The educational opportunities abound. The funny thing is that often learn the most when I'm on the panel myself! This year, I spent most of the Live Art Critic in stunned silence as I watched the experts offer up brilliant critiques, technique advice, and some quick paint-overs to make a point. I wish we could have continued for hours. Next time I'll bring a laser pointer so I can talk about composition more, without the "software mastery" envy I had watching folks like Dan Dos Santos, Robh Ruppel, and Patrick Jones as they flew through photoshop. It was also a blast listening to Mark Nelson describe his concepting experiences and walk through his process in the "creature design by committee". I do a lot of concepting, but I learned a ton by being part of his class. There were a tone of other workshops that I would have loved to attend, but I was so busy I had to skip some of the ones I was aching to attend. I need more hours in the day!