Well, its funny how certain things trigger your memory. I was just reading Serge Jespers’ blog post on “Reminiscing: most influential Internet moments of the decade” and I saw that he mentioned FlashForward 2000 in New York. Only a few weeks ago I blogged a video where Brandon Hall and Joshua Davis also talked about FlashForward 2000. I didn’t meet Serge at the conference – we only met a few years ago. For those of us who were at the conference I think it holds a special place. Memories of Yugo’s incredible presentation, Adobe launching LiveMotion 2.0, and the Adobe After Party with Run DMC.

Anyway, Serge’s post got me thinking and I delved through some cupboards and old photo albums to find some paraphernalia from that era and I was amazed at some of the things I found. I am blogging them because like Serge’s post they might trigger some memories for you. These aren’t necessarily in order and there are a few gaps where I couldn’t find photos etc that I am sure I have.

I can remember the attendance at FlashForward 2000 as being incredible. People from all over the world.

There was an amazing buzz around Flash and the feeling at the conference was electric. I still seem to have my lanyard but for some reason I can’t find the missing badge.

One of the most amazing presentations I have ever seen was that of Yugo Nakamura (or Yugop) from Japan. The whole presentation was translated and at one stage Yugo explained that he had wanted to play with ‘torque’ and showed us an incredible interactive with a Japanese dancer that broke into segments and span in 3D. It would still stand up today as a very cool piece of Flash but at the time it sent the 4000+ crowd into a standing ovation.

As Serge mentioned in his post, Adobe sponsored an after party with Run DMC playing. Unlike Serge, I am afraid I am not a fan, but it was still a cool experience.

This picture, taken by Phillip Kerman, was one of many taken at the party, and shows me back when I had hair and Darrel Plant – Director expert and author.

Below is a picture I took on the day after the conference at Battery Park – behind me is the Statue of Liberty – and I just happened to look the other way and snap this timely shot of some tourist looking through the telescopes.

You may recognize that this area has also changed totally since this photo was taken as a result of 9/11.

This is one of the earliest bits of merchandising I still have. It is the metal case we were given at UCON ‘97 at San Francisco and marks the original launch of Dreamweaver.

UCON was Macromedia’s user conference for many years and interestingly it went on to become MAX which was then adopted by Adobe. I have kept this case over the years as it is where I store a lot of the old merchandising. (see part 2 of this post)

Haha – this little space rocket clock was given to all the speakers at UCON 99.

I have very strong memories of Macromedia conferences in both San Francisco and New York around this time.

Mention Don’t Tell Moma to any Macromedia employee who attended the conferences and you will get a smile. (You know what I’m saying Greg, Richard).




This was the Flash banner and speaker’s list on the FlashKit 2001 Singapore website. FlashKit conferences were also very big at the time and this one was no exception. It’s funny thinking back on the speakers – they were really good mates but I have lost contact with all of them since. I don’t know if they are even still in the industry. – Guys – if you are out there?

I am pretty sure that Mark Fennell didn’t actually make it to the conference even though he was the organizer. From memory he broke his leg just before the conference while paragliding in the Blue Mountains. So at the conference, all the speakers took on the responsibility of MCing the conference as well.

I wish I knew where Tony David Cray and David Emberton are now? I remember we got David to ‘moon walk’ for about half an hour while he thought he was teaching us how.

Anyway, there was way too much for just one post so I am going to finish this one here and start on Part 2. Heaps more old stuff in Part 2 including Future Splash and even MacroMind!

Tags: Director, Flash, FlashForward, FlashKit, FutureSplash, Macromedia, MacroMind, MediaMaker, UCON

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 28th, 2009 at 5:12 pm and is filed under Creative Suite. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.