Last week I was in Los Angeles to attend and speak at the 140 Conference. Having never really been to LA before, that alone made it an interesting experience, but it was also great to connect with so many people on the West Coast that I don't get to see that often.

I'm going to be writing a more formal review of the whole conference, but I had to share here what it felt like to take the stage where the Oscars are held.

Now, in case you don't know I'm a huge movie fan. In 1996, I co-founded Random Foo Pictures with my close friend and cohort Dan Gorgone.

We went on to make over 75 short films and helped produce a couple of features. We did it for the love of doing it and had a blast with it all. We'd hold our own screenings and had several Foo Fests that drew friends and strangers into a theater to watch our crazy (and bloody) creations. All of this was before YouTube and all the other great tools that filmmakers have today to get their stuff seen online.

I'll be honest. I've given my Oscar acceptance speech more then once in my head and actually being on THE stage where they are given hit home for me.

I wanted to focus on what I think people are forgetting when it comes to social media and boiled it all down to the subject of Be Human. It is simple. It is short. But, it works. If you can't do that one simple thing then all the pretty ads, flashy websites and interactive nonsense means nothing.

People seemed to resonate with it and I'm looking forward to seeing the video when it is posted because when you only have 10 minutes on a stage like this the time flies by and you don't remember much of it. Plus, that is something I certainly want a copy of if nothing else then to proove I was actually there.

Thanks to Jeff Pulver for inviting me to speak. I always dreamed about being on that stage, but I never dreamed it would actually happen and I certainly didn't know it was going to be in this fashion. What a fun and strange life I lead some days.

Photo Credits to Steve Garfield & Ken Yeung. Click on either photo to be taken to the original.