Well, we’re back from FITC ’08. These “design & technology” festivals are always good for being inspired, learning, running into old friends, and laughing. A few highlights for me were the sessions (I found most of the sessions inspirational at the minimum), the AS3 class with R Blank, and coming up with a host of new ideas for some Rareview projects that you’ll be seeing progress on over the course of the year. See more photos from the event.

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Posted by Andrew

 
I’ll second what Andrew said about the most powerful thing that came out of being at Flash in the Can this week was the ideas. The opportunity to be around your peers and other talented folks gave us inspiration to talk about a lot of projects that we’re very excited about. We walked away from this event with more than a handful of new ideas and ones about how to make current projects even cooler. Over the next year, Rareview will continue to innovate. I can say that we’re coming back to work with our heads spinning and a renewed excited to start working on some of the great concepts that were thought up. 

The conference, as a whole however, could be improved a little. I felt that most sessions were simply a showcase of the speakers current work with little to no explanation of their process. Seeing the end product is very inspiring, but I feel the real value comes in learning about various creative processes and getting an understanding of how and why the artist came to the outcome. This could be improved for next year’s FITC if you ask me.

I would mention that I did sit through a couple sessions that were very interesting and did talk more about process and/or techniques, including one on Flash video and one about Managing your Process. I found both sessions very valuable and as a smaller agency, we will continue to think about what’s next with technology and will continue to refine our processes internally. 

Overall it was a great experience. We have a ton of really creative ideas we’re walking away with and we are inspired. I’m not sure you can ask for too much more than that in an age where things are changing overnight. It’s a real challenge for creative people to keep up with technology, so conferences that showcase and discuss next-generation thinking and the fusion of technology and ideas is a valuable event.
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Posted by Chuck