Siggraph Snippets

The 2018 Siggraph Conference held this year in Vancouver, BC has wrapped.

This blog is intended to provide a quick overview of the event from our perspective, supplementing many of the other articles written by the media.

Location – Vancouver is a fun and great looking city to the extent we were able to explore a few areas beyond downtown.  The Convention Centre area, known as Canada Place, is impressive, spacious and very convenient to the many conference hotels.

Through the years, Siggraph has alternated locations between East Coast and Southern California.  Show management learned early on that while some east coast cities such as New Orleans and Orlando were draws, attendance had always been significantly higher when the event is in SoCal.

Many of us who live in SoCal have been spoiled by the frequency with which the event has been here, but Vancouver proved to be a welcome location, especially in August when the weather was ideal.

Attendance – Attendance has been reported to be 16,500, the same as was reported for 2017.  With so many companies now having outposts or headquarters in Vancouver, and the loss of so many in SoCal in recent years, one has to wonder what the attendance projection is for 2019 when Siggraph returns to Los Angeles.

It is a far cry from the 48,700 or 42,690 that were in attendance in Los Angeles in 1997 or 1999 respectively.  Total exhibitors in those years were 359 and 337, respectively.  In contrast, there were fewer than 160 vendors this year.

Of course, those record setting years were prime years when digital technology broadly and computer graphics more specifically were on a fast paced trajectory.  In many respects, the Gartner Hype Cycle was in full force, heading to the Peak of Inflated Expectations before descending to the Trough of Disillusionment.

Since that time, there has been a lot of industry consolidation and numerous companies have gone out of business.  The industry has moved from the Slope of Enlightenment to the Plateau of Productivity, typical in a mature industry.

Exhibitors – Vendors on the exhibit hall floor want eyeballs to justify the expense of exhibiting, a key reason why the Conference has been in SoCal so often.  It remains to be seen how attendance and the exhibition hall will fare in 2020 when Siggraph is destined for Washington, DC.

Although not a scientific study, it seems that it has been years since the hardware/server companies have had a major presence.  Chip and related product manufacturers such as Intel, AMD, Nvidia and Blackmagic Design were there.  The Nvidia keynote by CEO Jensen Huang, a dynamic speaker, on Monday evening was SRO, making us wonder if the same keynote would have attracted a similar size crowd had the conference been in LA.

As we posted on social media last week, there appeared to be an over-abundance of companies involved in various aspects of VR.  As that market segment wanes given the lack of traction in the consumer marketplace, one cannot help but wonder how many of those organizations will be in existence next year.

AI – Given the strong presence of AI/Machine Learning at both CES and NAB this year, we anticipated that the tech would be prevalent at Siggraph.  The primary vendor discussing AI was Nvidia as a part of its new Turing Architecture.

MoCap – Motion capture technology had a big presence.  Although some is related to VR production, it also is indicative of the growth of CGI and MoCap’s continued use in productions of all kinds.

Educational institutions – Again, not a scientific analysis, but there seemed to be far more schools, universities and training programs than in prior years.  Speaking randomly with a few would-be students, the responses showed excitement about following their artistic passion and potentially getting involved in a high profile industry that is growing.  There were unsolicited comments that the robust economy has contributed to the number of creative jobs available on a global level as the volume of original content being created is driving the growth, and hopefully their careers.

A few of the administrators with whom we spoke echoed these sentiments pointing to the job fair that included many of the industry’s top companies seeking to staff their projects.

State of the industry – The industry is strong and continues to become increasingly global, evidenced in part by the attendees from outside North America.  Artists continue to be excited by the volume of work.  Owners/management continue to decry the slim margins and the pressure exerted by studios to push pricing down, project after project.

Networking –Seeing long time friends and acquaintances and meeting new people is always a top goal of any conference, not just Siggraph.  This year was no exception with many opportunities of meet and greet.

And on to Los Angeles for next year’s Siggraph.