The True Value of Conferences by Stuart Thursby

In an age of bigger, better and faster, the value of conferences

in shaping our creative thinking has never been higher.

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It's no secret that we live in an almost entirely digital world. As a result, it has become more and more difficult to remember what passes before our eyes on any given day. As creatives, we have unprecedented access to inspiration and insight through a virtually endless variety of blogs, websites and other wellsprings of knowledge. But due to the ephemeral method of delivery and sheer volume of information, it has become much harder for any of it to sink in beyond the moment we click to the next page.

The reason is that life is built upon experiences. A trip to Rome makes a far deeper impression than reading somebody’s travel blog about the Eternal City. This line of reasoning also applies to attending conferences. The perspectives, inspiration and insight offered by conferences and other live events related to the creative industry are available in a multitude of other places; magazines, books, websites and mobile apps all provide intelligent solutions to whatever it is we're searching for. But taking that same content and placing it into a live event completely transforms the experience, creating a much more lasting impression.

Founded in Toronto eight years ago and originally geared towards Flash developers, Flash In The Can (FITC) has expanded to cover the general creative technology industry and now hosts a series of annual conferences around the world. At this year's FITC Toronto conference, held in late April, a number of presenters stood out for me, most notably Halifax-based designer James White. Well-known throughout the online design community with his distinctive “retro-futuristic” style, White is even more impressive in person, bursting with enthusiasm, passion and energy.
    
He bounced around the stage talking a mile a minute about his influences, also revealing some behind-the-scenes glimpses into his creative process. White believes that finding a personal style should not require a conscious effort, but occur naturally as you push yourself a step further in all your work. He also believes that all members of the creative community owe it to each other to help each other out by sharing their knowledge, insight and expertise with each other, not protecting it to keep a competitive “advantage.” In terms of content, White’s presentation didn’t reinvent the wheel. But his passionate performance inspired pretty much anyone who saw his presentation.

Unfortunately, FITC scheduled five simultaneous talks at any given time, meaning that I missed many other presentations. Other attendees gave Jason Theodor's Creativity and Chaos presentation rave reviews. Jacoub Bondre (director of production at Grip Limited) was particularly pumped, having written four full pages of notes charting Theodor’s observations on topics as disparate as particle physics and its relation to creativity. As much as you can gain from reading Theodor’s blog, seeing him live is a completely different experience, one which resonates much deeper. Just ask Jacoub.

Other industry conferences in the past have been equally influential. In his 2007 book "79 Short Essays on Design," Pentagram partner (and prolific public speaker on design) Michael Beirut devoted an essay to the theatrics of Tibor Kalman, who spent the entire 1989 AIGA conference causing a ruckus in order to make his point that design’s role is to “inject art into commerce,” not be a slave to commercialism. The well-known blogging network Under Consideration also recently announced its own conference this coming November in New York. As well, the RGD, GDC and Icograda not only have web presences but they all devote significant resources to hosting events of varying sizes and regularity. The proliferation of new media obviously hasn’t replaced conferences, it’s enhanced them.

One final example. New media was demonstrably influential in getting Obama elected to the Presidency in 2008. And yet, over the course of the campaign, people turned out by the hundreds of thousands to the oldest media of them all: to see him speak in person. While conferences obviously occur on a smaller stage than history-defining presidential election campaigns, "real life" events surrounding the creative industry are just as memorable. The web may make information instantly accessible to us all, but nothing leaves a lasting impression quite like seeing it live.

Stuart Thursby is the Community Coordinator at Applied Arts Magazine.