Organizers hope that as many as 1,000 animators, broadcasters and other creative types will turn out for the second annual FlashintheCan festival, a three-day conference and celebration of Macromedia Flash, at Toronto’s Guvernment and Kool Haus Entertainment Complex April 14-16.

Hosted by local user group FlashinTO, the fest showcases the best work by Canadians in Flash. Since its introduction in the late ’90s, the animation application has set new standards for interactivity and motion graphics on the Web, and is making significant inroads in broadcast and gaming.

‘It brought the Web to life – it gave it a jolt like a flash of lightning because it’s so versatile,’ says organizer Simon Conlin. ‘It’s still mainly a Web application, but its use in broadcast is more evident every time you turn on the cartoon channels.’

Flash experts Kevin Lynch of Macromedia, Brendan Dawes, creative director of the UK’s magneticNorth and Canadian Web guru Colin Moock will be among the 25 speakers at this year’s fest. MuchMusic VJ Jennifer Hollett will host an award ceremony toasting the country’s best Flash ad campaign, best developer and best student, among others.

The Flash Comm Server application, and its possibilities in gaming, will get special attention, says Conlin. Many Flash animators moved into gaming after the dot-com crash. ‘With Flash Comm Server technology, now you’ve got multiplayer gaming, so you can play a game against someone else and chat with them at the same time. That’s really going to open things up. It’s got huge possibilities.’

Flash has, until now, been known mainly for those animated introductions on websites, of which both coders and end-users have grown tired. ‘The age of the skip intro is dead, and a lot of people at the forefront are quite happy about that,’ says Conlin. ‘People are moving into games and doing more of the heavy coding.’ Over the next two years, he predicts Flash animation will be put to use on PDAs and cell phones.

-www.flashinthecan.com