trip to chi town

just got back last night from a 2-day trip to chicago with our staff. we went to see the wired next fest and hit the east-river galleries.

it was all very cool, though the meals outdid the expos (russian afternoon tea, moto for dinner...yum)

anyway - LOTS of cool ideas from nextfest: aesthetic ideas, teaching rubrics, etc. and LOTS of trajectory info (i.e. you get a really good picture of where things are headed in the next few years in the areas of transportation, sustainability and design, robotics, etc.)

very well worth it.

a couple disappointments, though:

1. it was small...maybe <3,000 sq. ft. i'd expected something 10x the size.

2. many things didn't work. several robots, several displays, and the AI robotic sheep that mow the lawn by eating it weren't operational because it was too windy (...in chicago, no kidding!)

3. you weren't allowed to touch anything. you'd think that somebody like wired mag would understand the importance of immersive experiences, but they were too "churchy" with all their stuff. only the pros were allowed to play, only the wealthy were allowed to touch. it sort-of sucked.

anyway, those few things aside, the event was amazing and we'll be trading on it for some time.

D