Ton (the speaker) has such a wonderful energy that maybe doesn't come off in this talk. I went to his Blender community session at SIGGRAPH last year, where he announced he wanted to go around the room and have people say their name and why they're interested in Blender before the talk started.
I assumed he was joking because the room was packed, there was over a hundred people in there. Yet he went for it, even going so far as to rip the tape holding down the microphone chord to reach all the people in the back. It took us over half an hour (of an hour long session) to get to everyone, but he explained that it had always been a tradition to do this, starting way back when less than a dozen people would be at a session like this. It was really inspiring seeing his commitment to hear from each and every single person in that room and actually get to know why they were here and what they were expecting out of Blender. I could tell this was a really awesome community, and it made it really easy to talk to everyone around me.
I assumed he was joking because the room was packed, there was over a hundred people in there. Yet he went for it, even going so far as to rip the tape holding down the microphone chord to reach all the people in the back. It took us over half an hour (of an hour long session) to get to everyone, but he explained that it had always been a tradition to do this, starting way back when less than a dozen people would be at a session like this. It was really inspiring seeing his commitment to hear from each and every single person in that room and actually get to know why they were here and what they were expecting out of Blender. I could tell this was a really awesome community, and it made it really easy to talk to everyone around me.
It was one of my favorite conference sessions.