A week ago this night, the first “Flash on Tap” conference was winding down as the rocking reggae band (Toussaint and the China Band) finished their set. It was fitting end to an unconventional meeting of design and development professionals; a Flash conference/Micro-beer festival mash-up.
The main focus of this three day convention was the presentations and sessions on a variety of topics such as pixel manipulation, animation, programing design patterns, accessibility, broadcast media, sound, and video. What comes to mind are all of the tasty tidbits of knowledge smoothly gulped down like a frosty IPA.
Day one started out with a series of workshops. My workshop of choice was Papervision 3D presented by John Grden and Andy Zupko. The first half with John was a great overview of basics. The next half included the advanced and new features of PV3D. John and Andy kept a steady pace making sure that the attendees were involved throughout in the session. I was most impressed with the new amazing features of layers and effects. Keep in mind that this was only a day workshop that is covered in two days.
Good job guys.
The next two days consisted of breakout sessions and keynote presentations. Unfortunately
I could not attend all of these presentations. From what I've heard from the attendees,
everyone was pleased with the content presented throughout the conference.
Briefly... I will go though some of the session I did attend:
- Building Social applications with Christophe Conraets was great eye opener to projects you can do with Actionscript API for Facebook and Adobe Flash Collaboration Service (formerly named "Cocomo"):.
- Joa Ebert presented some great tools (including Hobnox Open Source) and development disciplines.
- Every time I attend a session related to Big Spaceship, I'm always entertained as well has inspired. Jamie Kosoy gave us a backstage look at the process of Big Spaceship... Very cool. From Ten fundamentals of the process, my favorite was number 6: Buy the developer Whiskey! … indeed … (Make mine Bushmills, Sam).
- Dr. Woohow gave an exceptional presentation of mixing it up with applications to create
some amazing visual landscapes. - Doug Marttilla attempted to go through ten design patterns within an hour and succeeded. By presenting his own insight into each pattern, he gave an overall good presentation. You rock!
- Who couldn't learn a thing or two about video production from a guy like Robert Reinhardt, A true innovator. It was a power packed session. He's got a really great project coming up - VideoRX.
The bigger presentations at the Castle were outstanding even with a ruckus beer festival going on. Grant Skinner… Mark Anders… Andre Michelle... Gmunk... Keith Peters… Chuck Freedman … Mario Klingerman and of course Hoss Gifford. (I may have missed a few presentations... my apologies)
Of course... there were the parties and beer tastings at the end of each day at The Castle.
This was challenging place to incorporate speakers on stage with the combination of socializing,
beer and food. Unlike most of the conferences there was better chance to meet and talk to more people in this forum. Maybe it was added element of beer. It all seemed to work out well. I don't
think anyone was thrown out for rude behavior ... (Todd ?).
Favorite events: (Day 2) The Flash is Right with Host Philip Kerman and (Day 3) Toussaint and the China Band
The convergence of learning, drinking, and hobnobbing for three days was a success for the organizers and partners. All who attended were treated to the best talent, not to mention some
great micro-beers. Special shout out to the Park Plaza Hotel- great venue.
Having gone to a few out of town conferences on Flash, design and development, I was happy
and proud that this one was held in my own backyard, Boston.
Cheers!
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