FLASH: FlashForward review

[Tom Green]

I saw a few of the initial posts regarding FlashForward and it made me

wonder if I had beamed into another plane of of existence.


As a guy that has to continue building a solid multimedia school, just

the sheer breadth and depth of the work shown and the talent presenting

and attending scared the "beejeebbers" out of me. This is a good thing

because I can now rationalize the ratcheting up of the intensity level

among the faculty and the students. I have circulated, for instance, the

links of the Festival award winners to the faculty and the students with

a reminder of where we have to be � Fast .


Only one session , sound, went down the toilet simply because the

presenters didn't have a clue regarding their audience. Mind you,

watching the "flower child" walk to the front of the stage, turn his

back on the audience and just stare at his site while is confrere

stumbled through his patter was simply hilarious. The session was saved

when someone came out of the audience and bailed out Linda, who was

trying (and failing) to get things back on track. So much for

friendship, huh Linda?


The guy that ranted about the 3-D session missed the point. The

presenter showed his work using the tools and it turns out that Swift3D

kicks out a better quality product. As for the observation that he was a

"shill" for the Swift3D guys, I don't see how that could be when he only

got into it for the last five or six minutes of his 45 minute

presentation. I will agree it was weak ( Tell you what, you walk out in

front of an audience of that size and see how "slick" you are. I've done

it. It ain't a breeze.)  but it was the first time I have ever seen the

tools placed up against each other.


The double ramp out of Flash 5 ( Conference and Party) was quite well

done. The introduction of a pen tool, with real handles, the move

towards palettes and collapsible windows on the PeeCee were nice

additions, to name a few. I, for one, was blown away by the introduction

of widgets. It surprised me how many people just didn't see the profound

implications of these "applets". I suspect hat very shortly after the

release of V5 a ton of these gems are going to be available on a lot of

sites. They are simply too elegant to ignore or, as some have done on

this list, trivialize. Macromedia is right on target with these but then

again, that shouldn't be to surprising. Their marketing and product

development gets slicker with every new release. Mind you I didn't have

the heart to ask the Macromedians if they were going to turn out a V5

manual that didn't suck.


As an educator, the conference gave me a unique opportunity to meet some

of the top minds in the business and ask them how they did it. I picked

up a ton of techniques and contacts that can only serve to further the

quality of my students and to challenge their creativity. The few

minutes I spent off in a corner with Jeff Stein after he won his award

were worth the price of admission. Todd's presentation on interface

design has me taking a serious look at Freehand 9. David B.'s session on

Optimization will be showing up in my classes this week. Josh Ulm's talk

about his Remedi Site gave me a great insight into how he works. I also

liked how he sorta follows what I have been teaching for years- the best

way to manage complexity is from a position of simplicity. Hillman's

chat regarding his work was quite succinct and focussed on the why and

not the "whizzy" stuff.


Hated the RealAudio session. The guy must have been injecting triple

caffeinated quadruple espressos directly into his carotid. Adobe has a

neat product but what really struck me was not the product's features

but Adobe's inability to articulate just where it fit into the scheme of

things. Is it another tool that produces  Flash assets ? Is it a stand

alone product? I expected more and they didn't deliver.


As for the crowd, I would tend to agree with JD's observation about the

energy. It was infectious and I suspect it is this energy that drives

the work in the business. Being a smoker I got to hang out in the

"Cancer ward" and watch the serious amount of networking and recruiting

that was going on.


The funniest event that occurred was on Monday night. Adobe was handing

out copies of Go Live and the mothership had a sign offering the DW3/FW3

package to anyone wishing to trade in their Adobe software. You should

have been there watching the conference organizers go ballistic and

attempting to push through the crowd to rip down the mothership's sign.

Quite amusing.


Finally, I am not an apologist for Linda.com but you should cut her some

slack. This was first and even the guys from Macromedia were blown away

by the fact over 2,500 people showed up. I believe it was Burgess who

commented that they average only 1,500 for UCON. I don't think anyone

who showed up, from organizers and  presenters to attendees expected

those kinds of numbers. As for the individual who whined about the lack

of trade booths , I am willing to bet there are a serious number of

companies who are just kicking themselves that they weren't there. You

can be damn sure, based on the numbers at this one, they will be there

in force at future shows.












flasher is generously supported by...

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     flashforward2000 and The Flash Film Festival

  "The World�s Premier Flash Solutions Conference and Expo"

 March 27-29, Nob Hill Masonic Center, San Francisco, California


-Register before Feb 25 and save $200!!-- www.flashforward2000.com

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