I’ve just finished up day one of the Flashbelt conference here in Minneapolis. Flashbelt is one of the premier conferences in the country oriented around Adobe’s Flash player. The conference is aimed at animators, designers, developers, project managers, ad agencies and so on; pretty much anyone who is involved with creating content for the ubiquitous Flash player.
Flashbelt attracts a lot of well known speakers, many of the “heavy hitters” in the Flash scene – guys like Seb Lee-Delisle, Dr. Woohoo, Minneapolis’ own Danny Patterson, and so on. These names probably don’t mean much to the uninitiated, but if you’re into the geekiness like us, these people can almost be rock stars. I’m one of the Flash developers at the Nerdery, so myself and a few others from the Nerdery are at the conference checking things out.
The day started with a keynote by Richard Galvin and Paul Burnett from Adobe. These guys have intimate knowledge about Flash; they mange the Flash product lines. They talked about where the Flash platform is at currently and where it’s going.
Perhaps the most interesting point was how Adobe really wants to move the current Flash player to more devices than just computers, like TVs and mobile phones (Flash for iPhone anyone? We Flash devs can dream). Getting Flash onto these devices is the logical next step, and would be a boon for getting interactive content to more people.
The rest of my day was spent in sessions dealing with the more nerdy development side of the Flash world. I’ve gotta make sure to give mad props to our own Chris Black and Minh Vu, who gave a presentation about their experiences developing Skimmer, Fallon’s “lifestreaming” application. Chris and Minh did a great job presenting, and demonstrated that they really know their stuff.
The day ended with a session by Joel Gethin Lewis, who I’m not even sure does Flash development. Instead, Joel works for a firm in the UK that puts together real-world “interactive experiences,” things like using laser pointers to “paint” projected artwork onto buildings or making interactive stage lighting for the band Massive Attack.
It may seem odd to have a session that isn’t directly connected to the Flash platform, but apparently this is what they always do at Flashbelt. It shows that Flashbelt is about more than just coding or content production. It’s about being inspired and seeing what’s possible.
And I think if I had to sum up this first day of Flashbelt, it would be just that: be inspired. There was plenty of technical mumbo-jumbo to go around at Flashbelt, but the fact is that Flash transcends its technical backing (which has come a long way, I might add). For many years now, Flash has been arguably the most ubiquitous platform for serving up interactive experiences.
Think of this: Flash is the technology enabling YouTube and all other video sharing websites, which is changing the way we consume long entrenched forms of mass-media. Or imagine you’re an artist with an interest in the interactive-type things. You can make something for Flash, and suddenly your art can potentially be seen by millions of people who have the container waiting to show your art. The install base for Flash player is in billions of machines – that’s quite a canvas!
So it’s a good thing for all developers to remember as we come up with solutions for our clients: be inspired, think big, think of unique things, think of what people are going to want to use. Flash is one of the technologies we can use to bring the content and experiences that people are looking for.
Oh, and the worst part of Flashbelt so far? Having to endure the hokey smooth jazz that is always playing over the restroom speakers.
