FlashForward SF 2003 - Day 1

Why do you care about FlashForward SF 2003 if it ended almost a week ago? Simple, the New York version is coming in July to a Big Apple near you, and is sure to serve up more excellent content and personal networking opportunities for Flash developers and wanna-bes.



So now that I'm caught up on sleep and Alka-Seltzered my hangover, let's recap what you missed:


Day 1 featured four 3-hour sessions (two in the a.m. and two more in the p.m.) plus a separate Ask The Experts track featuring 1-hour sessions. As usual Lynda Weinman, who seems to get younger and hipper with each passing conference, opened the festivities. Lynda and UDA, who co-produce FlashForward, wisely offered Flash Video, Flash MX Fundamentals, ActionScript, and Creating Rich Media in the four main workshops. I sat in on the Flash Video session featuring Mike Davidson and Danny Mavromatis of ESPN.com, whose site gets over 1 billion (with a "b") hits a month. Not content to be Macromedia mouthpieces, they discussed the real-world alternatives and trade-offs with different video technologies. They also mentioned that historical statistics enable them to predict Flash penetration rates (summary, the latest Flash Player is available on over 80% of client machines within about 15 months of release).


The afternoon was highlighted by a networking cocktail hour and author book signing, featuring O'Reilly author Colin Moock and our own Tim O'Reilly. The crowd was friendly and informed, and it was a great opportunity to connect with existing friends or make more business and personal contacts. See Day 2 and Day 3 commentary, as well.

What was your favorite or least favorite thing about FlashForward?