Whether it’s your last, best Flash 7 site, your first amazing Flash 8 site, or your “top this!” tour-de-force in Flash 5 or 6, we want to see it — nominations are open for the 2006 Seattle Flashforward Film Festival.

Nominate a site.

If you’re feeling generous you can also nominate the best sites you’ve seen lately that were not built by you, but be sure to get your own in first!

Plans are in the works to transform the 2006 Seattle Festival into an even grander event than usual, so even if you already have a couple Big Orange Rubber Arrows on your mantle, you’ll want to be a part of this one. More details as they are finalized…

For the very first time in our six-year history, in addition to inviting back all the industry leaders for whom Flashforward is renowned, we’re accepting session and speaker proposals directly through our web site in a search for fresh talent.

Speaker Proposal Form

We’re looking for experienced teachers, designers, developers — people who can show the how-to, as well as the why, when, and where to the best students out there. We’re looking for amazing, jaw-dropping work that you will deconstruct, cutting-edge projects that take the bar higher than it’s been before, and speakers with passion to share their knowledge in a generous and genuine way.

The theme for the Seattle conference is “Flash as a Platform” — design, creativity, video, motion graphics, imaging, innovation, new workflows, new techniques, new frontiers, new transformations, new opportunities, open minds, open source, open standards, open platform, and open possibilities.

We want to educate, inspire, and be of service to the Flash community. If you have something great to share, submit a speaker application today.

And if you are considering attending the conference, post in the comments to tell us which topics and speakers would make the trip worth your time!

As any of you who attended Flashforward2005 San Francisco are aware, we had outgrown our venue. It was charming, but the smaller rooms were too limited for the more popular sessions.

So after a thorough search we have selected a new venue, a mere 808 miles North. (You might want to stay in a different hotel.)

It’s the Washington State Convention & Trade Center in Seattle. We’re taking over the entire top floor, and we’ll have plenty of versatile space to comfortably accommodate our attendees, speakers, sponsors, exhibitors, and lots of new ideas. And of course the very atmoshpere is awash with fine espresso powder, so everyone will be extremely awake and excited! (I’ve never been to Seattle so I’m just guessing.)

Flashforward2006 Seattle: February 27 - March 2. Save the dates; we’ll open registration soon and post program details as we finalize them.

If you know Seattle, tell the rest of us what we should be looking forward to during the rest of our visit!

lynda.com Acquires the Flashforward Conference and Flash® Film Festival

OJAI, California, August 5, 2005 — lynda.com, Inc. announces today the acquisition of FForward, Inc., the parent corporation that produces the Flashforward Conference and the Flash® Film Festival, which was originally co-owned and founded by lynda.com, Inc. with United Digital Artists Productions, Inc. The Flashforward Conference was the first event in the world focused on Macromedia Flash, and boasts a legacy of 14 events in San Francisco, New York, London and Amsterdam, serving over 20,000 attendees over the past six years. In addition, the Flash® Film Festival has presented over 200 awards to top-designed Flash sites and applications, to winners from over 30 countries.

lynda.com, Inc. is a training company that has been on the Web since 1995, publishing books and training videos on Macromedia, Adobe, Apple, Corel, and Microsoft products as well as photography, design, and development. In addition to the 20,000 past Flashforward attendees, lynda.com has over 40,000 direct customers, with tens of thousands using their subscription-based video service, the Online Training Library™.

Under full ownership by lynda.com, the Flashforward Conference will expand into new markets, while providing customers, subscribers, and attendees with fresh insight into the latest design and development techniques using Macromedia® Flash® and related tools and technologies.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to take Flashforward in new and exciting directions. With the impending Adobe acquisition of Macromedia, lynda.com is the clear choice to produce this conference, as we offer more training for Macromedia and Adobe tools than any other training company in the world. We will create an event that will be educational, inspirational and essential to the industry, without losing its original flavor,” says Lynda Weinman, President of lynda.com, Inc.

lynda.com will retain full rights to the name Flashforward and Flash® Film Festival. The Flashforward Conference and Flash® Film Festival will now be billed as “lynda.com presents: Flashforward and the Flash® Film Festival.” New dates and locations will be announced shortly at http://www.flashforwardconference.com.

”We have plans to leverage the lynda.com Online Training Library™ so that all Flashforward attendees can become subscribers as part of their conference package. Also, Online Training Library™ subscribers will get a discount to attend the Flashforward Conference and Flash® Film Festival. We will be able to expand our online Flash training with fresh voices from Flashforward speakers. It’s going to be an amazing opportunity for synergy and expansion.” says Weinman.

For more information on the lynda.com acquisition of the Flashforward Conference and Flash® Film Festival, please call Megan Andersen, lynda.com Marketing Manager at 888-335-9632 or email megan@lynda.com.

lynda.com is an award-winning provider of Hands-On Training™ instructional books, CD- and DVD-based video training, self-paced online learning, and events for creative designers, instructors, students, and hobbyists. Since 1995, lynda.com has been helping people learn fundamental design principles along with the latest software, technologies, and techniques to communicate more effectively in print, on the Web, and through motion graphics.