the death of Flash Forward
The news this week is that Lynda.com, long time organizer of Flash Forward, has handed over (sold? How much?) ownership to Metalliq, a design shop big in Flash, Flex, Silverlight, etc. (I'll admit I know very little beyond what the site says and what I've heard about Metalliq)
I'm not really that surprised, Flash Forward probably needed some new blood, and after DX3's implosion, I'm thinking Lynda lost some cred, which probably had an impact on Flash Forward. Will the price change? Will FF ever go back to Boston? Or leave San Francisco in general, now that it's in its owners' back yard?
While everyone praises Lynda for giving up the reigns, and sings Metalliq's praises for breathing new life into Flash Forward, I wonder...
Will Flash Forward have a different feel being owned and run by a design firm? Will other design firms want to participate now that one of their competitors runs the show? Will the event be heavily branded as "A Metalliq" event?
I know Tom and I have seen issues arise when one firm is a higher level sponsor than their competitors, when one firm gets an email blast to all attendees, to effectively solicit new hires... I can only image how Metalliq's competitors will see Flash Forward from now on.
Time will tell, and I'm very curious to see how things will play out.
Sorry, 'design shop' wasn't meant as a derogatory term. :) interactive agency, code house, whatever term fits, I don't much care :)
@Chris,
Ah, interesting point, good to know about Daemon, though I didn't exactly mean in the sense of dominating any particular space. I was thinking more of competition supporting a competitor. ie. How many of Daemon's competitors are sponsors?
I'm sure Daemon doesn't limit who can sponsor (sponsors are a primary revenue source). CFUnited is run by TeraTech, a ColdFusion consulting firm, and their sponsor hall is full of competing firms. The same can be said for Webmaniacs (hosted by FigLeaf). Did Lynda.com allow other training organizations to sponsor FlashForward? (I assume so)
I'm pretty familiar with what it takes to run a conference :)
true enough to all your examples, maybe the commonality of who owns them is why they charge so much? Interesting side thought.
My only counter point, those conferences (sans FF) have always been part of the owners marketing initiative, so it's a bit different, but you raise a good point. Lynda's not the only training game, so maybe my core assumption about FF is erroneous. Great points!
Thanks!
I think it is very common for an "organization" to run a conference. In this case I think the conference went from one organization to another.
However, writing good code (or creating a good design) is a significantly different skill than putting on a good conference. Can the new org do it as well as the old one? Quite possibly. As others have pointed out "consulting type firms" put on other conferences with great success.