Everybody loves a good GIF! GIFs are revolutionizing the way we communicate in the modern workplace via apps like Slack or Hipchat.
A good GIF can help convey complex emotions than can often be misrepresented or misunderstood in just the written form. More importantly, a culture of GIFs creates a positive team morale.
In this talk, we will cover:
- The (secret) origin of the GIF: Humanity has always loved short form video content! The first films ever made were GIFs. Edison made thousands of short films that can be considered GIFs. (Check out “The Sneeze”, for instance, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wnOpDWSbyw). Ain’t that neat?
- Looking at GIFs objectively: What makes a good GIF. How does it tell a story?
- Working with GIFs practically: What are good GIF practices for the workplace? What’s ok to share, what’s not ok? How do you set “rules”? Does it stop being fun if you set rules?
- Choosing the right tools for the job: Let’s first look at ready-to-use tools like Giphy and GIF keyboard. Even though Giphy can sometimes have a bad rap, I maintain this is because people don’t know how to use it. Let’s learn all things you can do with Giphy that you may know about!
- Choosing to create your tools: Let’s look at “build it yourself” tools and setting up your personal workflow. Store your GIFs in Dropbox or version-control them in Github. Use custom Alfred flows to share them, or even create your GIF API!
- GIF OFF! To close out the panel, let’s have a GIF OFF! Using a custom hashtag for the talk, I will present a prompt on stage, and have conference attendees send in the best GIF to match the prompt. Let’s see who will be crowned the GIF king or queen!
