Joshua Davis from Praystation showed the attendees an inspiring way of finding inspirations with his presentation called Mentalities and Anomalies. From destroying paintings, taking things apart, to crashing computers, the message he gave us was to look at ordinary objects with a new perspective.

Natalie Zee’s, Interactive Design Director at marchFIRST, presentation about Pitching (and Successfully Selling) Flash to Corporate Clients was both insightful and entertaining. She demonstrated to attendees about how to educate clients through presentations using Flash. Natalie also stressed on the importance of preparing yourself before the meeting by preparing the presentation specifically for the client, documentation detailing proposed use of Flash, previous Flash projects (both commercial and personal) and a vision for the future regarding the client’s goals.

She also noted that it is important to make the client feel comfortable with your grasp of the technology and what it can do for them. And once you are able to accomplish that, then you can start pitching more ideas to them.

The final event Monday night was a party held at the Sound Factory. A fun night of booze brought the Flash developers together.

Wednesday started off with a tribute to Jonathan Gay and the Macromedia
Flash Team. He was then awarded the FlashForward Orange Arrow for his
achievements.

The day proceeded with a presentation by Brendan Dawes and Jimmy Chen (Me) from Typographic. Utilizing After Effects and its motion scripting, Brendan was able to share with us how some animation in After Effects can operate the same way as action scripting in Flash. Jimmy demonstrated how After Effects can be integrated with Flash by outputting sequences of images into a movie clip can enhance Flash animations.

Brad Kozak from Grok Media, presented Making Flash Work in Business. He explained that using Flash, you can increase visibility of the brand. Using simple interaction and animations, one can create engaging marketing materials such as mini-commercials and ad banners.

Overall, the conference was a success. Flash developers were given a platform to share their experiences with the attendees. From technical to creative sessions there was something for everyone whether the attendee was a novice or an expert.

Flashforward 2001
Date: February 19th – 21st, 2001
Place: Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
Address: 99 Grove St, San Francisco, CA 94102
Tel: +1 415 624 8900
https://www.flashforward2001.com