I woke up in a daze, having spent all night dreaming about wandering the halls of the Felix Meritis and having strange semi-lucid conversations with everyone I met over the past two days. I woke up in a daze, because it was the last day of the Blender Conference, where two opposite states of mind coexist and fight for control: On the one hand, this was the culmination of three days of networking and sharing, becoming fully comfortable with this new gigantic family we get to meet on a daily basis. On the other lies the intense realization that the magic Bcon portal is about to close, pushing us to make the most out of every second left, talking to the people we missed, sharing the last few bits of information left and right, and planting the seeds of collaboration and friendship to sustain us until next year.
#bcon22 pic.twitter.com/xWEGuAd8Fn
— Paul McManus ? (@nhirart) October 29, 2022
The day was once again filled with brilliant talks, all of which were available less than an hour after they were done. This is nothing short of a technical achievement by the video team, whose professionalism and diligence mirrored that of all others who made this conference happen.
The Blender Conference 2022 playlist has a whopping 94 videos uploaded, for a total length of 2 days, 6 hours, 30 minutes, and 34 seconds of Blender greatness. My colleagues at ADV Studios and I were responsible for 50 of these minutes, as we gave a talk on our studio's use of Blender in all of its productions, our pipelines, and more. This was the moment we anticipated all week, and have been preparing for a couple more. The pressure that was building over the past few days instantly dissipated as we got on stage, and got to talk about what we are passionate about, to people who share that passion.
The day went by in a glimpse of an eye, and through my last-day-daze, I found myself in the market, surrounded by this incredible community of tinkerers and engineers coalescing around the project empowering them to be masters of their craft.
What do you give to the man who wants nothing for himself? The gift of sharing! Francesco and the Blender team's gift to Ton and the conferencegoers was nothing short of brilliant, showing the intense care and passion that went behind the organizing of the event. The care and passion transpired through every aspect of the conference: The beautiful website design by Pablo and Anja, delicious and generous catering, the great gathering spaces, Bastien and the conference team being everywhere at once to make sure everything runs smoothly, and the simple yet telling fact of the Blender Conference shirt at the market being priced cheaper than usual pricing and other, older shirts, despite clearly being the most popular one on the event.
Watching the beautiful closing event, my dazed state slowly dissipated, replaced by incandescent clarity. The last day of a Blender Conference is the first day of a new Blender era, driven by the re-invigorated community and developers. As the crowd was jubilating over Francesco's ever-electric final interjection, I remembered a chat I had with Ton a few months back in his office at the institute about the essence of Blender and its core mission. After an impassioned plea on how this project is driven by the developers and its community, he sat back in his chair, took a deep breath, and said: "That's it, Mario, it's all about the people behind it, the people who use, the people, right?"
You're absolutely right, Ton, it's all about people.
Meet my new official Blender-issued succulent: Ton Roosenplaant
Hello, this is your friendly neighborhood Blendernation editor here, Mario Hawat. I'm currently at the Blender Conference 2022, and this is a post in a series chronicling my time there. Check out the full series on this link.
