MacGathering & SoHo Tech Show, LA 2006 • Friday's Seminars

We've got some amazing, knowledgable instructors!
Friday seminars begin at 10am to avoid rush hour and let you maybe sleep in a bit. Saturday's seminars begin an hour earlier.

[Mac/Win] Elements of a successful web site: An important look at various factors & considerations so you can plan for effectiveness & growth
~Joe Crawford & Leah Peterson

This class covers what you need to know before you even think about hiring a web designer or building your own site. Either way, the first — and most crucial — step is to plan the site. If building it yourself, a good plan will save you time and growing pains. If hiring someone, it'll save you money for certain.

Learn the secrets to getting people to use your site, how to help them find what they seek, how to build a site that will actually help your business.

We'll poll the class to see what your plans are and do all that we can to address your needs.

This class covers what you need to know before you even think about having a website.

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[Mac/Win] Maximize Your Web Visibility: A close-up look at factors that get your website found
~Anita Cohen-Williams

All too often small businesses pay out good money for a website expecting myriad visitors to find it immediately. The reality is that if it's not designed well — and not optimized to be found — it won't generate traffic on its own.

This class covers what you need to know before you even think about having a website.

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[Mac/Win] Bridging the gap between marketing and technology:
How to generate income from relevant advertising on your site
Steve Eisenberg

Intro to selling advertising space and other methods of generating income with your website or blog.

This seminar will benefit you whether you're hiring a web designer or building your own site.

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[Mac/Win] Adding motion and interactivity to your site the right way: an interactive panel
Moderator: Michael McCartry (web layman)
Specialists:
~ Ann Zumwinkle
~William Caulfield
~Tim Petros

Wondering about having some cool Flash animation on your site, or showing video, or having audio? Just want some motion to jazz up your site? Thinking about menus that do all sorts of snazzy stuff? Hoping to have a game on your site, or a tour or such? Motion and interactivity can add a lot to your site, when done well.

So, which format should you use for your particular needs? Will it help your site's chances of being discovered or hinder it? Will it be accessible to those who rely on screen readers? These are just some of the things you should consider before investing your time and money. Our panel of well-respected folks each bring a different expertise and perspective to you. Come get an overview of some of these technologies — and bring your questions. Most of this seminar is Q&A. It's your chance to let the pros know what you'd like to do on your site and learn the pros and cons of your plan, maybe formulating a better plan.

This seminar is planned to benefit you whether you're hiring a web designer or building your own site.

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[Platformless] Micing Technique: Getting the right sound into your computer — live demo & diagrams
~Jerry Christie

Great music recording starts with great music miced just right to get the sound into the computer. Mic placement is a learned talent. In this hour and a half, Jerry Christie will share the accumulated wisdom of his 41 years as a professional audio engineer in the Hollywood music recording industry. (He has worked wtih a lot of major musicians in those years!)

Jerry will be bringing in plenty of equipment and really showing you these tips. You'll see and hear for yourself. If you're bringing music into your computer, this is a don't-miss seminar.

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[Mac/Win] Mixing Technique with ProTools M-Powered
~Oscar Garza

After you've gotten your instrument’s music into your Mac, it's time to mix it til ya love it. Audio pro Oscar Garza will share his best tips and tricks, focusing on ProTools M-Powered. You're bound to learn some good stuff here; Oscar not only has professional music in his blood; he also works for M-Audio teaching this stuff every day.

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Mixing Tips from a Master Engineer
~Jerry Christie

Jerry Christie has been working in studios since he was 16. He's been a touring musician (Guitarist) and engineer — and he's been doing digital audio on the Mac since 1988. With 41 years of diverse music, situations and experiences, he's certainly come up with a few great solutions and tips. Interested? Come join Jerry, his equipment and his 17" PowerBook for some great discoveries.

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[Mac only] Mastering Mastering with BIAS Peak Pro
~Gabriel Khofri

In this seminar, you'll learn how to assemble mixed-down stereo tracks from a multi-track workstation and create a 100% Red Book compatible audio CD. Techniques discussed will include editing, noise reduction, applying effects, dithering, sample rate conversion, using Playlists, creating gaps, pauses, indexes, and crossfades, PQ subcodes, CD-TEXT, and output options such as burning a CD, and creating a DDP file set, or other file formats.

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[Mac only]
Secrets of Getting from Your Printer What You See on Your Monitor - Part 1
Calibrating and Profiling Your Monitor
-Chuck Behrman

Professional photographer Chuck Behrman will demonstrate, in real time, how to get a print on paper that closely matches the image you see on your monitor. 

In this session, part 1, you will learn how to calibrate and profile your monitor. Chuck will cover Apple's built-in software as well as colorimeters and spectrophotometers as they apply to both CRT monitors and flat screen monitors. A CD covering all techniques will be available for purchase for a special show price.

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[Mac only]
Secrets of Getting from Your Printer What You See on Your Monitor - Part 2
Profiling Your Printer & How to Using Printer Profiles
-Chuck Behrman

Professional photographer Chuck Behrman will demonstrate, in real time, how to get a print on paper that closely matches the image you see on your monitor. 

In this session, part 2, you will learn how to make custom printer profiles for various papers using either your scanner or a spectrophotometer. You will also learn how to soft proof your images so you can reliably predict how your image will look when you print it. You will learn how to correctly apply printer profiles in your printing work flow.

Using a calibrated profiled work flow, you can easily get beautiful prints from your desktop printer or a photo lab..

Discussion will also include differences among several papers so you can choose the one that is closest to your vision of what how your print should look.

In the class, we will create an ICC profile for a fine art paper and create a print using that profile on an Epson 2200 pigment-based printer. A CD covering all techniques will be available for purchase for a special show price.

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[Mac/Win] Photoshop Tricks to Salvage Real Life Situations
-Michael Pliskin

We can't always wait for the ideal lighting and ideal situation in which to take a photo. Sometimes it's now or never, anything is better than losing the moment. You're there and the sun was out hours ago only to be gone now. But thanks to Photoshop, you can merge shots, etc. (Actual description in a few days.)

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[Mac/Win] How to Take "Professional" Photographs
-Michael Pliskin

You just bought a new, fully automatic state-of-the-art digital camera. Why don't your pictures look good? The camera has automatic exposure, automatic focus, and yet the results look like they were taken by an old, cheap camera. What can you do about it?

Professional photographer Michael Pliskin will teach you how to use your new camera to produce professional quality results. While all the functions of the camera can be automated to perfection, it can not compose the image for you or decide the right moment when to snap the shutter.

In this class you will learn: How to hold the camera properly for sharp, steady shots The secrets of composition to produce interesting results How to tell the whole story with one image When to use telephoto or wide angle zoom lenses When and how to use the built-in flash Why you get "red-eye' and how to avoid it The difference between "screen resolution" and "print resolution." How to get a great shot in a back-lit situation. Use of reflectors and fill-flash.

After this class you will be more confident with your photography and know that you, too, can produce great results with your automatic camera.

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[Mac/partial Windows] Automating everything
- Chrisian Boyce

Come to this seminar and learn how to turn your Mac into a hard-working robot. You'll learn how to use the semi-hidden features in many popular programs, including iPhoto, Safari, Mail, and Photoshop, to gets gobs of work done with minimal (or even no) effort. You'll be introduced to AppleScript and you'll learn how to use a Mac to automate your home. Mr. Boyce is an engaging presenter and you're sure to enjoy the show.

Note to Windows users: The Photoshop automation works on Windows as well.

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[Mac/Win] Effective Database Design
~Mark Hartman

Thinking of creating your own database? Planning to hire someone to build one for you? This class is the foundation to building effective databases that can grow along with your needs. Whether creating your own database or hiring a developer, you'll benefit from knowing how to plan your database's structure, avoiding the common database pitfalls. Mark has been developing custom database solutions for over 25 years. He's got plenty of insights to share with you. Don't get stuck when your database solution becomes more complex. Know how to build it right or hire wisely.

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[Mac/Win] Netiquette 101 — Essential Email Skills for business & personal correspondence
~Anita Cohen-Williams

These days email is often your first line of communication with others. Whether it's your opening introduction, part of ongoing work, or purely social — the impression you make in email is important. Send a business email that's not within the netiquette standard and you probably won't get the desired response. Post to a list without respect for netiquette and rather than making friends you'll alienate people. (And folks won't be so inclined to help you.) Email is not the printed letter and email does count.

For those who have how-do-I questions, Anita can help with Windows and Mac expert Eric Stein will be on hand to help Mac users.

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[Mac/Win] FileMaker Pro
~Debbie Cohen-Sitt

There's a reason FileMaker Pro is the most popular database for both business and home use on both Mac and Windows. It's easy to use, yet very powerful. In this session Debbie will take you through the steps or process of creating a basic database. You'll learn how to create various types of fields and create layouts in which to enter and read data, how to sort and find, to create scripts, and how to store and retrieve other types of data such as entire Word documents, images & even movie clips!

If you're never used FileMaker you should be able to follow along just fine as Debbie explains each step. If you've been using FileMaker but have not created your own database yet, you'll learn how to do so and you should be able to edit your existing database after this class, depending on how it was created and whether you have the necessary permission. If you've already started creating your own databases, you're likely to pick up some helpful tips as Debbie's entire business is dedicated to building FileMaker databases.

Note: We highly recommend you take Effective Database Design prior to this seminar as Debbie will not cover database planning.

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[Mac/Win] InDesign for Professional Page Layout
~Jonathan Levit

If you're new to page layout or thinking about migrating to Adobe InDesign, this seminar is right for you. Jonathan will cover the gamut of InDesign, from the interface to using InDesign to help make you a more efficient user and designer. If you are migrating from a program like QuarkXPress, you'll learn how the programs are similar - to make your move easy - and how the power of InDesign will take you to the next level as a page layout and production artist. You'll get a glimpse into the exciting features of InDesign CS and CS2 that make this program a boost to our production worfklow.

Jonathan is a member of Quark's training team and a founding member of Quark's evangelism team, bringing him a depth of experience in the world of page layout, which he brings to this presentation. You'll discover how and why he made the switch to Adobe InDesign and how he has been working with many companies to migrate them to this new tool.

And, if you have questions about Adobe InDesign or making the move to InDesign, this is a perfect opportunity to get some answers. This seminar with be informative, fun and enlightening.

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Quark Xpress 6 & 7
~Leith Speights

Quark's own Leith Speights will presenting how to get the more out Quark Xpress the Hidden features. For both 6.5 and 7.0. In this class you will learn the following.

Project work space the befits
Working with PSD import
Tables
Picture effects
Optimizing your Quark XPress document for Print
Crating better PDF'
How to use Fonts in OS
Transparency
Drop Shadow
Amd much more

[Mac/Win] Intro to Flash for Graphics Professionals
~ John Schuman

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[Mac/Win] 2D Character Animation Using Flash
~Mike Browne

Learn how to create and design a character, and ultimately output a Flash animation for both television and the internet. Partially technical, part artistic, the talk will range from sketchbook drawings to specifics about each medium. Lip-sync, music and digital photography will be introduced as well. You''ll be taken through the creation of a pre-drawn animated character as the entire process is discussed.

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[Mac/Win] Intro to QuickTime VR
~David Palermo & Tim Petros

QuickTime VR (QTVR) enables you to take digital photography to the next interactive step — making your digital images immersive, engaging, 3-dimensional and FUN!

This is an excellent way to show off your products or locations on the web, or on a CD.

Learn the basics of creating your own virtual tours and interactive objects from the pros. Dave has plenty of examples, demos, tips & tricks.

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[Mac/Win] How to create a professional quality VR tour (Whether you're a QTVR pro or not.)
~David Palermo & Tim Petros

Pictures say thousands of words and give people a good view of your hotel grounds, restaurant, etc — but a Virtual Reality "Tour" that lets people travel around your location, even moving from room to room say so much more. VR Tours are one of the hottest services out there these days. In this seminar you'll learn how to create a tour yourself.

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[Mac/Win] Word Processing Optimized — save time and money doing it right!
~Jeffrey Weston (Microsoft Office MacBU Test Engineer)

Word processing is an entirely different process than writing with a pen or typing — a different state of mind.
Understanding this is a key to unleashing your best written communication whether for business, personal, or creative writing.

• Do you think "I can do this on a typewriter or on paper faster!" If so, you're in for a treat when you learn the power of word processing!
• Did you ever create a document, then change the font size or pass it to someone else, or update your version of the software, only to find your beautiful creation fell apart? That doesn't have to happen! Using the knowledge you'll gain here that won't happen again.
• Do you ever feel you're not finding the right words? You will, when you're really word processing.

Computers let us type set, not just type-write. Learn how to use the ruler for tabs and indents, about styles, about page breaks, and more — and you'll save yourself a lot of time, hassle and frustration.

If you're a business owner, having your employees set up documents correctly will save your company time and money. If you're the person doing the writing, knowing this stuff will save you time and frustration.

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The Pros and Cons of iMovie, FCP Express, and Final Cut Pro
~James Alguire

Which video app is right for you? Come join certified trainer James Alguire for an examination of the strengths and weaknesses of each product to help you decide which way they want to go. James will talk about differences, showing and explaining as he goes, so you'll gain a good basic understanding of each app's interface and methods as well as learning about each app's abilities.

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