Tomorrow morning begins the largest annual computer graphics professional conference. SIGGRAPH has been around since 1974, and it has always been the place where people share their work, hang out, learn from each other, and form professional relationships and lifelong friendships.
But this year, for the first time, it will be on-line. It’s hard to imagine something like SIGGRAPH going virtual, since so much of the experience is based on the serendipity of running into people. Entire career paths have been launched out of chance meetings at SIGGRAPH.
I guess the coming five days will be a learning experience for all of us. After all, ,how do you create serendipity on-line? That’s a big question.
I would go even further. I would venture to guess that in the next few years, that question will come to be seen as one of the defining questions of our time.