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.
keith, the short cut looks rad!
Poor Rob! Sounds like you’re having a blast Keith?
J
Hey Keith , it’s interesting that you mention that all speakers were invited out to dinner where through a few questions, the speakers were attempted to engage into conversation. But there is something I find amusing within this idea.
Since most of the speakers are at the top of their fields, don’t you already know one another to an extent?
I felt as an attendee of the conference, more should have been done to get attendees to chat with others. Little sessions like you had, where as small groups should have to learn something about one another. Something to break the ice. Being stuck behind a computer I’m not a very social person, but I wanted to come and network very much so at this conference. But those who came in groups, stayed in their groups.
I felt the conference as a whole was very impersonal. I understand that the conference had a logo that was color coated on every id badge to identify easily what they can enter into. but it took up more space than someone’s name or their company. I would like to have had the agency’s name enlarged so that way you were more inclined to speak with that person mainly because you have heard of their company.
As for the separation of the VIP’s at the night club at Ruby Sky. What a nice way to segregate those who are pro’s or richer than others to be able to hide from their adoring public. That event, if truly meant to bring people together was very far from doing so. Loud music and very little lights always hinders in conversation and retaining the memory of who you are even speaking with.
I’m not bashing the conference wether it appears that way or not. I’m just stating that as a tool or reason to network, it was NOT.
ben, I agree with you 100%. I don’t think there should be any organized segregation like that. For example, at FiTC, there’s a “speakers room” which has all kinds of nice food, drinks, video games, free massages, etc. It’s a great place to hang out and get away from all the noise and bustle of the conference, but I always feel kind of guilty in there. I think more interaction should be encouraged between speakers and “regular” attendees.
There’s another side to it though. I go to a fair amount of conferences, where I see a lot of the same people from around the world. They have become good friends and since we don’t see each other every day, we want to hang out together. It’s not meant to be exclusionary or clique-y, it’s just a matter of hanging out with the people you know.
So what to do? One part of it is up to the conference planners to create more opportunity for interaction.
One part is for the speakers to make an effort to be more accessible. I honestly put effort into that this year. If someone came up to say hi, I like your book or talk or whatever, rather than just saying thanks and moving on, I tried to hang out with them for a while and talk.
The last part is up to you to reach out and talk to the speakers or authors or whoever. I remember when I first started going to conferences and I’d see someone like Josh Davis or Colin Moock and feel intimidated to go up and talk to them. It’s actually pretty funny to me personally to think that someone might feel that way about ME, but I acknowledge that some people do (because they tell me that). But honestly, speakers, industry leaders, whatever you want to call them, are just Flash geeks – even more geeky than regular Flash geeks – not rock stars (except maybe Josh Davis), so don’t be intimidated. Go talk to them, go sit down at their table at the bar. They won’t bite. 🙂
the part bout Rob, not funny >:E
whoopsie delete my comment – looks like I’m angry at you for some reaon, but i’m not. what I meant to say was “must not have been a comforting moment” darn emoticons!
Cool, Keith. Sounds like that Industry Leaders dinner was pretty wacky. Tables on beds….. outrageous! The coordinators of that must have meant for it just to be a fun time because that environment doesn’t sound conducive to any serious industry leader convos, also 15 min. is not long enough to discuss any of those topics.
Hope your having fun!
Peter, your comment is fine. Rob is ok. Just a few blisters. Lizzie, yeah, the place was a little strange but could have been a funny time if they didn’t push this forced conversation / corny team building exercise on us.
Hi Keith-
Great presentation. I don’t attend many conferences but was really inspired right off the bat by you and Grant (and Miha- holy shit!). Nice to hear your take on it as a presenter.