Day three: Beyond the Bar Graph- A Visual Narrative with Data by Wesley Grubbs (@pitchinteractiv, www.pitchinteractive.com)

Day Two: Trainyard- A Flash Dev’s Journey to App Store Success by Matt Rix (@mattrix, struct.ca)

General Tips:
- Use your “other skills”
- Execute well to distinguish yourself
- Delight and surprise your users
- Determine your personal goals, write them out, and post them where you can see them
- Work towards your goal every day
- Work on projects you enjoy and which excite you

1) Tips for developing mobile apps:
- When drawing with OpenGL, use a sprite map (Atlas)
- If you want to make a paid app, release it for iOS, not Android
- Keep updating the app– make it as good as it can be
- Don’t get a publisher!

- Pricing:

• $0.99 is recommended due to increased volume of downloads and to reach as many people as possible, but…
• Free is empowering– it gets you a user base
• Don’t release your “lite” version right away, wait until you work out the kinks
• Make the free app better than the paid app

- Marketing:

• External social (hype outside the app– FB, Twitter, etc.)
• Internal social (using social media in your app)

- The App Store:

• App Store factors are not actually random
• Every great app will eventually be featured
• Take advantage of being featured
• Make a product that users will review favourably
• Keep file size under 20mb!

Look up:
- Cocos2D (iPhone API in Flash)
- Tiny Wings 

UbiComp Done Small, Cheap, Simple by Josh Noble (@factoryfactory)

What is UbiComp? (Ubiquitous Computing)
- The internet of things
- Smart spaces
- Pervasive computing
- Devices talking to each other in context
- Shaping services and objects
- [Examples include: Arduino-driven objects, RFID, QR codes, proximity sensors, etc.]

1) UbiComp is small
- Physically small, small footprint, small investment

2) UbiComp is cheap
- Monetarily speaking
- Easily damaged but doesn’t matter

3) UbiComp is simple
- Intuitive, and with limited functionality

Look up:
- pachube.com 

Second talk: Marketing Your Skillz by Daniel Schutzsmith.

Why marketing?
1) To attract clients and talent you want
2) To shape your image
3) To create a following of ambassadors who will promote your product spontaneously

• Word of mouth
• Social media

Make a Plan
1) Define what you want to do (objectives). Be specific! Use dates!
2) Who is your target audience? What industries are they in? Don’t target other designers!
3) What is the message you want to convey to the market about how you can help them?
4) Which tools are clients using to get their information about their industry? What are they reading/watching?
5) Fill in the blanks: I can spend ____hrs/week and $____ /month on marketing
6) Make an action plan of steps over time and put it on your calendar

Tools to Use (pick and choose, you don’t need all of them)
- Make friends with journalists
- Give away work for free
- Use social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn (recommendations! and groups))
- Make a lab– share your tinkering, it shows creativity in our free time
- Show your personality– make friends with or “friend” your clients
- Make your work wearable (i.e. Threadless)
- Write!!

• Start a blog (only write about what you know about though)
• Every project should have a press release

- Build an app
- Make leave-behinds (cards, postcards, merch, etc.)– make them memorable!

Additional Tips
- Encourage participation
- Provide useful content
- Remove the bullshit (no salespeak)
- Be consistent
- Listen to feedback
- Be humble
- Be fun!

Look up: (same deal as before, these are notes I made about people/companies/projects to look up later. Red means I have looked it up already, green means I haven’t)
- Mark and Phil (company) 
- Facebook ad system (for knowledge)
- Icon Buffet
- Common Craft
- The Barbarian Group
- Cinder
- helpareporterout.com
- Scott Stratten (@unmarketing)
- Rule29 (facebook)
- Brian Reich
- hasthebest.com
- Carrot Creative
- RDQLUS
- Viget Labs
- Why Businesspeople Speak Like Idiots 

Well, it’s about time I went through my FITC notes! For those of you who don’t know, FITC used to be a conference for Flash developers/designers, but has now expanded to include all aspects of multimedia development and design, and was held this year at the beginning of May in Toronto. I took copious amounts of notes at the talks I went to, but am only now getting to them. Whoops. Anyway, here are the notes from the first talk I went to, called Harnessing the Abundance, by Mike Creighton.

What is the “Abundance”?
- The availability of information
- Cheap computing
- Open source
- Merging of art, technology, science
- 24/7 collaboration

How do you harness this abundance in your project?
1) Define goals and parameters (be as specific as possible) of your idea to get a certain direction.

2) Start with what you already know. You are not limited by tools.

3) Search is the ultimate tool.

4) Use open source software– it lets you see how other people solve problems, and is modifiable for your own needs

5) Be language agnostic. [For the non-developers-- design for the largest possible audience and don't lock yourself into proprietary programming languages and applications]

6) Prototype your ideas first.

7) Be part of a community. Make connections– inspiration can come from anywhere! Be active in these communities as well.

8) Just start.

9) Get in a state of flow.

Companies/people/projects I marked to look up (red means not looked up yet, green means it has been)
- Johnny Chung Lee and the Wiimote Whiteboard
- Obscura Digital
- Peter Root and Ephimicropous (sp?)
- Sunflo(w?)– a Processing sketch
- Evan Roth -> Graffiti analysis