What professional organizations exist for web professionals?

I recently attended a conference by David C Baker on "Resourcing the Creative Process". One of the items we discussed during the seminar was "what is it about this (creative) industry, that no real standards or professional organizations for people that work in the creative / interactive world" and it got me thinking. My brother in law is a HVAC engineer and his girlfriend an architect. Both of them belong to numerous professional organizations. In many other industries including law, finance, accounting etc there are plenty of organizations professionals can join to increase their level of certification, enforce standards and best practices, provide updates on industry trends, improve overall education and provide them networking opportunities.

So I asked myself the question "What Professional organizations for Web Programmers and Developers?".

I'm started looking both at national and international organizations for Web developers and programmer. None of them really offered all the attributes I was looking for, but here are the ones I managed to find:

• International Webmasters Association
• American Association of Webmasters
• Interactive Web Development Association
• HTML Writers Guild
• Guild of Accessbile Web Designers

There was an interesting one in Australia called "Port 80" but that has morphed into the Australian Web Industry Association. Content Management Professionals comes close, but is a little restrictive as I wanted a organization for professionals in this industry that goes beyond content management. Most of these organizations cater to Designers, Webmasters and System Administrators but not towards the Web Programmer / Developer.

Sure Microsoft has MSDN and MCAD certifications and other organizations offer similar programs. But I was looking for an organization that is platform-agnostic, and devoted to the people that do all the Web 2.0 wizardry these days. The hunt continues....

Conferences and Seminars to keep on the calendar

In our industry things are constantly changing. One of the best ways to keep on top of that is using the internet; the other is attending conferences and seminars. Below is a list of some you should keep on your calendar. Regardless of your role: architect, designer, developer, strategist or manager these events are a vital parts of keeping up to date. So here are some that I cherry picked to give you a rounded view of “what’s what” online, hopefully you find them useful:

• http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/
• http://www.ftponline.com/conferences/webdesignworld/
• http://www.aneventapart.com/events/chicago07/
• http://www.ad-tech.com/
• http://www.internetretailer.com/
• http://www.fitc.ca/
• http://futureofwebdesign.com/

These events are great source of education and offer huge networking potential. Of course their are others, but these my favorites for this year. If you think i've missed any critical ones let me know.