Aral Balkan

Short and sweet: FOTB was a great success. I was reading reviews on various blogs and the general consensus appears to be that John and his team pulled off a great conference.

I got to catch Seb's and Mario's talks and they were both great: lively, engaging and informative.

Personally, it was an honor and a half to have some my favorite people right here in Brighton. Can't believe it's over! Here's to next year's! :)

Update: Been reading a few more of the reviews and it dawned on me that it would help if sessions were rated next year according to the level of prerequisite knowledge required. Perhaps something along the lines of "Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced".

Comments

• Aral, FOTB was the best conference I've been to. Thanks for co-brainstorming it and the terrific party. Don't forget to give yourself a pat on the back for your session - it was the most thought provoking for me. I think maybe as a company size grows, so does the "Waterfall". When IT, creative, database, app operations, ad ops, marketing yadda yadda are in a silo (my situation) - it's so easy to forget the user. We usually unit test after a LOT of work has already been done. I guess it comes down to the right design pattern for the right project keeping the user in the driving seat - unfortunately easier said than done. I will share this w/ the CEO of our company. Best, //MK

  by Michael Kaufman on 2006-12-11 15:50:54

• Totally agree with the ratings guide, alot of people I spoke to at the event thought the same. I also think that more meaningful titles of sessions might have helped, quirky titles are great if you read and remembered all of the sessions but with sooo many packed into those three days it required alot of asking around as to who was doing what. And I don't think there was any reference to the sessions in the goody bag either so it was a case of look it up online, ask everyone or guesswork. I suppose I should've been more organised and planned these things in advanced... but you know thats not my style (thanks for letting us stay when we decided we'd attend the day before the conference started! :P).

  by Danny-T on 2006-12-07 22:38:28

• Organize? Plan ahead? What are these magical things you speak of? :)

  by aral on 2006-12-07 23:01:41

• Hi, just one thing: YES. It was such an inspirational, informativ, motivating time. I´m still stuck in the Waterfall, but I saw the way out ... Maybe there could be more planning done, regarding things like Basic-Information on AS3 in two Sessions. That would give more time for deeper Information on a topic. But still just great.

  by mike on 2006-12-08 17:04:12

• I think that perhaps some kind of formal feedback mechanism would be great as well. That way the rating and the (constructive!) feedback could be tied together to allow the speaker to tailor his output for the next audience.

  by Dave Stewart on 2006-12-08 18:54:52

• this was definitely a very very good conference !! I had so much fun, enjoyed it soo much and also was sooo happy that I could be there. I am a community freak (sorry for that :-) ) and I really felt the community everywhere when I was there in Brighton so really looking forward to the next edition !! Keep up the good work there in Brighton !!!! Flash community in Europe is ALIVE !!!

  by koen de weggheleire on 2006-12-08 21:47:39

• Hey Aral! Thanks for the mention, and thanks for getting up for my session! Wasn't it great having such an awesome conference in our home town? As for the session guide, i think just a paragraph of information attached to the schedule should probably be enough to help attendees decide. But hey let's have a geek->cool slider setting too :-) cheers! Seb

  by Seb Lee-Delisle on 2006-12-09 01:03:34

• Hey Aral, Good to see you in Brighton. FOTB was indeed an excellent conference, inspiring and motivational. Looking forward to the next one. Agree with the idea of rating the sessions, and maybe a few workshops would be cool too? Sx

  by Sam Grant on 2006-12-12 11:16:11