Message from John Davey
Monday 6 October 2008 - Filed under Conferences
John has been frantically trying to respond to various FOTB posts, specifically in regard to the last session, but for some reason his computer is not letting him. So he asked me to post this:
I am both pleased and saddened by all the conversation going on about FOTB’s final session. Each year I make huge efforts to get as many heavyweights as possible on the bill. I spend hours deliberating over which speaker speaks in which slot in which theatre. I kinda hope the whole conference looks like it runs smoothly because of its relaxed laid back feel, however, i can tell you that I often feel like a swan – perfectly serene on the surface, but thrashing around wildly underneath!
Trying to get the best speakers along is no easy task. The best are in such high demand that often, they are busy. Ask Keith, I approach him and many of the others months in advance! Once a speaker confirms, I put absolutely no demands on them regarding their content as I am a firm believer in them being happy with their own content and message.
Which leads us to the final session of the conference. I have heard many for, and many against. This is a good thing. It would have been easy to end on a beautiful fluffy thing floating around the screen, we would have all walked away with a fuzzy warm feeling. But actually, a bit of controversy never did any harm! If it stirred enough emotion to debate it endlessly, then I think it was a good thing to end on.
Be in no doubt, I will work my butt off to make FOTBM09 and FOTBB09 even better than previous versions!
Altogether now: Whoa, I’m going to Miami………….
- John Davey
Flash on the Beach
2008-10-06 » keith
6 October 2008 @ 4:36 pm
Congrats to John for putting on another great conference, regardless of whether or not you agreed with the message presented in the last session — I think its great to have a variety of speakers with different ideas, different backgrounds and in no way does it reflect badly on Flash on the Beach.
At the very least we had a talking point, I’m sure presenters for Miami are already secretly plotting a big controversial statement to end their session on
6 October 2008 @ 4:43 pm
Absolutely. Without a doubt, that 10 minute talk generated more discussion than any presentation I’ve ever heard or heard of at a Flash conference.
My secret sources tell me John is lining up Jakob Neilsen to talk in Miami!
6 October 2008 @ 5:11 pm
Sometimes it’s not always about “more cowbell”. It’s about where to go with that cowbell …
7 October 2008 @ 5:42 am
lol @ Jakob Neilsen to talk in Miami!
wait ..actually the more I think about it, the better it sounds
options for a Q&A could make things very interesting
7 October 2008 @ 6:04 am
I thought John put on an excellent FOTB 08 and was capped off perfectly with Jonathan’s talk. The conversation that have come as a result of that have been very interesting, it’s got people thinking and expressing their opinion which is great. I’m sure John is rubbing his hands together with all the free publicity for FOTB that has been generated. Great stuff, bring on Miami!
7 October 2008 @ 8:11 am
I thought that John’s message was very poignant – it struck a chord with me. I feel that he is absolutely right, imagine if the written word was only used for product descriptions and advertising. Of course that is a slight exaggeration for a description of the interactive world, but we have this amazing medium that is almost limitless… What a great position many of us are in, shaping the future of the internet.
However I certainly don’t think that endless tinkering / experimenting is a bad thing at all, as it inspires us and from it a masterpeice might arise.
7 October 2008 @ 8:12 am
[...] Peter Elst, Aral Balkan, Keith Peters, Grant Skinner, the list goes on and on. Reading the recaps, including a statement by the conference’s organizer, John Davey, it seems as though one presentation stands out in it’s audactity, poignancy and message [...]
7 October 2008 @ 9:39 am
Please send my congratulations and thanks to John for an amazing conference. I wanted to tell him myself in person, but he always looked busy so I thought it best to leave him alone!
As for the final words of Jonathan Harris, well, a bit of controversy never hurt anyone. If anything, I thought it was the perfect end to the conference. Whether you agreed with him or not, he certainly gave us all a lot to think about…and debate in the way which we are now. I’m half expecting the incident to turn up as a piece of his art…
Can’t wait for FOTB’09! Hopefully the tickets will be released before FOTB Miami because I’d rather book sooner rather than later so that I don’t have to worry about costs for hotels etc.
7 October 2008 @ 1:57 pm
I totally agree with John Davey on this one. Thanks for the input John and I loved that such a discussion has been sparked out of it all!
7 October 2008 @ 8:35 pm
Guys, do these conferences all have to be back-patting love-fest’s?
Maybe people need to be a little more thick-skinned.
Just a thought.
7 October 2008 @ 8:40 pm
Rob, but John Davey is just so huggable. Like a big teddy bear!
8 October 2008 @ 11:18 am
Surely it’s only the Americans who expect evangelical whooping and air punching at the end of a conference.
FOTB08 opted for a very British Mike-Leigh-style ending instead, and was much better for it.
10 October 2008 @ 11:56 am
Incidentally, controversy aside, I noticed that all of the lectures in the Dome were being professionally filmed. Does anyone know what is happening to the footage?
@zen – lol. I love the Mike Leigh reference. It *was* a British conference after all
10 October 2008 @ 6:14 pm
[...] be honest I’ve no idea why they were so offended, but they were. It has been much discussed on other blogs, so I won’t go into it here. Except to say – Harris was [...]
18 October 2008 @ 7:33 pm
[...] lastly, a message from John Davey, the conference [...]
30 October 2008 @ 10:11 pm
[...] Peter Elst, Aral Balkan, Keith Peters, Grant Skinner, the list goes on and on. Reading the recaps, including a statement by the conference’s organizer, John Davey, it seems as though one presentation stands out in it’s audacity, poignancy and message [...]