Flash on the Beach Recap and Presentation Files

First of all I have to say thanks to John Davey for pulling off another stellar conference. Last year I said that FOTB set a new bar for what a Flash conference should be. This year’s raised that bar. Last year Flash on the Beach was a bolt from the blue. This year, it has gained legendary status.

Chris and Rebecca Allen, Dominick Accattato, and myself arrived in London last Friday and spent a whirlwind couple of days being dragged around to cafes, restaurants, pubs and clubs, St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Tate Modern. Thank you Tink, you are a lovely hostess.

We then all made our way down to Brighton, along with a few others we picked up on the way, did our sound checks and checked into the hotel. The speaker dinner Sunday night was nice, but it was great to get back to the hotel lobby and bar where I have so many fond memories. I’m not sure what hour of the morning I got to bed, but I’m glad my presentation was after lunch, because prior to that I was still a bit … tired.

My presentation did not start out too well. Here you can see a photo entitled, “How many Flashers does it take to connect a Mac Book Pro to a projector?”

Fifteen minutes into my session time, we gave up and I transferred my files onto Niqui’s machine and went from there. Thanks Niqui for letting me use your Mac, and Chris Pelsor for the oozbah. My session was entitled “Make Flash Games, Retire Early”. It was a very different topic for me, and I really wasn’t sure about it. But I got a lot of good comments on it, so I guess it must have gone decently. We’ll see when I get the written feedback. 🙂 Anyway, here are the slides. There were really no other files or code to give away just yet.

http://www.bit-101.com/fotb07/FOTB07.pdf

In the presentation, I mentioned a game framework I am working on. It’s still very much a work in progress and not worth releasing yet. I would like to release it eventually though.

The rest of the conference really was great. Tuesday I managed to go to a session in every single time slot throughout the whole day. I don’t think I’ve ever done that at a conference. Wednesday I missed a couple in the morning, but otherwise hit them all. I am sure I attended more sessions at this FOTB than at any other conference. I probably saw more sessions on Tuesday than I attend in a whole other conference. Just really great speakers with really great content. Several conflicts where I really, really wanted to see two different sessions that were on at the same time.

My biggest fear going into FOTB this year was that somehow it might not live up to the hype that I helped create about it in the last year. But I have to say, it not only lived up to it, but surpassed it, in my opinion. One really great aspect of it all was having friends there for whom it was a new experience. And of course, meeting old friends – there are a lot of people who attend FOTB who don’t make it over to the North American based conferences. Fantastic seeing everyone again.

Again, John went out of his way to take care of the speakers. If it’s any indication of how much everyone loves John, as the opening ceremonies began, all of the speakers went up on stage and presented him with a giant bottle of champagne we had all pitched in for (all arranged by Tink). It was quite an emotional scene, as John started crying like a little girl 😉 . Hehe. Not really, but he did have to wipe away a bit of moisture and take a few seconds to get his composure back. We love you John.

Next year’s FOTB will be late September. I think there were 500-something last year, and over 800 this year. I think the 800 is about the right size. There were many sessions that were totally packed, and some of the parties were really full. To get much more, I think a different venue would be needed, which would be sad. The Dome, Corn Exchange, and Pavilion may not be the ideal spaces, but they seem to be part of the FOTB legend now, like the Old Ship Hotel bar and lobby, which, like last year, became the meeting ground and party area til almost dawn every day.