BLENDER CONFERENCE

BCON 22’ is in the books! So I just wanted to take a moment to write down some thoughts now that it’s over and BCON 23‘ is up to bat.

The entire event was fantastic and I feel like the whole experience was far above my expectations. The location was Iconic, the food was top notch, the staff was incredible, there was great conversations happening in all 3 dimensions, and they were even handing out free ice cold bottles of beer in the evening, on top of all that the enormous spiral staircase that ran through the building, acting as the main roadway, reminded me of Hogwarts, with Blender Mage’s all around. Yes this thing was legendary and I would encourage anybody interested to already start planning for BCON 23’, I feel as though this conference will grow fast and deepen in value so I can’t wait!

First thing to go over is the PRESENTATIONS! So this year they basically had about 6 or 7 main rooms active just about all day, with people sharing tons of amazing projects and experiments made with Blender. Generally the classes held about 50 people or so, give or take, while the main theatre I am guessing sat about 200. I had already heard that they made space this year for even more Blenderheads, but even then it went well above capacity ( some of the staff said 700 + ), so needless to say, there was some great stuff happening.

Here are some of the talks I found most interesting.

1. Grease Pencil journey with Dedouze
https://youtube.com/watch?v=o-4tQBrBNq8&feature=shares.

2. Automating AR-ready 3D asset production with geometry
https://youtube.com/watch?v=FoQATu6FK6s&feature=shares

3. Planning exhibitions and artworks
https://youtube.com/watch?v=yOo8ZCGx_aw&feature=shares

4. We can do that with Geometry nodes
https://youtube.com/watch?v=1nvzwhbL-k0&feature=shares

5. Video mapping for live open-air operas
https://youtube.com/watch?v=GDDNnqOJc20&feature=shares

The best thing about BCON is the people! So while all of these presentations were amazing, very few of the speakers actually interacted with the people in the crowd and then the entire talk is recorded to be watched forever, so then you wonder what the point is seeing it live? This year I made the mistake of seeing about 5-7 talks per day, but next year I would aim to see a few presentations that probably will be the best in terms of production value, but after that just find people and talk Blender because this was 10 times more informative than any talk I went to.

To wrap up, BCON is back, let’s hope it sticks around, and make sure to jump on tickets for next year since I think this will just get better and better with more activities and more amazing take aways.