Port of Call
Text by John Lampard
In 2002, Perth web designer Miles Burke was ready to pursue a freelancing career, but realized an essential ingredient of the process was missing in his home state of Western Australia. There were virtually no opportunities for web professionals to network with each other.
So he did what any sensible person would do. He called some friends together for a few drinks at a pub one evening. The result of that after work drinks session was the formation of Port 80, a dedicated networking group for the web industry in WA.
Miles, now managing director of Bam Creative, says his intention was to create an environment where people could feel at ease. “I was about to leave my job within a web team to go on my own as a freelancer, and I was concerned that freelancers often end up working in isolation, and wanted to see what I could do to change this,” he says.
“That, and the fact that the only organisations based in WA at the time were very much focussed on particular technologies or tools, and were very structured in how they held events.”
Port 80, which is also known as the Australian Web Industry Association, was incorporated as a non profit association in July 2004. Membership is not only comprised of individuals, but also many of WA’s web development companies. And this is all part of Port 80’s desire to promote an atmosphere of cooperation and collaboration within the local design industry.
“WA is left out of many things, mainly due to our geographic isolation from the rest of Australia, however I think that has worked for us rather than against us,” says Miles. “Our industry is fairly large given our population, yet we’re fairly cohesive in the sense we all know each other, and most of us do what we can to work together, rather than against.”
Port 80 has been involved in a number of initiatives since its formation, including organising and hosting the inaugural Western Australian Web Awards, or WAWAs. The awards, held at Perth’s Parmelia Hilton in August 2005, were the realisation of another goal for Miles.
“There is a gaping hole in the creative awards sphere over here, we have the great PADC awards – which are very advertising focussed – with only one on–line category, and we have the AIMIA awards, which are East coast centric, it’s always been a dream of mine to have a local awards night to showcase some of the great work that comes out of WA,” he says.
In light of Port 80’s success locally, there are now plans to take the concept to other parts of Australia. In December 2005, the group held its first meeting in Canberra.
“I feel we have something special here, and something fairly easily replicable, Canberra started in December, there’s talk of Brisbane and Adelaide, and we’ve even started talks with a group in the US,” says Miles.
“We’ve got many members who have found employees, who have found jobs, who have found clients and are collaborating on projects, because of Port 80. It’s about healthy competition, collaboration when we need to, and keeping everyone continually learning and improving our business offerings. It’s a warm fuzzy feeling to see it happen, and hear the successes,” says Miles.
