A few thoughts about the first DHASA conference

Proteas, South African national flowers are in abundance in and around Stellenbosch

It was a good but not a really great start. The inaugural conference of the Digital Humanities Association of Southern Africa took place in Stellenbosch middle January.   The weather was great- sunshine and hot. The venue was also excellent and the catering average to good. So was the presentations: average to good but not really excellent. One of the keynote speakers could not make it to South Africa which is sad because it was this person that some of us wanted to hear. The organisastion of the conference was good and all are hopeful that the next conference will lift the standard higher and also bring in excellent keynotes to inspire and expand knowledge on this important issue.

There is serious concern about data that is constantly lost in our consumer-orientated world. Just think about what is lost when you change computers, discarded floppies and stiffies and CDs during the last twenty or so years. Is the cloud the correct answer? Another concern is to improve our digital products for users and those of us who did not know how to use Google analytics were getting an instant course to set us going.

The accommodation linked to the conference was expensive and we had to look for alternative accommodation to fit our budget. The Protea hotel (linked to the conference) is a really nice hotel but would have cost us double what we paid at the Stellenbosch hotel (which was not so nice), so maybe it is worth paying extra after all.

Also linked with the conference we could take additional tours over the weekend. This was a great experience. There were several options to choose from and the tour operators also invited people to ask for tailormade tours if needed. We were in a small group of ten (none from the conference though) on a tour to a number of wineries around Stellenbosch. We met people from the USA, England and Germany and we parted as friends after a lovely day.