Flash in the Can (FITC) is a design and technology event held all over the world but originated in Toronto. This was FITC’s 8th year and this year would have been my 5th time attending. However, it was it was my first non-volunteering year because in the past, I’ve been a volunteer.

I found this year to be a 6.5/10 for me this year. The best year was the 2005 FITC, my first because every presentation blew me away. This year was still interesting and inspiration but some presentations I felt more focused on technology and technical skills instead of design. Regardless, I had a amazing time and still learn a lot.

One of my favourite part of the festival was the theme; Playground. It was very well put together.  All the attendees received old school plastic lunch boxes filled with event information, sponsors stuff, juice box and fruit snacks. The volunteers had the baseball crew necks shirts and used playground sand pail to collect the feedback cards at the end of each speaker. The registration desk was decorated with a wooden playground with a slide and attendees were encouraged to graffiti it. Also, there was a photo booth, where you can get your photo taken and then printed in the craft area, where you can decorate it. And lastly, my favourite part of the theme was the introduction to each speaker, which was a recording of a young adorable child’s voice introducing the speakers.

Cassie and I at the crafting station decorated our photos. Randomly, one morning we saw someone decorated our pic! We later found out the FITC volunteers did it. They said our photo was cool.

This presentation, The Grammer of Interaction by Brendan Dawes was Magnetic North was great! I found it fun, inspiration and leaves me with food for thought. Brendan talks about 6 key elements of interaction:

1. Silence – Sometimes you need a pause and silence
2. Surprise – Always surprise/excite people – eg. add something to shopping cart at photojojo
3. Rhythm – In a pitch, always wow them. show something ‘ok’ and then BANG! amazing – eg. memoryshare show them its a spiral… then whoa! it’s 3D!
4. Subtract – Good design is to take away, not add “Simplicity” – moviepeg keep it to its core function.
5. Magic – create magic, even if it is an illusion – eg. lwk.dk
6. Serendipity – create something different – eg. doodlebuzz.com

Of course, Brendan presents it in a much exciting way than me summarizing it here but you get the idea. Here is some other speaker’s work that I enjoyed.

If you haven’t seen North Kingdom’s Reel, see it!

 

None of my photos do justice to the artist so be sure to google them up and see their work.