The Australian Web Industry Association invites you to register for their inaugural web conference Edge of the Web. This conference brings together an outstanding line up of 14 international and national experts in their field to present a diverse range of leading edge and highly topical web content relevant for both technical and business/managerial roles. Focusing on the latest web development techniques and next generation business practises that utilise the web, topics have been carefully selected for their edge thinking in areas such as development and interface design, social networking, usability, accessibility, distributed web and open data exchange.

Amongst the conference highlights, and speaking on the topic of WOMEN IN ICT – THE GLOBAL FAILURE OF INTERVENTION PROGRAMS is Sonja Bernhardt, arguably one of the highest profile woman in the Australian ICT industry, the founder of WIT - Women in Technology and Co-Founder of AWISE – Australian Women in IT and Science Entity.

Sonja will be taking a controversial look at significant Women in ICT programs and their spectacular global failure to attract and retain females to technology studies and careers. The skills shortage debate suggests increased hiring of women into technology careers as a solution. Given the spectacular global failure. Will this work? Why does it matter? Why has there been a failure? What have we been doing wrong? Why is it bad business? What are the real reasons/causes behind this and what can we do about it? In this reality based probing conference session these questions will be investigated.

Sonja Bernhardt is CEO of ThoughtWare Australia, a Certified Developer of Enterprise™ and the first Australian to be inducted into the Hall of Fame for Women in Technology International. A serial entrepreneur, Sonja holds a wide diverse range of executive board and committee appointments including a recent appointment with the International Taskforce for Women and IT (ITF). She's smart, she's intelligent and she delivers punchy, humorous presentations.


Other Conference Highlights include:
•    Keynotes from international speakers Derek Featherstone, presenting the latest trends in accessibility and usability and Chris Messina, in thinking more critically about open source, explores the importance of data openness and reuse.
•    The latest thinking in Social Media and Enterprise 2.0 as business solutions
•    Exploring the new world of Microsoft including Silverlight and Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR)
•    How to push the boundaries with content-rich websites and a look at SaaS from a fresh perspective.
•    A practical look at the value of user involvement in development projects, as well as the risks of not getting them involved in the right stages of the project cycle.

Check out the full conference program and register online at:  www.edgeoftheweb.org.au  OR Phone (08) 9244 4621

The Edge of the Web Conference will take place on Thursday 6th November at the University Club of Western Australia followed by four of half day workshops on Friday 7th November.