Earlier this month from the 4th to the 9th of May was Edgwise ’98, a conference and workshop “showcasing the best and brightest minds and strategies currently driving design, technology and business on the Web and new media”.

It took place at the Puck Building, and included workshops given by Lynda Weinman and Hotwired. People speaking on panels included Clement Mok, Roger Black, Gong Szeto, Kyle Shannon, Craig Kanarick, etc. Since the cost was pretty steep ($500 just for the conference) I wasn’t able to buy tickets to go, but on the sneaky advice of a friend, I just walked in and pretended I knew what was going on, and it worked.

Still I only got to see two shows, the United Digital Artists Three4All’s, which was sort of a Gong Show type event where a bunch of companies each got 3 minutes on the stage to present some cool thing they were working on….companies included Funny Garbage, Kioken, Oven Digital, Chopping Block, i/o360, Plumbdesign, Attik Design NYC, Entropy8, 52mm, etc.

The idea is that any presenters that start doing any sort of blatant self-promotion or plugging would get booed offstage, so to keep the presentations as purely a discussion and presentation of the cool things companies are doing now, and nothing else. It was pretty cool, although it got pretty hot in the packed auditorium even with all the ceiling fans whizzing. I also heard that David Carson gave a pretty cool presentation.

There was also lots free of soda, fruit and free cookies courtesy of Au Bon Pain.

Edgwise ’98
Date: May 4th – 9th, 1998
Place: Puck Building
https://www.edgewise98.com