Three Reasons Why I Attend Avid Connect Every Year
By Jim Bask
I have attended Avid Connect, the world’s greatest gathering of professionals in the media industry, since its inception in 2014. Similarly to previous years, I was quick to save my spot for 2017. As the head of audio post at SpotBot, Inc., and a passionate music composer and engineer, I find this conference valuable for many reasons, but most of all for inspiration, knowledge, and networking.
1. Inspiration
During the opening and general sessions at Avid Connect, attendees get to hear directly from Avid leadership about the company’s current status and where it is going in the future. Last year’s sessions included some very interesting moments for video and broadcast, including updates on the Orad acquisition, NEXIS and Adobe. I find these sessions to be extremely interesting and techy in nature — it’s “a look under the hood,” if you will. That’s truly any CTO’s dream.
I also find many of the educational breakout sessions to be inspirational. More specifically, last year’s session titled “Making It in Music” was inspiring as well as educational. There was a strong focus on soft skills, philosophy, and personal attitude. This was definitely a highlight for me.
2.Knowledge
The sessions offered at Avid Connect also are full of keen insights and information. Through the various offerings, I gained invaluable tips that still save me time with delivery every day, such as how to use the new Pro Tools 12.3/12.4 features in a post workflow environment. For an average set of product video, cut downs, and associated vignettes with mix and various stems, I used to take one to two hours total with file and quality management, which I can now do pretty reliably in 5-10 minutes, thanks to the sessions at Avid Connect.
Additionally, the sessions offered a helpful look into some of the new product features in Pro Tools, as well as some “overlooked” features and tips on how to use this application more effectively in a music-creation setting. Avid Connect 2016 offered a recertification course, which I found very useful in order to have a centralized opportunity to get Avid certifications up-to-date. Frank Cook held a comprehensive overview of the changes in the curriculum….[continue reading]