360Flex – The Speakers – Andy Powell
Posted on | December 17, 2009 | No Comments
I was at the annual Voltron convention in Colorado Springs this past weekend, when I ran into Andy Powell.
I certainly wasn’t expecting to run into anyone I knew at the VoltronCon, let alone a speaker at 360|Flex San Jose!
Me: Hey man, what’re you doing in Colorado Springs?
Andy: Chillaxin.. checking out Voltron stuff. Thinking about my presentation for 360|Flex San Jose.
Me: Awesome, months out, and you’re working on it, love it! Which 360|Flex was your first? You’ve been to a few now.
Andy: (picking up a Princess Alura Barbie Doll, shaking his head in what I assume is disgust) ATL and every one since then, so i guess that would be four all total now.
(I pick up the Ken as Keith doll. Rather creepy.)
Me: So, what do you think people who attend your session will be most surprised by/about?
(we put the dolls down (These really were dolls, not action figures, but we’re headed that way now))
Andy: Over the last two years, we’ve been in the midst of a “UX Revolution”, but developers are constantly asking themselves, “What the hell does that mean to me?”, or “Why should I give a shit about UX?”. I really think that people will be surprised that we can relate these topics to a developer and really show why they should care. This is also my first presentation, ever, without code. So we’ll see how it goes.
Me: (nodding) it’s funny how UX has really come into it’s own the last few years. It’s been important from the beginning, but now we actually talk about it, and work towards it.
(The action figure section is a crazy jumble of pilots, and voltrons of all sizes from Lion, to Vehicle, to the weird lion team from more recent memory, Voltron 3D)
me: (Picking up a vehicle Voltron set MIB) What session are you most excited about, besides your own of course?
Andy: (He thinks about it, while deftly assembling the lion team voltron) I’m always interested to see what Ben Stucki has been up to, it’s usually some pretty hot stuff. Jesse is always fun to watch. It’s great to see him on stage with the energy of a chihuahua that’s been mainlining red bull.
Me: Jesse as a Red Bull mainlined Chihuahua… yeah that’s pretty fitting.. He’s great fun to watch, and crazy smart. What are you most looking forward to at 360|Flex San Jose?
(We walk over to the cosplay section. Why not? freakzoids dressed as pidge and Voltron… always good for a laugh)
Andy: I want to see what people have been doing the last year or so to push the boundaries of the platform. It seems that sessions here are always about 3-6 months ahead of the mainstream community.
Me: That’s a pretty good way to look at it. I’m gonna have to borrow that quote for the website (I laugh, but am dead serious), you’re right though, our sessions are routinely ahead of the curve, and always seem to lead to people commenting that they’ve more than gotten they’re money’s worth, by lunch on day one…
(A Vehicle Voltron walks by holding hands with someone dressed like Sven… great costume… I wonder if Big Composite robots fall in love?)
What would you tell someone that was on the fence about attending 360|Flex, to convince them to come?
Andy: (we have to split up and make a few fancy manuevers to get past a whole gaggle of Alura’s and surprisingly a Nanny. Who cosplay’s as Nanny?) Best use of your conference dollars if you’re a Flex developer and looking to do cool new stuff with the Flash Platform.
Me: Well said! That’s what we try to get across, and why we price the event the way we do. If anyone comes up to us on the last day and says (honestly) they don’t feel they’ve gotten their money’s worth, we’d do whatever we could to make it up to them.
Since we’re here, who do you think would win? Vehicle or Lion Voltron?
Andy: I’m going to have to go with Lion Voltron b/c they did the same with less. The vehicle one had all these little pieces all over the place that weren’t even real vehicles, just made up shit. Plus the lion Voltron had the princess rocking the pink lion. Any robot that can rock the pink and still kick ass is tops in my book. I think Pidge was flex developer anyway.
Don’t miss out on the Flex conference that will jump your knowledge 6 months ahead of the game! Register now! Hang with Andy and all the other great speakers, and attendees at the first, best, and most awesome Flex Developer conference in the world! Don’t miss it!
Tags: 360flex > Community > Flash Platform > Reasons to Come > San Jose > Show the love > speakers
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Thanks to E-Junkie