Taking place in Lisbon, the next November 14th, Upload 2.0 intends to discuss current web trends and their impact on Marketing and Communication strategies.
Organized by a team of active participants on Portugal’s social web, the event gathers several practitioners sharing their experiences and ideas on a series of short talks about the role of new media, consumer empowerment and new models of publishing. From marketeers, students, journalists, bloggers or just people with passion for the new social web, you’re all invited to register.
I’ll be giving a short talk on UFOs (Unidentified Flashy Objects). If you find the title unusual, then show up and listen the rest of the content.
There’s no excuse of being at work (it’s on a Saturday) or being expensive (ticket at 28 / 20 for students). Find all about it at UploadLisboa.com or get the updates at twitter/@UploadLisboa.
P.S.:
Speaking of events, today it’s Ignite Portugal, where Alt.Prt.Sc will be recording a special videocast and my colleague Tiago is giving the Ignite talk “How to manage impossible projects with agility”. See you later.
Yeah, i know, i suck doing interviews. It’s not like i’m a journalist or something and have been doing this all my life. But if the whole point of the festival was failing gracefully, i did my best and if practice makes perfection, i could only get more graceful. I hope.
OFFF Festival started with Oeiras’ mayor Isaltino de Morais congratulating the 3 days of digital culture, as a major event within the city’s 250th anniversary celebrations.
Taking place at Fundição de Oeiras until May 9th, this year marks the largest edition with over 3000 attendees, a diverse audience from several countries looking for inspiration on new digital trends.
The opening keynote by Neville Brody, a graphic design reference in the past two decades, approached the theme of “Make Trouble” by looking at several influences on the creative process and provoking critical thinking on the humanist role of design.
From the original OFFF location came Multitouch Barcelona to talk about their interactive design work. The collective was also present on the venue with an Space Invaders installation, played with foam balls as an interface.
The afternoon schedule resumed with a spectacular Karsten Schmidt, before Eva Vermandel and Studio Jason Bruges. One of the most expected talks, U.V.A. (United Visual Artists), represented by animation designer Dave Ferner, took us through the process of how interactive installations combine structure and creative code creating new forms of visual architecture.
Design tools as new forms of expression was also one of the central subjects on the most interesting talk of the day with James Paterson and Amit Pitaru, discussing projects like the online world of Rotten Fruit Tardis or their collaboration with a dance company to create a show were generative artworks were synced with coreography.
You can watch a short clip of the venue and a few shots of the talks below.
The next 3 days i’ll be blogging at OFFF 2009, the International Festival for the Post-Digital Creation Culture. From multimedia to design and motion, in 2009 the festival is celebrating visual culture on an incredible venue. Believe me, i’ve been there yesterday and the place is huge with a kick ass audiovisual setup. Besides the Roots room, Loopita also looked great and Mercadillo reached the largest number of guests of all editions.
You probably can meet me at Mercadillo, on Prt.sc boot, as i’ll be covering the event for the blog network and joining the winners of OFFF Screen Challenge.. Expect a few video interviews on the next few days, from Sagmeister to James Paterson, along with the occasional Twittering, but go easy on the WiFi, ok ? (after all, we’re more that 3500 OFFFers).
Let’s fail miserably. Let’s frail gracefully. Starting tomorrow, at OFFF.
Oops … seems the exit train station is Oeiras. Google Maps, don’t be evil.
Fired up and ready to OFFF ? If you’re packing your stuff and looking for a way around Lisbon, look no further. Here’s a snack size post with all you need to know to enjoy your time in Lisbon and find your way to the festival.
Lisbon
The city of seven hills, the Frisco of Europe, with the yellow trams and the iconic bridge, it’s asking you to be discovered with their hospitality and unforgettable gastronomy (try the fish).
Start at St Jorges Castle and go downhill to Alfama’s historic district, or explore Belem and the two World Heritage buildings: Jeronimo’s Monastery and Belem’s Tower.
When you’re done with monuments, get ready for a bit of shopping at the commercial district near Restauradores and take a ride on Santa Justa Lift to Carmo, one of the landmarks of Abril’s peaceful revolution. You can then rest for a while at Brasileira or walk a bit further to see the sunset at Graça. Now ready for the nightlife, head to Bairro Alto district, where you can eat on the more traditional Fado houses or have a go at the several ethnic restaurants, getting strengths for the non-stop movida (well, until 3am at least). For those still standing, time for a few clubs at Cais do Sodré or dance until the day dawns at Lux.
If you’re looking where to stay, there’s plenty to choose from, with accommodation for all budgets, starting with Hotel Açores to the hostels of 2 close friends: Lisbon Calling and Albergo Odisseo (I did the website of the last one a few years ago . You could try any of these, and even if all booked, they’ll point you other good choices.
How to get there
Now that you got acquainted with Lisbon and the hangover from last night at Bairro Alto is long gone, time to OFFF.
The easiest way is by subway taking the green line all the way to the end (even if you’re commuting from the blue line), reaching Cais do Sodré station.
Get to the street level and buy a ticket to Oeiras, on the train leaving to Cascais (PDF timetable).
Now don’t you get distracted with the seaside scenery and forget to get out on time.
If you’re driving there, take N6 (Avenida Marginal) and exit in Oeiras (at the right side of the beach). On the roundabout a few meters ahead turn left and then right all the way up to Fundição de Oeiras, right across the train station.
In the past few days i’ve been browsing through most of the entries at the One Show and Webby Awards. Maybe one day this blog will have his own “Inspiration Awards” but until then, here’s an extensive selection of my favorite nominations:
Digital Content & New Media
R/GA’s digital signage project for Club Nokia
Yep, iPhone was really huge in 2008. Here’s one app for A4 Driving Challenge (appstore link), developed by Factory Labs.
I’m a sucker for Branded Applications. Here’s ‘Find It‘ developed by Dare Digital for Sony Ericsson, right on time for the next Summer festivals. So, where’s my tent?
A website about design being nominated for a Webby Award on best copy/writing is no small achievement. Design Observer has my vote.
I had to mention an ARG, with a subtle but effective sponsoring by McDonalds of ‘The Lost Ring‘, developed by AKQA.
Following yesterday’s news, i’m sharing a collaboration between blog network Prt.Sc and OFFF, that are inviting all portuguese bloggers to OFFF Screen Challenge and win a chance to be at this renowned festival of post-digital culture, taking place in Lisbon, from 7th to 9th May 2009.
*Disclaimer: As an executive member of Prt.sc, I’ll be judging the entries. That leaves all other portuguese bloggers more chances to win the 3day ticket and show your project at the venue.
OFFF and Prt.sc are showcasing the best of portuguese digital culture: from the garage hack to your web project, OFFF Screen is giving the chance for those using social media to showcase their projects to a wider and interested audience.
The submitted projects are preferably within the broader Catalogue theme “THIS ISN’T FLYING, THIS IS FALLING WITH STYLE · FAIL GRACEFULLY @ OFFF”. Unleash your creativity, don’t be afraid to fail.
How to apply
Each application must be submitted by a member of the project that has been writing for a blog at least since December 2008.
Each blog must write at least 3 posts until the 1st of May, related to the project or OFFF Festival, and tagged with offfandprt.sc. On this date, judges by the OFFF and Prt.sc team will select the 3 best projects. These will be awarded with a 3 day ticket and the chance to present the project on the venue.
Submissions should be sent to offf@prt.sc, with project description, name and contacts, and a permalink to the post announcing the challenge entry.
All posts related to the challenge will be agregated at offf.prt.sc. For further info, contact offf@prt.sc.
If there was an A-list for digital creators, if would probably be at OFFF: Paula Scher, U.V.A (United Visual Artists), Robert L. Peters, Chris Milk, Grey London, Stefan Sagmeister, Digital Kitchen, PES, Joshua Davis, Hillman Curtis, Neville Brody, Eva Vermandel, Kyle Cooper, etc, etc,
Loopita rolls a customized venue for Raster-Noton, the german experimental music label.
Nerdference panel is premiering, with a lot of D.I.Y. technologies, from open software and hardware, control surfaces, Arduino, tangible interfaces, the works. It’s evolution baby.
So, what’s your excuse to haven’t yet booked your flight to sunny (beach is within walk distance) Lisbon?
P.S.: There’s a open slot for sponsors, a great chance for companies working in creative business to be amongst a creative crowd of +3k and showcase your services.
Having a full day job and being a active blogger, makes it hard to find some free time to give presentations and worshops. But as I always wished for an active Adobe User Group in Portugal, it was hard to decline the invitation by Paulo Moreira, for the next meeting, February 27th.
I’m not really a full scale programmer, but having worked over 7 years with Flash, and being recently seduced by the advantages of web standards, the best i could remember for my session was the subject of Progressive Enhancement, or how to present rich media experiences while delivering alternate content.
Armando Alves: Progressive Enhancement: Enlarge your Flash Accessibility
1) Technology isn’t always a hero: From Flash to Ajax
2) Graceful solutions for alternative content
3) Transformation: reusing your XML data
Ricardo Neves:
World Video Digital Signage
A project developed by JP Sá Couto and AmplitudeNet for low cost digital signage basead on the Flash Platform.
I’ll try not to be too technical, so if you’re interested in the subject, please drop by (signup required) . If not, i’ll post the the presentations slides here.
. You could try any of these, and even if all booked, they’ll point you other good choices.
