November 20, 2008

Paris-Web

Paris Web is the biggest technically oriented web conference in France (Le Web being more focused on entrepreneurship). It was put together in 2006 by the Paris-Web non-profit association, which was co-created by Éric Daspet, web developer for Yahoo! in France.

The 2008 edition recently took place on 13 - 15 November and was supported by YDN. It was comprised of two days of conferences and one day of workshops, and for the first time included a second, less technical "decision-maker" track, held on the Day 2.

I had missed the two previous events and heard many good things about Paris Web, but in all honesty it managed to exceed my expectations. The quality of the presentations was of the highest level and the atmosphere was fantastic.

The presentations included a very hands-on demonstration of what accessibility is about (by Stéphane Deschamps and Aurélien Lévy), many details about the future of web browsers (representatives of the four big browser manufacturers were present for a round-table) and a detailed exposé of frontend performance improvement techniques by Yahoos Éric Daspet and Nicole Sullivan. Workshops were also very welcoming (tickets were priced 10€!) and informative.

The quality of the presentations aside, the greatest thing about Paris Web is probably the attendees: a community of professional, passionate people working with the Web, exchanging ideas, experiences, and jokes before and after presentations, and afterwards around a good meal or a round of drinks.

You can get an idea of all this by checking out the photos tagged "parisweb2008" on Flickr. The French community is now buzzing with thanks and praise for the organisers who did a terrific job, and we are all looking forward to Paris Web 2009!

Cyril Doussin
Web Developer, Yahoo! Europe

Posted at November 20, 2008 10:41 PM

Comments

Posted by: devaka at November 21, 2008 2:24 AM