Trip Report SIGGRAPH Asia 2023
Author: Wendy Elford Issue: 2024-01-03
Trip Report: SIGGRAPH Asia 2023
by Julian E Gómez
In December I attended the SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 conference in Sydney, Australia. A month previous I had been discussing the Center for Computer Graphics History with the conference chair, and she twisted my arm to come speak about it at SIGGRAPH. She then enlisted her husband's help to twist my other arm.
Wendy Elford kindly came up from Canberra to spend some time showing me around, especially The Rocks district, one of the oldest parts of Sydney. We also got to discuss FJB, computer graphics, etc.
The conference started the next morning in the International Convention Centre. SIGGRAPH Asia was like a small mainline SIGGRAPH conference. The website showed some 8000 attendees, so roughly half the size. The themes and arrangement were much the same, and the programs within the conference were arranged like the mainline one.
There were many sessions on “AI” and LLMs in computer graphics. There were more parallel tracks in Sydney than in the mainline one, so it was difficult to check out everything.
Another difference was that the business exhibition was much smaller. Since it was more than 50% smaller there must have been some explanation other than attendance.
Art show and emerging tech galleries showed a lot of innovation. The former inscrutable, the latter encouraging. Unsurprisingly, there was a greater proportion of exhibits from eastern hemisphere universities than in the mainline conference. For fans of animation, the electronic theater focused heavily on storytelling. The days of demo reels and flying logos are long gone. Thankfully.
The days after the conference were filled with science museums, precocious birds, and a trip to the Manly beach, but that's another story. I saw more than one restaurant with kangaroo on the menu, but just wasn't able to do it.
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Related:
- Wendy Elford (author)
- 2024 (year)
- Topics: Events and Gatherings