FlashForward Day 1 and 2
So, FlashForward opened yesterday morning with the Cultural Ambassador from Slovenia, Miha Pogacnik, as the keynote speaker. Unfortunately, I was back stage with Grant Skinner, waiting to go on stage, so I didn’t get to see him.
After Miha, I was first up. The stage is really huge and probably the biggest screen I’ve ever seen, other than MAX at Chicago last year. Attendance was about 800. I have gotten pretty good about speaking, but I have to admit, I was a bit intimidated at the crowd size, the 20 minute format, and the fact that I was first up. But all went pretty well. After I got into the speech, the audience was responding very well, so I got into a good groove and finished just about in 20 minutes.
In the back corner of the stage was a large leather sofa set up, where all the speakers for a particular slot sat with Beau. After each speaker finished, they would go back there and have a talk show like conversation for a few minutes.
After lunch Chuck Freedman and Phillip Kerman were up. We got to see Phillip sing hardcore punk rock live on stage, which may be the high point of the conference. And then after a break, Robert Hodgin (always incredible), Craig Swann and Jared Ficklin presented.
After the conference I was invited with a bunch of others to an “Industry Leaders” dinner which sounded good but turned out to be a bit weird. First of all, it was held at the Supper Club, which seems to be a sort of fetish club. The place is filled with beds and pillows and small tables on the beds. Food was served by scantily clad young men with lots of mascara and possible gender confusion issues. Then we were separated into groups and fed a series of questions designed to encourage conversation, such as “What do you have to do personally to drive this industry forward?”, “What does it mean to be a leader?”, “How would you define this industry both now and in the future?” We were given15 minutes to discuss and then had to present an answer. Getting together a bunch of creative people, giving them free drinks and food, and then forcing them into specific conversations only invites rebellion, and it devolved into chaos pretty quickly. Oh well, nice try.
Oh, here’s me at the club drinking a flaming shot of something:
Rob Bateman of Away3D picked up his shot too quickly and his hand became engulfed in flames. Thinking quickly, he switched the drink to his other hand, setting it on fire as well. He’s fine, but he’ll have blisters on his fingers.
We’re now about 2/3 through day 2. A bit more corporate this morning, with the Adobe keynote, Disney and IDEO presenting. But after lunch Tinic Uro spoke, showing his Visual Studio setup, and some of the actual source code of the Flash Player, fixing a live bug and compiling the player right on stage! Then Todd Rozenberg gave a hilarious session on his cartooning history. Next up, Erik Natzke and Lynda Weinman.