I’ve been invited, and have accepted, to speak at FlashForward 2008 in San Francisco this August. I’m psyched to visit the city again. It’s always held some kind of fascination for me. As far as the conference, I’m surprised I keep getting invited back. I was pretty critical of the pricing structure last year, and have publicly called into question Beau’s motives in taking over the conference this time around. Constructive criticism? Devil’s advocate? Just being a jerk? I don’t know, but I guess they don’t take my complaining too seriously. And of course, I don’t pass up the free ticket, hotel, and airfare. 😉
Anyway, Beau and his team are trying something so new it truly shocked me. Basically, it looks like Flashforward is going to be a one-track conference this year, which means that only one speaker will be presenting at any one time, to an audience of roughly 1,200. Whoa. Of course, this means a lot less room for speaker slots, so to compensate for that, each slot is 20 minutes long. hmmm… I don’t even know what I can say in 20 minutes that’s worth what they are paying for me to come out there, but I’m going to do my damnedest to think up something good.
If nothing else, the new format has me very intrigued. I’m not sure if it’s a brilliant idea or totally stupid but I have to applaud the effort to try something new. Anyway, look forward to seeing all the usual cool people, and meeting lot’s lots more new cool people. Going to take it a little slow this time. I went way overboard the first night in Toronto this year and spent most of the rest of the conference recovering. Beware the flask. It’s deadly.