In just a few weeks, on 6-8 November 2023, the Final Cut Pro Creative Summit returns, including a visit to Apple Park in Cupertino on 6 November. If anyone reading this wants to catch up in person, this is usually the only time of year you’ll find me in the US. Conferences like this exist for Premiere Pro (Adobe Max) and DaVinci Resolve (ResolveCon) too, but this is the big FCP conference for the year.
The FCP Creative Summit is a great place to meet interesting people in the Final Cut Pro world, and it had a good run from 2015 through 2019, until a world-wide pandemic sent everyone online. This is the first year back in California for the full conference in person, and it’s great to be heading back to Apple. In previous years we’ve visited the Infinite Loop campus, but this year, we’ll be visiting Apple Park in person — a huge treat for Apple fans. If you’ve never been inside, this is a rare chance.
While there are certainly talks for novices, this year there are plenty of advanced sessions too. I’ll be presenting three talks, all at least a little related to topics I’ve written about here at ProVideoCoalition: making 3D objects for animated product mockups, 360° workflows, and USB hardware devices for video editors. It’s more fun in person as a live demo, though, and if you want to catch up after the sessions, let’s talk through the nitty gritty details over a beer.
Fellow PVC author Mark Spencer is also presenting, talking about Warp Speed Editing Techniques, Media Management, and of course as part of the epic Ultimate Tip Session. With Jeff Greenberg, Steve Martin, Robin Kurz, Abba Shapiro, Nick Harauz, Jenn Jager, Dylan Bates, Lee Herbet, Josh Meyers, Michael Yanovich, Christopher Lawley and George Edmondson all talking, there’s a wide diversity of topics to be covered.
There are a few more speakers on panels too, including Chris Hocking of CommandPost fame, and iJustine will be delivering the keynote. Storm Smith, a Deaf editor, will be presenting on accessibility, and it’ll be great to learn more about captions from the perspective of someone who actually relies on them. The expo night is always a good place to catch up with vendors, and of course it’s great to hear directly from the FCP team.
While the technical content of the conference is important, my favorite part is always meeting up with people in person, and usually it’s the random lunches and dinners with interesting characters that I remember best. Across the years, I’ve made many contacts, gotten some interesting gigs, and even got to appear in a movie about Final Cut Pro called Off The Tracks that’s worth your time. It’s not NAB, but that’s a plus. It’s far more focused, and also not as huge or as crazy as NAB.
If you’ve read all that and would like to see what it’s really like in person, here’s a video I made about it, from footage recorded the last time we all got to meet up in 2019:
https://vimeo.com/iainanderson/fcpsummit2023
If you see me there and tell me you read this article, I’ll happily give you (while stocks last!) a chocolate or clip-on koala, and shake you by the hand. It’s all coming up pretty soon, so be sure to check it out ASAP if you’re interested.