I’m at the second and final day of The Conversation today. I’ve been too busy to blog but you can follow updates from me and other attendees on Twitter.

I’ll post an update when footage from the panels is put online. Lots of good ideas coming up that should be shared.

I’m really excited to be heading to Berkeley, CA for The Conversation later this week. Partly because I love Berkeley and am always happy to have an excuse to visit the Bay Area, but mainly because The Conversation looks like it is going to be a brilliant couple of days of discussion about new ways of thinking about films, audiences, and platforms. The organizers are Ken Goldberg, Tiffany Shlain, Scott Kirsner and Lance Weiler and participants include Ted Hope, Peter Broderick, Wendy Levy, Arin Crumley and many, many more. Teach me people! Actually, The Conversation seems to be all about sharing knowledge rather than creating a one-directional flow of information which fits very nicely with the participatory world we are all (hopefully) creating. Here’s a description from the website:

This October, pioneers at the forefront of change in cinema, video, games, media and technology are coming together to share ideas, insights, and innovations. Our focus is on new tools, new distribution channels, and new rules.

The format of the gathering will be experimental: rather than a traditional conference, short talks and demos, “fireside chats,” and roundtables will spark a dynamic series of overlapping conversations.

I’ll be writing about The Conversation on the Shooting People TOOLS blog. Unfortunately, due to soaring flight prices, I’m flying there tomorrow via Hawaii and Alaska (ok that’s a slight exageration but the diva in me is all about direct flights these days!). Wah!

Another new post is up on TOOLS, this time about The Conversation “a two-day conversation — definitely not a conference — about the future of cinema, video, games, and telling stories with new media” coming up in Berkeley, CA later this year and bought to you by Ken Goldberg, Scott Kirsner, Tiffany Shlain and Lance Weiler.

I definitely plan to attend this because I know many of the people involved and I’m sure it will be a really useful and inspirational couple of days. Plus I’m determined to be looking forward, not back, as we figure out how to live digitally as artists (who need to eat and pay rent!)