The Road to SIGGRAPH
Before I begin; first, thanks to Highend3D for setting up such a great blog service and going above and beyond with support to help me get this up and running today!
This time tomorrow I’ll be on the road passing the continental divide a couple of hours outside of Denver on my way to my first SIGGRAPH convention. I’m really excited to see the event I’ve wanted to go to since I began doing 3D five or six years ago in high school.
The following posts will be covering what catches my attention and gets me excited as I roam the exhibit hall and attend some crazy sounding parties and my general impressions of the conference and the visual effects industry as a whole.
Though this is my first time going I have picked up a few tips as I’ve been reading about the convention and here are a few things I’ve done and am doing to prepare.
First things first, I’ve talked to people who have been there and I’ve read what people have said about it online. This has contributed a lot of little suggestions like wear a comfortable pair of shoes and clothing because you’ll be moving a lot or get into parties as much as possible not only to socialize but to keep food expenses at a minimum.
Second, watch the websites for all the big software companies and CGSociety or a similar site for party announcements. I’m already registered for five or six parties, one of which, the huge Autodesk party is already closed to registration—and a couple people I know missed their chance to register.Third, I hear it’s crowded and busy so I’m guessing many things will be easy to miss. I’m going with an number of friends so we’ll keep each other informed on what’s going on but beyond that I’ve setup a large list of RSS feeds to keep track of what’s being posted to the web from SIGGRAPH that I’ll be checking on my PDA throughout my time there. You can get a copy of the OPML file here. I’m also keeping a list of things I want to see on my PDA and have added parties and other time sensitive events to my calendar.
All of these preparations may turn out to be way off and my plan will change completely as soon as I get there. If this is, in fact, the case then I’ll have learned from this mistake as well and will be able to prepare differently in the future.