Posts Tagged FITC
Big Spaceship presentation at FITC Toronto 2009
FITC just posted videos of some of the presentations that were done this year (2009) at Toronto. It’s a shame that for some reason they removed the Joshua Davis one because he his a really good presenter. That being said I’d like to drive your attention to the Big Spaceship agency presentation. I don’t know why I missed it when I was there, but I am really happy I got to watch it in video because it really gives insights about how to run a digital shop. When I listen to presentations like this one, I don’t take everything for money, but it help shape my ideas about the topic.
The video is the last one on the right on the first line right under the video player found here: http://www.fitc.ca/media/ (it would be nice to have direct links)
So, in a nutshell, here is what they say:
- They don’t use the word creative to define designers because everybody is creative.
- Don’t hire assholes (very close to the netflix presentation)
- People in team sit together, instead of department sit together
- Great importance to culture and fun at work
- Try to include one person of every department as early as possible in a project
- They avoid using stock images or footages and prefer doing that themselves
- To increase creativity they try to spend some time away from the computer, doing analog things like with their hands (I know, that is crazy)
- They don’t pitch when the client ask for comps
- They don’t pitch when client will choose the lowest costing solution
A very interesting watch. Take whatever you want from it.
My review of FITC Toronto 2009
Well I’m on the train (not anymore) and I have 5 hours to kill so I thought I might use this time to write my recap of FITC Toronto 2009. In a general way, I liked this iteration of the festival more than last year. I think that my choice of presentations had a lot to do with it. Looking back, there are sessions I would have changed in my schedule but since they were filming most of the presentations I can just go and watch those that I heard good feedback from. The downside of this year was that I was alone so I kinda not fulfill the Connect part of the festival mission (Inspire, Educate, Challenge, Connect) but I will work on that next year.
What I learned
Here is interesting stuff I wanted to share:
- I really liked the presentation from PowerFlasher (makers of the FDT tool to write ActionScript). It gave insights on their creative process and how they deal with in-house projects. They said they would put the presentation on youtube so I will point it out when it is there.
- GAIA Framework: I wasn’t convinced before the presentation. Now I would like to try it out on certain type of project. What convinced me: the fact the it handles SWFAddress for you. I like SWFAddress a lot, but sometimes I would like it to be a physical object so that I could throw it out the window.
- Joshua Davis is an awesome presenter. If you get the chance to see him talk, seize it.
- I chose a couple of business presentations and they were probably not the best choices to make but I still got a couple of usefull links out of them:
- IconBuffet : Nice for Icons but also nice to know that they are made by Firewheel Design and given freely; nice way to get known.
- CoComment : Nice way to track your conversations, will definitely try it out.
- 37 signals : Heard so much about them that I should probably at least follow their blog
- BaseCamp : An online application to manage projects, made by 37 signals
- HARO : Help a reporter out : a nice way to get your name out there by helping a reporter and getting quoted
- VizualPV3D : Layout tool for Papervision3D that looks great. Can’t believe it was done by only one dude: Gary Stasiuk.
- Finally Colin Moock’s presentation held a couple of gems. First he his starting a company called User1 that will offer and develop the union platform which will facilitate the production of multiuser applications be it on the web or the desktop. Also he teamed up with MegaPhone, a company that provides a framework to manipulate any screen using any phone. I foresee lots of new marketing opportunities.
On a personal note
I own a HP mini 1000, one of those new netbooks. It’s a pretty nice netbook: it has a 10 inch screen, but I believe I need more than that. 10 inch is good for writting and browsingthe web, but not that good for coding. I really hope that they will develop folding LCD soon so that the laptop can stay small but the screen can get bigger.
Lastly, being in Toronto made me realize how much I like Montreal. More trees, smaller streets, no tramway; it’s just warmer. The only other city that compares (and that I have been to) is Amsterdam. I think Montreal deserves its own Flash conference.
My FITC Toronto 2009 schedule
Just like last year, I’m going to the FITC Toronto conference at the end of April. Based on my last year’s experience here is what I want to see:
Sunday April 26th
- Feed the Experts: A Sneak Peek Into the Treasure Chest of Creativity
- The Tinkerer’s Box
- Gaia Framework For Adobe Flash
Monday April 27th
- Flash Interfaces in Console Games
- Marketing Your Skillz (aka Self Promotion for the Shy Creative Type)
- Flash Player Internals v2
- Reality Cheque: Running a Freelance Business
- MTV Jackass on AIR
Tuesday April 28th
- Introduction to iPhone SDK for Flash Developers
- The Road to “Brilliant”
- The Magical Mystery Click
- Your Phone is Your Controller (and Other Multiuser Adventures)
- Technology Paving the Way for Story Telling
I tried to put more design presentation in there but it was hard, my primary interest is still programming. I also chose stuff that I have never done so that I won’t waste time listening to a 30 minutes introduction on what it is. The only conflict that hurts me is that I won’t get to see Cliff Hall PureMVC presentation. Well I can’t wait to be there.
My views on FITC Toronto 2008
I came back this week from FITC Toronto and I can say this; I am tired as hell (well a bit less now since I slept 14 hours last night).
I will start with the bad stuff I have to say and end up with the good stuff. I think I had too big expectation before going to the conference. I thougth I would come back changed, I thougth it would revolutionalize the way I program. Well it did that a bit but on a much smaller scale. I keep myself pretty informed about what is going on in the Flash community so the conference might have more effects on someone who doesn’t. Also I think I did wrong choices in the presentations I went to see at first so I’ll share guide lines when doing such choices.
First since the presentations are only one hour, don’t go see something on a topic you already know about. They are going to introduce it so you will loose half of the presentation on something you already know. Choose something you are completely unaware of over something you already know. Second designer are way better speakers than programmers; keep that in mind.
The good stuff: FITC is a very well organized conference, everything is on time, good speakers and great parties. Here is a list of things I want to check further:
The new stuff: A lot of presenter worked at Adobe so we got sneak peek of new features that will be present in the next version of Flash. First the way you do timeline animations will be changed a lot. The interface to modify tweens will look a lot like the interface in After Effects. You will be able to assigned a different easing function to different properties being modified in one tween. Bones for animation will also be available(you must already know this). Since the last update, the flash player uses multicores to render a frame. You won’t have the possibility to do threads or parralele programming in the next versionof flash, but you will be able to send computations to Hydra(pixel shader language) which will be run on either multicores or GPU. I also caught I glimpse that maybe we will get the profiler in the FLash IDE also. I really hope the last one will come true.
Well that is it, I really hope I will get to go back there next year.
My FITC Toronto 2008 Schedule
I am very excited about this because this will be the first time I will be participating in such an event. In a month from now, I will be in a train, destination: FITC Toronto. As I said I have never been in a conference of this size and I look forward to it. I have also never been in Toronto even if it is somewhat close from Montreal. Here is how I will be spending my time there:
Saturday April 19
- Papervision3D workshop
Sunday April 20
- Rich Media for Rebels
- Challenging Imagination
- ActionScript 4?? or Flash’s Turn at Turn-based Games
- The Circle
Monday April 21
- The Pixel Whisperer
- Project Management from the Developers Perspective
- AIR Conditioning
- Building AIR Applications with Adobe Flash CS3 Professional
- How Buck Goes About MakingCommercials and Stuff or GMUNKICKDOWN 08
Tuesday April 22
- Flash Now and in the Future
- What Clients Won’t Buy or Aspects of Practical Pornography
- How to Create Ads That Will Actually Run (I wish I could go My Favorite Things by Grant Skinner)
- Flash 2D & 3D Effects
- Fairground-Art
I have to go to all ad related presentations because that was kinda my selling point for me to get my company to send me there, so I might have to miss the presentation by Grant Skinner, but if that’s the only price I have to pay to get there, I’ll pay it with a smile on my face. Can’t wait to be there.
