The hot buzz at the Training Conference and Expo February 22-27, 2003 in Atlantas Georgia World Congress Center (www.trainingconference.com) was about graphics and animation, especially Flash (Macromedia had a monster presence at the show, as did Adobe). The huge show, which serves the nations $100-billion-plus training industry, featured seminars on using animation, gaming and simulation to train corporate executives, managers and sales forces more effectively than by traditional boring text-based training generated with tools such as Microsoft Word PowerPoint. Much of the discussion at the conference sessions was on how to incorporate Macromedias Flash into presentations and online training packages, with the same question repeated over and over by training managers "OK, how do we find people who can do this Flash stuff?" The demand for animation resources is at present greater than the supply few animation companies have entered this area. Companies that have hired animators to respond to the demand include LearnKey (www.learnkey.com), which offers multimedia online courses entirely in the Flash format, and Marastar Communications (www.marastar.com), which offers an animation toolset enabling simple animated content for corporate training departments.
