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.
See you (and your flask) there. I’m also interested in seeing how the 20 minute format works out. It’s an interesting challenge for a speaker, but one I’m looking forwards to tackling.
Well in my country it is given 10-15 minutes to present a master work. So i suppose you can handle it 😀
My grandfather said (something to the effect of) if you can’t explain something in 30 minutes then you don’t understand it. Then again, if you can explain something in a 15 second commercial than you can’t possibly be saying much.
I think it’s a great idea. I just did my second “ignite” preso (5 minutes with slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds). That’s definitely a challenge. It’s cool for the audience because they can keep from getting impatient I suppose.
See you all there!
Phillip, with all due respect to your grandpa, there are different levels of explaining. I think 20 mins is great for a lot of sessions, but there are some that deserve longer. Anything technically in-depth or code-based is useless in 20 minutes. You could really just skim the surface.
But with the one track format, the other challenge is going to be coming up with something that actually holds the interest of all 1200 attendees. I wouldn’t want to spend an hour showing code anyway, because half the people wouldn’t want to sit through that.
I’m not saying it’s a bad idea at all. Definitely a challenge that has me thinking differently about how to go about doing a presentation, which is a very good thing.
I’m sure my grandfather would agree with most of that. But, I think the goal in this conference is not to communicate a ton of technical details but rather motivate or inspire.
exactly. that’s part of the challenge. in the past, my presentations were often criticized because i didn’t go deep enough technically. so i’ve tried to do more of that, but this is completely the opposite direction.
I think the idea is unique, but not necessarily something that is meant for flash forward. I think someone like gmunk has a really inspiring and motivating presentation and is otherwise just fun to watch, but that turns the conference into a quick show and tell without any how to, etc. Even at an hour gmunk is still running through his preso pretty fast. I think avoiding any longer, more educational sessions is a bit silly for a conference that has been pretty successful with it’s 3 track program focusing on broad areas like business, technical, and creative. The 900+ price tag also seems a bit high for a conference of this nature. I hope for the best though. We’ll see how it goes =)
jacob, I think that’s a really good point. People go to conferences for a variety of reasons. To network, meet people, be inspired, and learn stuff. I think that last point is going to suffer at this conference.
The idea isn’t necessarily new or unique, except maybe in terms of Flash conferences. The model for this seems to come directly from the TED conference. Presentations there range from 5-30 minutes. The difference is that TED is trying to inspire people to change the world for the better. I’m all for inspiration, but I’m not sure I could justify the cost of this event versus what the take home information will be, whereas TED I can see the value in the ideas that people walk away with.
As a developer, my employer would never in a million years cover my costs to go to FF in it’s new form. I’m curious out of personal interest though. Will be interesting to hear everyone report back from FF08.
Wait a second… I think we don’t need to jump the gun here. They haven’t even done the conference yet! Maybe it’ll suck maybe it’ll be awesome.
I can say, after attending something like 2 billion conferences that the great ones were great not because of any technical format detail… and the bad ones weren’t bad because of the format.
Just speculating, Phil. It’s a unique format for a Flash conference, quite discussion worthy. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad idea. Could be a really awesome one. But it’s definitely going to be more in the inspirational end of the spectrum, as opposed to a MAX or 360, which are more of a learning experience. Not that inspiration doesn’t count as learning, but … you know what i mean.
For example, you’re probably not going to see a 20 minute Red5 or FMS application building session. Or a how to optimize your ActionScript 3.0 session, or how to programatically skin your Flex apps, or Flash Player internals session. You’re going to see a lot more showcase sessions, how we come up with ideas sessions, and probably a lot more showcase sessions. Again, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s an experiment, and by definition, nobody’s quite sure how it’s going to go over yet.
I was specifically referring to Rick’s point about how his employer would never send him to this conference. I think it’s fair to mention that I don’t believe the Flashfoward organizers have confirmed the exact details for the conference.
Sure, we can discuss it–I’m definitely not trying to stop anyone doing that. But like you say it’s speculation.
There was this old conference I used to attend–The Portland Creative Conference. It was one track and what made it great was not only the super creative (and famous) tv and movie and entertainment speakers but the focus on them NOT doing a show-and-tell but rather focusing only on the creative process. How they come up with ideas etc. Naturally the conference had some issues that I won’t gripe about now… but it was probably one of the most inspiring conferences there is.
I suspect that the “new” Flashfoward folks are trying new things and I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with.
You should come and speak at San Flashcisco .. we’d devote the evening to you! 😉
It’s not “lot’s” more cool people” it’s “lots more cool people”. Unless you’re taking your grammar cues from the restaurant signs in Chinatown.
No… I was referring to the the people of Lot. You know, from the Bible and stuff. His people are really cool. More cool than others. And I was looking forward to meeting them. sheesh.