everything from LTV to CACR and how they’ll have a tremendous impact on your app and business. After this talk you’ll be able to download the spreadsheet and customise it for your own business.
Track 2:
12:00 - 12:00
Why Should I love you?: How to create a brand people truly love
Ok so you’ve built your web app, now what? How do you get users, and more importantly how do you create LOYAL users who come back often and feel compelled to spread the word about your app. In this session Alex will look at bulletproof ways to build your userbase quickly and cheaply, market your web app, and create a brand people truly love.
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Afternoon Break: 12:00 - 12:00
A chance to grab a coffee and a snack. The perfect pick me up for for the last stretch of the day.
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Lunch Break: 12:00 - 12:00
Break for lunch on us. Networking, some time to catch up with each other, and a bit of a breather before the afternoon sessions start up!
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Morning Break: 12:00 - 12:00
Time grab a coffee, a snack and a chat!
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Track 1:
12:00 - 12:00
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Track 1:
12:00 - 12:00
How To Create Prototypes and Influence People
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12:00 - 12:00
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12:00 - 12:00
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12:00 - 12:00
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Track 1:
12:00 - 12:00
HTML5 vs. App
A few years ago, HTML5 was the anointed Next Big Thing in software developer, but like SOAP and SOA, its spotlight was stolen before it had its day, and mobile apps are soaking up the lion’s share of industry attention and investment. But really, are the two mutually exclusive? Can HTML5 power mobile apps that people want to use? And how do companies tackle building for the web and a soup of device platforms without going crazy? Join Ben and Dion as they discuss how web technologies have a material role to play in creating mobile apps and reducing production costs for development.
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Track 1:
12:00 - 12:00
Share by default
Selena will discuss why applications should securely share their data by default and the open source tools we have to do it. And ultimately what we need to make this better. The focus will be on the database technologies, standards and a few applications.
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12:00 - 12:00
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12:00 - 12:00
Track 2:
12:00 - 12:00
Track 2:
12:00 - 12:00
What happens when business meets the real-time web
Track 2:
12:00 - 12:00
Best of Vegas
Based in Vegas? Top of your game? Are you a high roller in the Vegas web community? – we want to hear from you, and we want our audience to hear from you! If you can deliver a 20 minute presentation about your business, why its worked, what’s made it special and the unique opportunities that Vegas presents – click here – you might just hit the jackpot.
Track 2:
12:00 - 12:00
Best of Vegas
Based in Vegas? Top of your game? Are you a high roller in the Vegas web community? – we want to hear from you, and we want our audience to hear from you! If you can deliver a 20 minute presentation about your business, why its worked, what’s made it special and the unique opportunities that Vegas presents – click here – you might just hit the jack
Track 2:
12:00 - 12:00
Everything I Ever Need to Know About Social, I Learned From the Muppets
Sure, we all know we can build nifty tools with social features, or get the word out about a product or cause using others’ nifty tools. But what makes for a successful ecosystem of tools and users? How can developers and communities alike plan for a shifting landscape of lightspeed breakthroughs and changes? Surprisingly enough, the Muppets have already taught us these lessons.
Track 2:
12:00 - 12:00
Situation Normal, Everything Must Change - a journey from Cloud to Enterprise 2.0
In today’s computing world, it can often feel like we are drowning in wave after wave of new trends. This sea of concepts are simply the evolution of our industry from a product to a service based economy. Using the example of cloud computing, this talk will examine the evolution of technology, the management challenges this brings, why the modern firm needs both order and chaos and how it’s always a case of “situation normal, everything must change”.