Speaker: Kristine Howard (YOW!)

Kris built RoaldDahlFans.com in 1996 and has maintained it continuously ever since. She’ll tell you the story of the site over the years, which mirrors both her own career journey as a developer and the trajectory of the web as a whole. She’ll also explain how the site nearly died two years ago, and how a chance conversation led to an epic 6-month project to convert the whole site – nearly 1500 pages – to WordPress, dragging it into the 21st century at last.

Expect a lot of nostalgia for the early days of the Web. Be prepared for screenshots that make liberal use of Comic Sans. Squirm at the effort involved in cleaning up 20 years’ worth of hand-coded HTML cruft.

Along the way, she’ll pass on advice for anyone looking to build an application or website that stands the test of time. It’s all about choosing mature technologies, avoiding unnecessary dependencies, and providing real value to your users. You’ll learn about several key decisions that can set your project up for longterm success, and what trade-offs you can choose to make when speed is of the essence.

Kris Howard has been building websites in one form or another for over twenty years. She’s been a developer, a business analyst, and a manager; and most recently wrangled engineers at Canva, one of Australia’s fastest growing startups. She now heads up Developer Relations for YOW! Conferences, meeting and working with developers around the APAC region. She’s spoken at meetups and conferences across Australia and Asia, including TEDx Melbourne and keynoting DDD Perth.