One of the best secret perks of running the Flashforward conference is being able to play our favorite music for you between sessions. (Who doesn’t want to be the DJ?) After every conference, we always get inquiries about the music we play. Well, thanks to the ability to share playlists on iTunes, here it is, ready for download:

Flashforward2004 iMix

103 songs played at Flashforward 2004. $.99 each, $101.97 to purchase them all.

The playlist starts super-mellow with Nick Drake, Elliott Smith and Norah Jones and keeps building until it gets to the White Stripes, Sonic Youth and Dead Kennedys. There is something for almost everyone in there.

Give us a rating! (But only if it’s a good one!)

And tell us what you think of this in the comments… did we help you find that song you’ve been wondering about since last year? Should we post the 2005 playlist after the San Francisco conference? What’s your favorite Flash-programming soundtrack?

(Thanks to Kevin Skoglund, Flashforward DJ and iMixMaster…)

True story: a little while ago someone called the Flashforward registration line and asked whether, if he were to attend the conference, he might learn something about Flash animation “like those JibJab guys did it on TV.” When we informed him that we were in fact offering a session by the Evan Spiridellis, cofounder of the JibJab Media, on the very subject of collage animation, he was stunned into silence. (And then recovered enough to give us his credit card number.)

Clearly we have done an insufficient job to date of alerting the world to the presence of this very esteemed speaker. So: spread the word! JibJab is here! With the funny heads and songs and stuff! (But seriously, this should be a great session — be sure to check it out.)

And now a few words from our Volunteer Coordinator, Gaylynn Firth:

There are 82 Flash enthusiasts on the volunteer team converging in San Francisco to support Flashforward2005.

If you are attending Flashforward2005 San Francisco, take a moment to chat with any of the volunteers. The majority are working on very interesting Flash projects, would love to tell you about them and know more about what you’re doing in the world of Flash.
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In case you don’t hang out on the schedule page looking for updates every day, we wanted to tell you about some new, exciting additions to the conference schedule:

• Laurie Burruss — Flash Projects in Higher Education. Flashforward cofounder Lynda Weinman is especially excited about this session, a panel discussion on best practices for teaching Flash in a classroom.
• Jason Fried — Basecamp: Keep Your Clients, Co-Workers, and Projects on Track. There’s a lot of buzz surrounding the Basecamp online project management service — even Zeldman is a fan — and we’re thrilled to have Fried on hand to talk to you about it.
• Tim O’Reilly — The O’Reilly Radar 2005. Yes, that O’Reilly. Believe us, you care what’s on his radar, and hope it’s your field of expertise so you can write a book about it…

We’ve all had this conversation at least once in our lives, admit it…

“Do you love me?”
“Love you? I don’t even know you!”
“If I give you an iPod will you love me?”
“Yes!”

So there are a bunch of great companies that give us stuff to give to you, so you will love them as much as we love them.

We call this “raffle” (catchy, huh?) and it takes place at the end of the last day of the conference. And when your name gets picked and you aren’t there, Flashforward cofounder Stewart McBride casts your name to the floor, everyone in the audience says “awww…” and someone else gets the free stuff you would have gotten.

We’re not trying to give you nightmares or anything, but seriously: stick around.

This is just a partial list of what we plan to give away this time:

• Drawing tablets from Wacom Technologies
• Three ipod shuffles from Xamlon
• An iPod from Curious Labs
• A digital camera from VitalStream
• Lots of software: Macromedia Flash MX , Electric Rain’s Swift 3D, MDM’s Flash Studio Pro, and more
• Bundles of books from Peachpit Press, Macromedia Press, New Riders Publishing and O’Reilly Media
• Flash training DVDs by lynda.com
• A full conference pass to Flashforward 2006 San Francisco
• And the ever-popular: much much more!