Unlimited Services at One Deck: Reasons

We chat to John Davey (above), organiser and owner of the successful Brighton-held conference, Reasons to be Creative (part of Brighton Digital Festival).

The conference is religiously held on the first Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of September each year and this year hosted more than 30 speakers and an impressive 900 attendees over three days. It was previously known as Flash on the Beach.

I caught up with John at the end of the second day to ask him a few questions.

AE: So, John, how would you describe the conference?

JD: "Well, that's a difficult one! [laughs]. I'd say it's a smorgasbord of talent: because I don't fit into the HTML5/CSS3 crowd, I don't fit into the designer-only crowd; because we do have tech and we do have creative, so it's a difficult one to pigeonhole. I'd say it's an inspirational event."

AE: What prompted you to start Flash on the Beach?

JD: "I was on the speaking circuit myself, and then my daughter was born and I took my eye off the ball with work, the speaking opportunities dried up, and I thought, 'I really miss that, maybe I should try to do my own'.

I had no idea, really, how to try and do something like that — so I started planning it, and I invited a load of friends, who all said 'yes, we'll do it'.

About a month or two into planning and selling tickets, I thought, 'Oh my God, if this thing goes wrong, I'll have to sell my house!'. Luckily, it didn't, it all went right, and Flash on the Beach grew to be one of the biggest Flash conferences in the world."

AE: Impressive achievement! What prompted the change to Reasons to be Creative?

JD: "Because Flash on the Beach is exactly the same conference that you've attended here, but [people] wouldn't come to it because it had 'Flash' in the title.

I was fed up of going to events and saying to people 'What do you do?' and they'd say 'Oh, I'm a designer' and I'd say 'I do Flash on the Beach' and they'd say 'Yeah, I've heard of that, but I've never attended'. I'd say 'Why?' and they'd say 'Because it's a Flash event.'

I'd say, 'But we have Erik Spiekermann talking, Stefan Sagmeister talking or James Vittori — they're artists and designers' and they'd always say "Oh my God, I didn't know that they'd come, if I'd known that, I'd have attended, but I didn't look past the title". That's why I changed it."

AE: There are a lot of big conferences going on this week — dConstruct, Big Connected TV – what make Reasons to be Creative different from all those others?

JD: "Well, it's a three-day, three-theatre event, for a start — many of those are single-day, single-track events. We have artists, animators, illustrators, filmmakers, coders, designers – it's much broader. A lot of events tend to be quite focused, my aim is to bring content that a) educates, b) inspires and c) motivates, so when people leave, they really want to do great work again."

AE: I've noticed that a few of the talks have been about artists' or creators consideration for the end user/consumer — was this a decision on your part, or just something that emerged naturally?

JD: "I have never, ever said 'I want you to talk about 'x'', and the reason for that is I believe if you force people to talk about something that you want, they're not necessarily talking about their passion – and if they're talking about something they're passionate about, the talk is always going to be better.

"We don't ever have a theme: you know – this year we're talking about 'computers', next year we're talking about 'analog' – or something like that. I tend to see pretty much every speaker I invite, so I know that they're good on stage, and generally I figure that if I find them engaging and interesting. then the audience will probably agree with me."

AE: What do you hope people go away from this conference with?

JD: "I guess there are two answers there. The first one is, I hope that they get totally motivated and inspired. Selfishly, my second thing is I hope that they write down the conference name as the number one on their list when they decide which conferences to go to in the future."

AE: Is there any advice that you'd give to people looking to run conference like this one?

JD: "Don't."

AE: [laughs]

JD: "If people want to get into event organisation, I'd say it's a lot tougher than people think. If they see someone like me on stage and go 'It looks so easy!' then [it's because] I'm making it look easy. That's a big compliment, but there's months and months of planning [behind that].

"I have to think about flights and accommodation and speakers and logistics with the venue, and the A/V, and 'do I get gifts?, don't I get gifts?', the booking system, name changes. There are so many things – ingredients that people don't think of when it comes to organising an event like this – so I would encourage anyone to do that if that's what you want to do, but go in with your eyes open, because it's not as easy as you think."

AE: What do you think about the Brighton Digital Festival?

JD: "Brighton Digital Festival, I guess, is trying to be a bit like South by South-West, which takes over an entire town. That is a hard act to follow — but, you know, what's great is that Brighton is that kind of environment and has that kind of vibe.

"There's a massive amount of design, web design and code companies down here, so it's the perfect setting for a digital festival, and there's a whole month of content that the Brighton Digital Festival can umbrella. I think it's a great thing."

View the original article here

By Dr. Randall Woodard,
assistant professor of theology/religion

apprehensive about online learning? I have to admit that when I first started teaching online, I was apprehensive about online education.

I’m one of those students who really appreciated and got a lot out of my classroom experiences as an undergrad and grad student. I earned my bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees all in traditional face to face formats.

For me, being in a room with others, feeling well prepared through prior reading, listening to an expert lecture about important ideas, and hearing the ideas of other students offered in a real-time discussion was a meaningful and fruitful educational experience.

This was how I learned well. It was also my only experience of learning, having only taken classes this way.

I came to Saint Leo University in 2008 to teach theology and religion classes at University Campus. In my second year at Saint Leo, I was asked to teach religion and theology online and was still unsure about it when compared to traditional learning. I’ve been teaching online for the past four years -- and have grown to appreciate the education value of this format.

But it was not until I took a few online courses in the instructional design program this past year, that I realized the true advantages of online learning from a busy, working adult’s perspective.

Looking back, there are three things I have learned by being an online student that have made me a believer in online education.

1. I’ve found that online education, although different, can bring about each of the elements I appreciated about on-ground education, but in a different kind of space.

Each of the courses I have taken modeled the same positive elements of the classroom, but using the online “space” rather than a typical classroom. The content expertise, my own hard work, and the input from peers all remain, but take place in a modified way – through the podcasts, the clear learning objectives, the interactive materials, and in our discussion boards. The experience took some adaptation on my part, but it was all there.

2. The transition from the classroom to an online asynchronous model is the only way I could have taken course and continued my education.

woody and kids.2 As an adult with a busy full-time job, kids in sports, and more housework than I care to even admit, all of the instruction takes place on my time. I no longer have a long chunk of time each week that I could use to drive to class, be in the classroom and study the way I did as an undergrad or as a younger grad student. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how well online learning fits into my schedule.

3. I now appreciate how well the courses are designed for effective learning.

While designing courses myself as an instructor, and now while taking classes as a student, I’ve appreciated the blend of two different forms of expertise that goes in to the development of online classes.

When each course is created, the content expert for the specific course is partnered with a professional instructional designer who works closely with the faculty member to, not only share the class material, but to do so in a way that truly engages adult learners. This blend of a professor with an instructional designer makes for a particularly effective learning experience.

When these two different professionals work together to create this “space” for learning, incredible content meets fantastic instruction.

I’ve learned a lot over the past few years while designing, teaching and now, taking online courses. I have to admit, that although they are different and that online education has a learning curve, I have experienced how effective, convenient and similar the online experience can be to face-to-face traditional instruction.

I’ve become a believer and a thankful student because of Saint Leo’s online programs!

What has made you a believer in online education?

Randall Woodard has been teaching in the Department of Philosophy, Theology and Religion at Saint Leo University for the past five years and loves the student-centered teaching environment and passion for learning that he finds at Saint Leo. Outside of the classroom, he serves as a taxi driver, maid and 1.5 star chef to his three wonderful kids.