CreativeTech conference - mission accomplished

Macheads converged on Auckland's AUT for the inaugural CreativeTech conference. Photo / Supplied

MacPlanet writer Mark Webster was a director of CreativeTech, the Apple-centric conference that just took place over two days on the AUT campus.

At things you organise, you can easily miss stuff. But since I was running around, I actually at least got to put my head into most sessions at CreativeTech, unlike Avril Stott, Justine McKay and the squad of frighteningly helpful volunteers who did such a great job.

So I know the calibre of discourse was excellent, even if I say so myself.

As tired as I was afterwards (two days of being on site at 7am and late nights, coming after months of prep) my head was buzzing so much from all the fascinating input, I couldn't really sleep.

As an inaugural event, we feel we have learnt a lot and we're very open to learning more, so if you were there or would have liked to have been, please let us have your thoughts (email info@creativetech.net.nz).

Mark Pesce, who hails from Sydney but is originally from the US, gave the keynote, a fascinating glimpse into where we have come from, and where we're headed to.

This was contrasted by Matthew JC. Powell's keynote the following day, which honed in more on Apple. Among many insights, Powell said it was ironic Apple had changed it's name from Apple Computer Inc to Apple Inc, claiming it was no longer just a computer maker.

The irony, as Matthew so ably pointed out, is that virtually every device Apple designs is, by any definition, a computer, from the lowliest iPod through to Apple TV to the Macs (discounting Apple input devices, cables, charges and the like, of course).

The speakers from overseas (Melbourne and Sydney) were all pretty shocked by the state of New Zealand's broadband - slow and unwieldy. They all seemed to be used to streaming content at presentations - that's a little risky over here. We share their anticipation of another cable to speed and lessen the load.

Mike McHugh from Adobe was thrilled to be able to confirm in person that Apple's very recent change (I'll write about that more in a forthcoming Mac Planet) to the App Approval Guidelines opens the door to Flash-developed and ported apps appearing in iPhones and iPads. Good oh.

Other sessions were delivered by additional overseas professionals - David Head from FileMaker delivered on FileMaker and Bento, and also mentioned Go, the app that lets you access massive databases on the go.

Young and successful Mac and iPhone developers Zac Cohan and Nik Youdale from Australia presented on iPhone SDK (iOS development), both for beginners and for those further into it.

New Zealanders Kirsten Beggs and Lee Herbet from Renaissance, iPhone developer Rob Beck, Mac tipster Miraz Jordan were also presenting, and the Kiwa Media guys did a wham-bam presentation that was, frankly, sensational.

The NZ developed Xero online accounting system also had a session (I actually heard an attendee say 'Wow, accounting can be sexy!' afterwards), as did Auckland Primary teacher Dorothy Burt, who gave a refreshingly sunny presentation on the use of technology in schools and how it's being shown to change lives in lower decile schools.

Microsoft specialists delivered on both Windows 7, which many Mac users are running on their Apple machines, and on Office:Mac.

Stalls in the public access atrium area covered Apple devices, third party accessories, software and services. The expertise on tap behind these stands added to the intellectual whirl that took place at AUT's main Auckland central city campus.

The intellectuality (if that's a word) was only enhanced by AUT's Creative Technologies' input into the conference. The CT Lounge, in the restaurant area where AUT trains catering staff, held the Wired Dog Help Desk where attendees could get their Apple quandaries answered, and the area also hosted displays by the Interdisciplinary Unit of AUT - staff and student-designed projects included a mind-controlled hovercraft, interactive 3D environments, machinery that reacted to movement, Aduino and Mindkits robotics and more, including the iPhone and light-affected blimps floating about in the atrium.

James Charlton, Gabriel Teo and Daniel Cermak-Sassenrath from AUT talked about this fascinating department - you can see that online (the links appear below).

Leon Dahl from the Rockshop did such a fascinating GarageBand session that one guy told me his three boys had been doing nothing but for the following two days.

The Elephant in the Room

Actually, the elephant was wholly absent: Apple took no part in the conference whatsoever and had no input.

For me, the highlight was the wrap session. It really got the neurones firing again. Matthew JC. Powell hosted this - without the use of pre-prepared questions, he responded to an audio-visual presentation on each of six specially selected guests, drawing them out to talk about their very diverse fields.

The panel included sitting MP Jacinda Adern, who referred to herself as a Mac loving luddite. She once delivered the interest-free student loan scheme after some very fast work on a MacBook Pro with iMovie, much to the surprise and delight of Helen Clark.

Zane Egginton from Unitec amazed the final attendees with his multi-million polygon Mac-rendered projects.

AUT's artist/photographer/lecturer Dieneke Jansen intrigued with her six-metre-wide photographic montages put together on a five-year-old iMac (she admits it's starting to creak).

Zed Brookes from the Music and Audio Institute of NZ, who had presented a very engaging look at Apple Logic earlier in the day, still seemed bemused that he could do as much as he did with a MacBook Pro in his backpack, a couple of devices and cables in the same bag and a guitar.

Dorothy Burt talked about her work in schools again, receiving a spontaneous, heartfelt round of applause. She was completely humble about her achievements, saying her fellow staff and wonderful kids should share the plaudits. (A generous soul from the attentive audience donated several older but still useful Macs to her school immediately afterwards.)

Finally, 17-year-old college student, who started writing articles for Mac magazines from the age of 12 (and who had created the voiceover for the AV presentation) talked about where he wanted to go and what it was like to have technology in your life from a young age, in contrast to the other speakers and, indeed, Matthew himself.

Even this was only skating over the surface - search 'CreativeTech' on Twitter to see what people were saying from the event, or check out the SocialMediaNZ live blog published direct from the sessions.

http://socialmedianz.com/news/2010/09/10/live-from-auts-creative-tech-conference-2010/

There is video from the keynotes and some of the talks in the Tech section of this site, and on the CreativeTech site. (NOTE: The CT site video doesn't work with IE on Windows XP.)

Another fascinating inside can be glimpsed by checking the Snapr pic/twitter page that picked up people's iPhone-shot pics and threw them into a virtual cloud over a map of AUT. Snapr is an NZ-developed, free iPhone app.


- Mark Webster mac-nz.com