With memories of almost-vacant aisles at SIGGRAPH San Antonio fading fast, those who attended last year's show in San Diego felt the show's location was moving in the right direction. It was close enough to LA to get pros out of their studios for a day trip, and plenty of business was being conducted. How do you get even closer to the Holy Grail of having animators, VFX artists and designers just a traffic jam away? Hold the show at the Los Angeles Convention Center, of course.
"Very simply - in our experience - SIGGRAPH in LA has a higher attendance than other locations," says Peter Lambert, president of UK-based Nucoda, which offers products for visual effects, DI and more. "It is just so much easier to make a couple of hours available out of one?s busy schedule rather than a day, plus an overnight. Personally, I wish we could all step back to look at the strategic stuff with more time for contemplation but day-to-day pressures mean bandwidth for logistical complexities are reduced." And why is SIGGRAPH such a big show for Nucoda? "Key developers of Matador and Illusion form the core of Nucoda, so it is understandable that we define ourselves in quality film visual effects - and what convention is more important to film VFX than SIGGRAPH?"
Will UK-based Nucoda take advantage of the show's LA location to visit potential users? "Nucoda now has an operations, support and sales operation in the US, and they are senior guys who know the studios, customers and potential clients, however, SIGGRAPH is great time to connect key people within Nucoda with the great and the good of the film industry."
Along with exhibitors, attendees are excited about the LA location. Al Shier, producer at Venice-based Blur Studio, has a short commute to the show this year. He's looking forward to seeing what kind of work is being showcased. "SIGGRAPH is a great time to see new technology, to renew relationships with vendors, to meet up-and-coming talent and have a chance to check out all that has happened in the past year and see the great work that has been done in our industry. The Electronic Theatre is the high point - it's always inspirational. We are looking forward to it this year in particular because our film 'RockFish' will be part of the screening. As the film was a labor of love, it will be a nice treat for our team to see it on the big screen in front of their industry peers."