Perth has a long and well-established “Port80″ tra­di­tion that is by now known around the coun­try (well, in the web indus­try any­way). The monthly infor­mal pub get-togethers, which have been going since 2002, have been the birth­place of great ideas like the Aus­tralian Web Indus­try Asso­ci­a­tion and the WA Web Awards, to name but two.

In the past cou­ple of years, other cities have fol­lowed suit. There is a “most months” Mel­bourne meet­ing, pig­gy­backed on the Web Stan­dards Group get-together, a monthly Bris­bane meet­ing and a bi-monthly Can­berra meet­ing. Ade­laide is join­ing the loop soon.

Dur­ing Web Direc­tions 2006, the Perth crew held a Syd­ney get-together under the Port80 ban­ner at the Pump­house in Dar­ling Har­bour, in the hopes of kick-starting some­thing more reg­u­lar in NSW. That didn’t even­tu­ate, so we’re doing it again, but big­ger and better!

The offi­cial blurb, if you will:

On the eve of Web Direc­tions South 2007, come along for a warm up social net­work­ing ses­sion with your indus­try peers. It’s free to drop in, there’ll be some free nib­bles and rumours of a bar tab (if we can find a sponsor!).

There’ll be a gang of folk from Port 80 Perth, folks from Ade­laide, Can­berra and Bris­bane, and pos­si­bly even some Syd­ney locals. Lots of atten­dees to the con­fer­ence, and a few speak­ers will also be there.

It’s all kicks off at 6.00pm, Sep­tem­ber 26th 2007
Quarryman’s Hotel
216 Har­ris St
(Cnr. Pyr­mont Bridge)
Pyr­mont NSW 2009

For a map to the venue, see http://rurl.org/892

This venue is lit­er­ally stum­bling dis­tance from the WDS07 venue, so here’s a chance to scope out where you’ll be for two days, and get to drink and meet your peers.

If you’ve got any ques­tions, feel free to hit the Port80 forums at http://rurl.org/7lk

For more infor­ma­tion about Port80, see www.port80.asn.au or more about the Aus­tralian Web Indus­try Asso­ci­a­tion at www.webindustry.asn.au