Revisiting FOTB
So it’s been a month, and I’m finally able to start reviewing my notes from Flash on the Beach. There were tons of inspiring sessions and interesting people, and Brighton is really a super-cool town. I don’t want to write yet another review, since you can see more qualified thoughts and wrap-ups like these all over the place:
http://theflashblog.com/?p=302
http://www.rockonflash.com/blog/?p=84
http://www.gskinner.com/blog/archives/2007/11/conference_reca.html
As everybody else said - the speakers were amazing. Lots of really unbelievable work, including some non-”flashers” (or probably more like ex-flashers) like Robert Hodgin and Rob Chiu, who were really intelligent, creative, and inspiring. From a rich media perspective, there was certainly a lot to take in, although mostly in the form of tools we can start thinking about incorporating into our own releases, as well as cool stuff you can start thinking about doing in your campaigns.
A few ideas:
Particles (Seb Lee-Delisle’s crash course) - I never really thought about how much cool stuff you can do with some really basic math. When I get a few minutes, I might post a few ideas.
PaperVision3d - I know Ryan and I have been talking about it for awhile, but there are starting to be a few really cool interactive ways to incorporate this sort of technology into an ad to make it a REAL 3d experience (instead a video which uses 3d effects).
AIR apps - With the word “widget” currently overtaking the internet, it’s cool that there is now a platform that will allow you, with the tools you already know, to create desktop applications. Lee Brimelow did a great talk on how to quickly create AIR apps, and while a little branding widget may not be taking advantage of all the cool stuff AIR can do, it’s certainly convenient on the production side of things! We just released a product called SocialWonder, which will allow you to post online widgets through EyeWonder ads, but what about a downloadable little thingymibobber as well?
Nifty FMS ideas - Lisa Larson did a great session about cool FMS applications like games, communications, chats, etc. There are certainly lots of innovative ways to apply some of those things to your campaign - virtually limitless possibilities as long as we are still considering challenges in audience scalability.