I’ve been closely involved with Web Directions conferences since 2010, initially as a major sponsor while Managing Director at Silverstripe, before joining the Web Directions team as Director of Strategic Partnerships until late 2019. Since then, I’ve consistently participated as both sponsor and attendee through senior roles focused on digital platforms and enterprise strategy, now continuing as Head of Government and Enterprise at Ackama. Throughout this 15-year journey, Web Directions has provided invaluable insights, connections, and innovation, significantly influencing my approach to web engineering and digital leadership.

I had the pleasure of attending the 2025 Web Directions Code Leaders and Code events, held at ACMI in Melbourne—an iconic venue that sits at the crossroads of creativity, culture, and technology. It was the perfect setting for exploring the future of digital experience and the evolving role of front-end engineering. The events once again delivered outstanding opportunities to engage deeply with industry peers, uncover emerging trends, and reflect on the direction of our craft.

Highlights from Web Directions Code Leaders 2025

The Code Leaders event offered senior developers and engineering managers a focused exploration of effective leadership—how to make strategic decisions, foster healthy team cultures, and responsibly adopt emerging technologies. Some standout highlights from the day:

• Decisions and Strategy:  Andrea Magnorsky’s keynote, “The Anatomy of a Decision,” illuminated how complex socio-technical factors, power dynamics, and influence shape organisational outcomes. Andrea emphasised that openly sharing knowledge helps teams better understand the invisible structures behind decisions. Complementing Andrea’s insights, Prakriti Mateti shared a compelling real-world case study about rebuilding a legacy product on a tight deadline, demonstrating how aligning team culture with technology choices directly influences successful results.
• AI in Engineering: This session tackled generative AI head-on, exploring its substantial impact on software engineering processes. Sarah Taraporewalla from Thoughtworks provided valuable examples of how AI can enhance planning, design, and testing phases meaningfully. Geoffrey Huntley delivered a forward-thinking talk, presenting large language models (LLMs) as a transformative paradigm rather than a new tool. His message strongly urged leaders to proactively embrace AI, cautioning that hesitation could leave teams behind.
• Accessibility and Observability: Maia Miller from Aleph Accessibility reinforced accessibility as more than compliance; it’s a strategic advantage. She highlighted how accessible design expands market reach and creates more resilient products. Erwin van der Koogh from Honeycomb extended this theme, detailing how observability tools like telemetry and tracing can uncover user experience insights and effectively support accessibility goals.
• Modern CSS and Sustainable Web: Stephanie Eckles showcased the maturation of modern CSS, exploring advanced techniques such as Cascade Layers to build sophisticated, maintainable user interfaces. Closing the event, Fershad Irani from the Green Web Foundation introduced the innovative concept of grid-aware websites—digital products capable of dynamically adapting their operations based on the environmental impact of local energy sources. This inspiring talk connected technical decisions directly with sustainability objectives.

A consistent theme emerged: Proactive leadership is essential for navigating technological and strategic shifts, from AI adoption to sustainability practices.

Highlights from Web Directions Code 2025

Under the tagline “the front-end grows up,” the Code conference further explored these themes with practical sessions:

• Sustainable Web Design: Fershad Irani and Kritiketan Sharma detailed practical sustainability approaches in front-end development.
• AI in Front-End Development: Sessions demonstrated transformative AI applications directly within browser environments and front-end workflows.
• Accessibility and Inclusive Design: Maia Miller and Erin Zimmer shared practical methods for strategic, inclusive design beyond mere compliance.
• Front-End Architecture and Performance: Speakers like Stephanie Eckles, Harrison Broadbent, Julian Burr, and David Johnston emphasised advanced architecture, maintainability, and performance.
• Observability and Security: David Bell and Janna Malikova reinforced the importance of embedding observability and security into front-end applications.

A notable aspect of these conferences was their hybrid format, streamed live via Web Directions’ Conffab platform. It was incredibly beneficial to revisit sessions remotely, catch up on missed presentations, and reinforce key lessons.

Looking ahead, web engineering is evolving rapidly, challenging leaders and developers to continually expand their skills in AI, accessibility, and sustainability. It was inspiring to be part of this passionate community again.

A huge thank you to the Web Directions team for another exceptional Code Leaders and Code event. I’m looking forward to attending the Web Directions Engineering AI conference in Sydney this September, and it’s great to see Web Directions also supporting the UX Australia conference in August, two events definitely worth attending.