Slide taken from Brendan Dawes’ illuminating and entertaining talk: The Grammar of Interaction Design – FITC Toronto, Day 02
It’s now the end of the 2nd day of FITC Toronto 2010, (now in it’s 9th year) and once again I’m feeling simultaneously overwhelmed, inspired, tired, happy, creative and generally just a little sandwiched full of information at this point. When I say it’s a bit overwhelmed, I honestly mean it in a really good way. I feel there’s so many amazing stories to absorb and people I’ve met, plus hearing talks from some of the brightest and best designers, developers, entrepreneurs and creatives in the business -the word stimulating is an awful understatement.
The funny thing I find about attending design conferences -and to be fair FITC is so much more than a design + technology conference, but a conference for people who make really interesting things, are the very real interactions and social connections they furnish us all who attend. Simply sitting behind a computer on Facebook or texting a friend is just not the same; watching one of the talks recorded, streaming on a Web site -not even close. You really have to be there, see and hear people talk and exchange ideas with others in the flesh to realize the value of going to a conference. In fact I tweeted about this 2 weeks before FITC while reading a post here arguing that conferences are merely just expensive blog posts -bah, absolutely not!
Robert Lindstrom, North Kingdom – An Inside View
What I’ve realized is that conferences are like gigantic meet-ups where you get the opportunity to network and cross-pollinate working techniques, gain insights and knowledge into how others do what you do. When I meet other individuals who are as passionate about the same things that get me out of bed in the morning, I get energized. Creatively this is like being a kid in a candy store -I can’t really describe it -I just feel like I want to go out and make something amazing -something original -something creative and new, I don’t know.
Off to bed now, day 03 approaches!
Grzegorz Kozakiewicz, Analog Designer in a Digital World
Leave a Reply