Welcome

Welcome To The Southwest Technology & Computer Conference

June 27 - 29, 2014

Thursday, December 11, 2008

The Secret’s out

Special attractions

Every year the Southwest Conference team tries to showcase some of San Diego’s special attractions and this year will be no exception. The first two of these possible attractions would be on Thursday before the conference and the third would be on the Monday after the conference.

1. A chartered bus ride to a local gaming casino & shopping at the attached outlet mall
2. A trolley ride to tour Old Town and do some wine and / or olive oil tasting then enjoy a meal at a local restaurant.
3. Watch Monday Night Wrestling

Friday, December 05, 2008

Its a secret

Ever year we try to bring you something new and exciting. In the past we have brought you special guest speakers, keynotes from community leaders and special appearances from movers & shakers. This year should prove to be no different. Next week we are going to San Diego to organize a special group outing. I can not comment more until plans are finalized but I am sure you will enjoy the activity. Details to follow my return for San Diego. Jerry

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Southwest User Group Conference 08 Part 1



Southwest User Group Conference 08 Part 2



Southwest User Group Conference 08 Part 3


Saturday, September 27, 2008

Southwest 08 Vendor Information - Pinnacle Systems Unveils Webinar Series

Live, Interactive Webinars Focused on Ensuring High-quality Video Editing and Sharing Experiences for End Users

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., September 26, 2008 - Pinnacle Systems, Inc., a part of Avid Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: AVID), today announced a series of free Pinnacle Life webinars designed to help users optimize their video editing and sharing experiences with Pinnacle Studio™ version 12. The monthly series of webcasts will premiere September 30th with a webinar on how to master Pinnacle Montage, a unique theme-based Pinnacle Studio feature that can be used to edit movies with up to 181 video tracks in minutes.


Pinnacle Life Interactive Webinars http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/PinnacleLife/webinarintro
will be live streaming events that highlight the various innovative features included with Pinnacle Studio version 12 and how they make it easy to quickly create and share professional-looking videos. Specialists will be available during the webinars to help beginners and experienced users gain new skills that will make their video editing experience even more rewarding.

Each live webcast will be about one-hour long and will include a 15-minute real-time demo on the subject of the webinar. By using a live camera feed and screen sharing, rather than static slide presentations, Pinnacle Studio version 12 users will be able to see the various features and capabilities that are being demonstrated right on their own screen. Demonstrations will be followed by an interactive Q&A session with questions submitted prior to the webinar or during the live event.

For the Pinnacle Life Interactive Webinars http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/PinnacleLife/webinarintro,
attendees will be shown how to quickly create entertaining, multi-track videos. With the Pinnacle Montage, professional high-end effects and animation capabilities are available in automated templates that are easy-to-use. Photos and video clips can be combined and up to 181 tracks can be overlaid to enhance a video with titles, sounds, music, transitions and other effects-all without the time-consuming
and complex task of having to drill into the various video tracks. Future webinars include:

· Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Plug-ins-a webcast to show users how to optimize the highly acclaimed professional video tools included with Pinnacle Studio Ultimate version 12: Boris Graffiti for innovative title and graphic animation, Magic Bullet Looks for professional film styles and proDAD VitaScene for sophisticated effects and transitions with key frame control.

· Photo Editing and Slideshow Creation-a webcast that shows users how to remove red-eye; rotate and crop images; adjust lighting, brightness, contrast, to optimize the quality of their photos using the photo editing features available with Pinnacle Studio. Attendees will also learn how to animate their photos with pan-and-zoom to create engaging slideshows. In addition, this session will include information
on how to import photos. With Pinnacle Studio's expanded format support, users can now import photos in Photoshop's native PSD format and the GIF format.

Space is limited and pre-registration is required. Future webinars will be available in additional regions, including some countries in Europe.

Videos of the Pinnacle Studio webinars will also be available on-demand 48 hours after each event on the Pinnacle Life Page http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/PinnacleLife/
of the Pinnacle Systems website to enable users to view them at their convenience.

For tips, tricks and techniques on all Pinnacle solutions go to Pinnacle Life http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/PinnacleLife/.

Andy Marken
Marken Communications
3375 Scott Blvd. #108
Santa Clara, CA 95054
(408) 986-0100

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Heard from a 2008 attendee


Words of encouragement.

You along with all of your helpers have done a great job on the Southwest Computer Conference recently held in San Diego. It was the most enjoyable I have ever attended. Everything was wonderful. Each workshop I attended was quite interesting, informative and well presented. The meals were especially good this year and I was overwhelmed with the welcome bags and the prizes that we all received. I am looking forward to attending next year and have already told a bunch of people about what a great time I had. I'm sure some of them will attend next year.Thank you both for all the effort, time and work that you put into making it all happen.Be sure to count on me to help out in any way I am able in the days preceding the conference. It is so enjoyable to do so.

--Ann MartinSeniors Computer Group

Monday, September 22, 2008

SW2008 Vendor Information

Hi SW2008 attendees, here’s information about some of SW’s vendors.

SAVE THE DATE – May 29, 30 & 31, 2009

The contract has been signed and I am already receiving registrations. We’ll be at the Town and Country again with the same room rate - $119. Please check out the website for up-to-date information.


Computer Outlook Radio Show

One of John Iasiuolo’s co-hosts, Dave Ciccone of Mobility Today (www.MobilityToday.com) has started a petition to gather signatures in support of John’s show. He thinks that the show should be broadcast on one of the satellite stations and made available to those listeners. Many of us frequent listeners certainly agree with him.



With that in mind I ask for your help in making this happen…please sign the petition and maybe pass it on to your friends – business associates – club members and family – this would really be great for John and the computer community.



Here is the link: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/computeroutlook/signatures.html



John’s Roboform discount expires September 26 – hopefully you let your members know about the discount.



AiSquared

I talked at length at SW with the Ai Squared rep and their involvement with user groups. They weren’t sure that UGs was the way to go with their product. The presenter put me in contact with another person at AiS and during the summer we exchanged e-mails on AiS providing a discount for ZoomWare, review copies and a PIAB. Bayle from PC Community in Hayward and Jim from the Glendora Seniors Computer Club were kind enough to help with the PIAB by providing information they thought their groups would like to know about the product (they both attended the workshop and loved it) and some Q&As that could be included on the CD. A few weeks ago, AiS sent some SW attendees (don’t know why they didn’t send it to all) the discount offer as a trial run and I sent it out to the APCUG-member groups last week. AiS followed that up with a discount offer to all SW attendees with a different coupon code. Please let me know if you did not receive the offer. And, if you did, please forward it to your members. Bayle has scheduled the PIAB for her November meeting (hope it’s finished by then J. The review copy e-mail will be going to APCUG editors this week. Whenever SW gets a discount, etc., I always share it with the APCUG-member groups.

www.aisquared.com



LapWorks

Jose has almost completed his PIAB on laptop ergonomics. As soon as it’s available, I’ll let you know so you can schedule it for your group. I’ve seen a preview and it’s really going to be first class and quite informative. He’ll send along a script, product for raffle, brochures, and discount information. I’m telling my students that I think it’s OK for them to buy a laptop as long as they also buy a wireless keyboard and mouse plus a laptop desk and give them a handout I put together from Jose’s script – he’s offered them the discount, too. As far as I’m concerned, that’s the only way using a laptop as a primary computer is ergonomically correct. www.lapworks.net



Seniors Service America

Reminder! Help is available for PC refurbishing projects

Gabe Goldberg / ssa@gabegold.com

As most SWCC attendees heard at the conference, I'm helping a DC-area

organization that helps "civic engagement and employment opportunities

for adults over the age of 55 who wish to re-enter the workforce".



One initiative we're pursuing is helping these folks get and use computers. Money is available -- as seed funding for new projects, as grants to help existing projects ramp up, as awards for successful and valuable projects, etc. We're looking beyond simply providing computers, considering also supporting delivering and installing computers, providing training and ongoing support, helping with connectivity, etc., perhaps structuring a "computers on wheels" program modeled after Meals on Wheels, a successful and widespread support service for seniors.



At the conference, I collected contact information for many groups/projects/individuals and have followed up with these.



But several people took my card to contact me and haven't yet done so. If you have a refurbishing project or would like to start one and we didn't talk at the conference, please contact me. If we talked at the conference and you promised to get in touch after event, PLEASE do so.



Komputers4rKids

Do you want to involve your members in a win-win situation? Have Komputers4rKids come to your meeting with a truck to pick up your members’ and families & friends electronic equipment (advertise in your local newspaper). You benefit the organization and it can be a fund raiser for your group. Get in touch and let them know you attended SW. They picked up two trucks full of electronics from TUGNET and sent them a check. I just about cleaned out one side of my garage last Friday and took all the computer equipment to them in Long Beach (I didn’t get any $$ but sure like the looks of my garage). Marian Radcliffe and I attended Terry Currier’s meeting in Orange County, drove up to Long Beach and dropped off the stuff – the GrammyMobile was completely full!!

www.komputers4rkids.org



Symantec

Over 130 computer club members in the LA area will attend Norton Night tomorrow at Symantec’s Culver City building. We’ll be having dinner, presentations, a tour of one of their labs that hasn’t even had a press review yet, door prizes, raffles, etc. At SW, both Jerry Clarke and I talked (separately) with the Symantec rep. They realize their anti-virus reputation is not the best and think that computer clubs might be the way to get the word out about their new 2009 anti-virus product. Hopefully they will come up with a PIAB that we can show to our members. When I talked with the rep at SW, she thought they also might be putting on presentations – more about that later if it they want to go that route. Instead of that, they offered Norton Night, open to LA, Orange & Ventura county groups – within a reasonable driving distance of Culver City.



See you in San Diego next May,



Judy

Friday, September 12, 2008

Roxio Buzz 2 Lite

While looking for an easy way to create YouTube videos/slideshows i cam across a product from Roxio which fit the bill.
The product "Roxio Buzz2 Lite" is available for down load from >

The free version of Roxio Buzz Lite supports Windows Media Video, AVI, MPEG-1, QuickTime, and Divx.

A full version is available for $29.95 and supports Direct video Capture from DV camera or Webcam.

The slideshow video below was created and posted to YouTube with the program.






Saturday, August 30, 2008

2008 Conference YouTube Video

While "googling" Southwest Computer Conference, I cam across a nicely done YouTube video produced by Jack Koonan on location in San Diego.


Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Great Negotiations

We are all aware of constant rise in prices but due to some solid negotiations by our event planner we were able to keep this years conference pricing the same as last year. This goes for both the registration fees and the hotel room rate. Great Job Team.

Registration for the 2009 conference is now open just click here

Sunday, August 03, 2008

A Wail of a Tale

It all began at the 15th annual Southwest Computer Conference that was being held at the beautiful Town and Country resort in San Diego, California. As a long time volunteer I was busy helping run the conference when I was introduced to Robin Ziegler from Google. For a long time I have used the Google tool bar and search engine on my computers so I said hello and went about my business. During the Friday evening meal Robin was scheduled to demonstrate Google Earth. This was something I had played with in the past but after once looking at my house from the satellite view I was done. When the lights went down and he started his presentation I, and the rest of the audience, was amazed and awed. When his presentation was over I had an opportunity to talk with him further. He casually mentioned stopping by if I was ever in Mountain View. Little did he know a visit to Google had always been a dream of mine. I said thank you saying to myself I will have to follow up on this after the conference.



I waited a couple of weeks giving Robin time to recover from the conference but not so long as to let him forget the offered invitation. After several emails and checks of calendars, it was arranged for Judy “JT” Taylour, the conference chair, Judy Clarke, my wife, and I to visit the Google Campus. We were excited.

We quickly made airplane and car reservations by computer for the one day trip. We were scheduled to leave the Long Beach Airport at 7 am on a Thursday morning which meant we had to be at the Airport no later then 6 am. We would arrive in San Jose at 8 am giving us plenty of time to pick up the car and arrive at Google for our 10 am tour and lunch with Robin.

Thursday morning started with three excited people arriving at the Long Beach airport ahead of schedule and boy was that a good thing! Although we had confirmed reservations the kiosk computers were down and everyone in the airport had to visit one of the two service clerks at the Jet Blue window to confirm seating. This delayed everything. After seating confirmation we were given boarding passes and headed for security. Because the airport is remodeling security checks were backed up beyond belief. Once our flight was called for boarding we were moved to the head of the security line. Going through security I was chosen for the extra security pat down, I passed. We then boarded the plane just as they were about to close the doors. Once on and seated, we thought everything was good to go. It was not to be.

First the pilot explained the water on the plane had not passed health standards so be careful in the restrooms and of course there would be no coffee. Oh well, when we were on the plane and seated, in 54 minutes we would be in San Jose and could do breakfast. After ten or twelve minutes the pilot announced over the intercom that a jet was parked behind us and we could not leave until they moved it. Some thirty minutes later we are in the air. With all this behind us the rest of the day should be perfect. Not so.

We arrived at the Hertz desk to pick up the “mid-sized” car we ordered which turned out to be way too small for three people. After several minutes, a larger car and street maps in hand we headed out to US 101 north for our 15 minute drive. After forty minutes, traffic was terrible, we had arrived at the Google Campus. They refer to it as a campus because like many universities it is spread out over one square mile. Although Robin had sent us a map and asked us to meet him in the lobby, he omitted the building number he worked in. After driving around in circles we located a sign that said lobby this way. No one was around, but we found a note attached to a computer screen asking us to register and sign the NDA (nondisclosure agreement) which we all did. Our visitor badges were being automatically printed. Once they finished printing a young man entered, asked us for the name of the person we were to meet, then offered us free refreshments and to please be seated while he contacted Robin, our host for the day. After waiting almost an hour and just as we were about to give up Robin arrived. Apparently two things had happened; the first was our fault as we were in the wrong building. It seems every building has its own lobby and second, Robin was packing as his office was about to move to a new building that has just been renovated for the Google Earth staff and apparently his phone was in one of the packed boxes. It’s now ten o’clock and we are about to start our tour.

He started the tour by taking us to his office and showing us many, many neat features and fun things that could be done with Google Earth. Remember we all signed nondisclosure agreements. After about an hour or so we continued with a walking tour to several of the buildings. During this part of the tour we saw and heard about many of the free or subsided perks for employees.

The first thing we noticed was that all the parking structures and most of the buildings had solar panels on the roofs which not only supplements the electricity usage, but allows employees the ability to recharge their electric vehicles of which we saw many. Next we learned that the campus has twenty-one individual restaurants specializing in various cuisines and, of course, meals are free to all employees. Every building has at least one snack area filled with sandwiches, goodies, hot and cold drinks. The working environment seems very relaxed as noted by all the pool and other game tables. They have a gym, pool, laundry facility, a barber and dentist who work out of Mobil vans, a full time health office, day care and the list goes on.

Employees are encouraged to decorate their office, halls and buildings and each building takes on a theme and all items such as copiers, mail boxes, supply cabinets and the like take on this theme.

Google provides company buses that pick up employees from several park and ride spots through out the area. They also provide mini-buses for inner campus travel and of course there are bicycles everywhere. All the blue, one speed, balloon tired bikes with baskets are provided by Google. Need to get some place on campus - just pick a bike, ride to your location and leave it for others to use, if the bike has a problem just remove the seat and place it in the basket and soon a mysterious van pulls up, picks up the bike and the next day it is repaired and ready for use.

Five years ago the average age of the 5,000 world wide employees at Google was twenty-two and now with 10,000 employees the average age has risen to twenty-eight.

We were sorry to see our tour end as Robin had to get back to work. He had to finish packing as the entire Google earth department was moving two blocks down the road to a new building that had just been remodeled for them. He mentioned how sad he felt about the move because it was going to almost double his travel time to work each day because he lives three blocks away as it is now.

On the way back to the airport we managed to visit the both the Computer History Museum and the Intel Museum. The Computer History Museum was just exactly that - a history of computers and computing devices. What amazed me was that, between us and over time, we had used many pieces of the equipment. The Intel Museum on the other hand was a hands-on, touchy, feely interactive place. A great spot to get an understanding of how things work.

Upon returning to the airport, with time to spare, we were informed our flight back to Long Beach had been canceled and the next possible flight was two days later. This would not have been a problem except we all had plans for Friday and none of us brought a suitcase as this was only going to be a one day trip. After much running around we managed to get seats on a Southwest flight to LAX. Now we had to rush as Southwest was located in another terminal across the airport. After checking in, getting our boarding passes and going through security where, once again, I was chosen for an extra pat down, I guess I look the part, we were informed the plane’s arrival had been delayed. Once we boarded we learned that over half the flight was filled with people from the canceled Jet Blue flight and we all had to return to Long Beach as that’s where our cars were. The three of us shared a cab ride with another gentleman who offered to split the $75.00 cab fair with us. He was pleasantly surprised when we produced a travel voucher from Jet Blue to cover the ride.

You would think it ends here but not so. The cabbie had never seen a voucher before and wanted us to pay cash. After much hassle between the cabbie and the night shift Jet Blue manager and calls to the cab company, the cabbie accepted the voucher.

The three of us arrived at my house at 11 pm at which time, JT picked up her stuff and headed home to the Santa Clarita Valley where she arrived at 12:19 am.

Wow what a day! What an experience! Would I do it again? You bet!!

Monday, July 21, 2008

The Ink Has Dried

It's official the 16th annual Southwest Computer Conference will be held at the Town & Country Hotel in San Diego California on May 29, 30 and 31st of 2009.

Monday, July 07, 2008

Secrets

I cannot let the cat out of the bag at this time as we are still in the process of crossing the "I"s and dotting the "T"s. But I would not be a bit surprised if we were able to once again celebrate my birthday during the conference.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Rave Reviews

The 15th Annual Southwest Computer Conference ended with rave reviews. From the attendees we received comments like these "best conference ever", "workshops were top notch", "food and the proportions were great", "spent to much money at the Expo". From the sponsors we received comments like these "what a great time I had", "we really enjoyed the conference", and the best one yet "plan on coming back next year".

The 16th Annual Computer Conference is in the works. Contracts are being circulated and the fine print is being read.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

15 years and Counting

Facts from the close of the 15th annual conference. This conference had twice the number of special or keynote speakers then any other conference. As always the food was delicious and plentiful. Everyone commented that because the Saturday night cheer leader was so active surely she would be loosing weight, the fact is she gained 2 pounds. A special birthday was celebrated Friday night. I am sorry for those who missed the marathon runners party. A rowdy time was had by all who attended or heard the 3 am party.

Thursday, May 01, 2008

1,442 and Counting

The door prize count grows every day. Right now we have 1,442. Some will be put in welcome bags, a few will be offered for special drawings, in some cases everyone at a table will win and still we will have individual drawings. This means everyone goes home a winner.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

The Count Down Has Begun

With less then 60 days left untill the start of 15th Annual Southwest Conference both sponsors and attendees are signing up fast. Attendees have until May 1 to take advantage of the early bird discount special registration fee. Sponsors have untill May 12 to have door prizes and Welcome Bag goodies shipped. Both have until May 1 to register with the hotel in order to take advantage of the special discount rate. The hotel special rates are good from May 22 - June 6, for those wishing to vacation in San Diego for the Memorial Holiday weekend just before the conference.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Guess Who is Coming to Dinner

Follow the link to see who is coming to dinner. Dinner Link

Friday, February 22, 2008

Remember This?

"Is it live or is it ....."? If you know the answer click here to see our newest sponsor. If you don't now the answer click here.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

I Can Help

Every year during the registration process we are asked "Is there anything I can do to help". Because of the large number of requests to help we usually have more volunteers than jobs. This year is different. We need each and everyone one of you to volunteer for a very important project. Once the conference is over and you have returned home and are looking at your spoils we need you to register that software and send those thank you notes telling the sponsors you appreciated their support of the conference.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Something New

For those who arrive Friday after noon the conference has two special features for you. First from 3:30 - 4:30, Jim Perry from the Prescott Computer Society will give a workshop on the history of computers. Second from 4:45 - 5:45 we will have a special guest Keynote speaker. For more information on the keynote speaker visit http://theswcc.org/sponsors/keynote.htm.

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Annie Get Your Computer

I can do anything better than you. No you can't. Yes I can. For the answer to this age old question besure to visit the PC / MAC workshop.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

From the Water Cooler

We expect this year’s conference to be the best ever. Already we have more vendors signed up then we did at this same time last year and what really is exciting is that this is the first time at Southwest for many of them. Also the attendee registration is ahead of last year. I wonder if this has anything to do with the extended discounted room rates before and after the conference for those wishing to add some vacation time and sight seeing to their trip to San Diego.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Viva Las Vegas

Just returned from a week of touring CES in Las Vegas - WOW! We literally walked for miles visiting vendor booths and listing to product discussions. I saw a neat portable device leash that was invented by a nine year old, a 10,000 dollars USB flash drive that took an artist six months to hand paint with a brush the size of a human hair, a production model of a device to keep from loosing a child, robotics devices galore. Talked to a lot of nice people and made some valuable contacts. Glad we have a year to rest up before we do it again.