Good morning everyone!
First and foremost, congratulations!
I congratulate everyone here because you are part of an event that is two years in the making-- that is the PWDO guarantee that you are not guinea pigs nor lab rats.
There was a time when the most difficult thing a web designer would go through is explaining to his parents what his job was all about. When you mention IT, your parents immediately think MS Office; when you mention internet, your parents think about the latest sex scandal; and when you say web design, your parents think about you playing computer games then typing for a few hours.
But things have changed.
The web is a big part of our lives now that even your lola, who still think a typewriter is better than an iPad, has a Facebook account. You’ve probably bought something online, whether from the group deals websites or in Sulit.com.ph. You’ve probably engaged in a debate about which browser is the best (Hint: It’s Mozilla Firefox). Your parents probably read on Inquirer.net that MS Office is not the internet.
All that is made possible by the medium that is the Web. And that puts pressure on us web designers. If you’re designing websites the same way you were five years ago, you’re setting yourself up to becoming professional roadkill, you know the stinky and gross kind.
People’s expectations are exponentially growing and we can’t let our skills grow incrementally, or worse flatline.
This is one of the main reasons why the Philippine Web Designers Organization was formed and the Form Function Class Web Design Conference was instituted. Being the first grassroots Web Design conference in Asia, it’s part of our mission to champion excellence in webcraft and contribute to raising the standards for Philippine web design. If you’re wondering, we’re also striving for world peace.
Kidding aside, I congratulate everyone here, from the PWDO core group that has done a massive job in juggling tasks. Imagine, they worry about CSS layout and then worry about how our nice venue will be laid out. A disclaimer though, we are web designers and not event coordinators, so I apologize beforehand for our small oversights. Please judge us the same way you would a 5-year old that colored outside the lines.
I also congratulate our sponsors (let’s give them a round of applause)-- To our sponsors, you did the right move in supporting this event. Your help will go a long way in making this event the most kick-ass web design event. Ever.
Finally, I go back to you, the participants of this event. I congratulate you again because you recognize the need to become better in your craft and I salute you for taking web design seriously. I know you still surf the web at work and call it “research,” even though the window you opened is Google+ and
Twitter. I know you work with high conviction even though you get distracted by reading random articles in Wikipedia and watching Nyan Cat videos in YouTube. I say that with conviction, the same conviction when I argue with IT when the Wi-Fi is down.
Congratulations and have a great experience at 2011 Form Function Class Web Design Conference.
Tags: Form Function Class Web Design Conference
