And here we go…

An article by Paul    3 Comments

It’s less than 24 hrs until I start a 2.5 week journey spanning a couple of days in Wellington attending Webstock 12 followed by two weeks at The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney getting stuck in to my Paul Reynolds Scholarship opportunity.

Am I getting excited? You bet!

Until now it’s all felt surreal and distant – but as I blog about this on the eve of my travels it’s now starting to feel very close and very real.

It will be my first time at Webstock and the programme looks to be full of web goodness spanning latest mobile developments, responsive design, publishing for the iPad and more.

I’m going in to this event without the aim of trying to take it all on board but rather letting the resonant themes and a key ides percolate their way into my brain – well that’s the plan anyway.

I think for a first time attendee it’s better not to put too much pressure on oneself – heck it’s meant to be enjoyable

Back to Dunedin late Friday then flying off to Australia on Sunday for a Monday start with the Digital, Social & Emerging Technologies team at Powerhouse.

At this point I just want to reiterate my thanks to the judging panel, sponsors and LIANZA Council for making this trip possible for me.

Paul Reynolds was an inspirational man who was just so passionate about the transformational power of the Internet. His contribution to New Zealand society and the digital landscape was immense. I’m sure I will think of him often and reflect on his contributions frequently as I undertake this trip.

So what am I up to?

While I’m there I’m going  to learn how the Powerhouse has embraced the rapid growth of the mobile Smartphone market, the types of digital content created, their rationale for doing so and how they measure success.  I’ll also look at what multimedia content is being deployed via location-aware mechanisms and what impact this has had on customer engagement and reported satisfaction levels.

When I get back I have several weeks to write a report for LIANZA and then will also be hard at work preparing an abstract and paper for the next LIANZA Conference to be held later this year in Palmerston North.

Whilst I won’t be able to share with you my findings until my reporting commitments to LIANZA are met I do hope to be able to blog in general terms about my trip and share with you some of my experiences along the way.

I envisage  it will be a balancing act between digesting helpful info, formulating views for report contents and sharing some general experiences with you – all  whilst trying not to succumb to the heat.

It’s a red eye flight to Wellington tomorrow and I still need to pack – best crack on then!