ne
of the great benefits of APCUG is the annual
conference of User Group leaders in Las Vegas.
Another is the regional conferences. The regionals
give an opportunity to attend a conference similar
in scope to the APCUG conference, but much smaller
and close to home.
I attended the Midwest regional
[Mini Expo-IV] sponsored by the Chicago Computer
Society. The conference was held in a section of
Prairie State College in Chicago Heights.
Approximately 200 people attended, all of whom are
interested in computers and software, most of whom
are CCS members.
We
had a full day of vendor displays, seminars, lunch
and the finale of product give-aways. [There were 13
hours of presentations by 12 presenters, some given
simultaneously so attendees had to choose among
three groupings.
The sponsoring vendors were:
3D Album
AMD - integrated circuits
Blue Squirrel - WebWhacker, WebSeeker
Corel - WordPerfect, CorelDraw, CorelPaint
Executive Software - DisKeeper
H&M Software - StudioLine dgital photo software
Intervideo, digital video
Lowepro Bags & Cases
Nik Multimedia - cinema & photography
Micro Center Stores
Microsoft
Peach Pit Press
Photodex,- slide show & presentation software
Prentice Hall
O’Reilly Publishing
Que & Sams Publishing
Roxio - CD, DVD, & photo editing software
Sunbelt Software - spyware stoppers
Tech Smith - SnagIt screen capture
TriVista Digital Imaging Software
User Group Relations
Several of these vendors also had
booths at the conference. All the vendors provided
give-aways, so many that there were almost enough
for one or more per person, although the drawing was
by tickets given at entry, with additional ticket
chances for sale.
There were seminars provided by some
of the vendors as well as by several CCS members.
These were interesting and provided information we
needed. Web security was one session that everyone
today needs to learn more about. These sessions,
given by Dave Whittle, on malware detection and
removal were very helpful, with a checklist of how
to detect and remove, plus another on several
software tools to do these jobs.
Dave
Whittle
Several old friends were there,
familiar to those who attend the annual APCUG
conference. It was great to see again Dave Whittle:
Richard Katz and Matt McCann.
The World Famous McKatz Brothers
A conference of this magnitude
requires a lot of planning and help to bring it off
successfully, as this one did. Al Cheeks, CCS
President, was a delightful emcee and coordinator.
Our APCUG Regional Advisor, Bill James, was present
as well.
The lunch was satisfying, but not
fancy. Prairie State College has an amazing
facility. Their eating area held all of us in
comfortable surroundings.
Prize
Table
The meeting ended with two hundred
prizes distributed to lucky holders of winning
tickets. [The grand prize was a printer and $500
Canon digital camera.] The meeting organization,
program booklets, publicity material, hand-outs,
goody bag with T-shirts and vendor info, and
give-away drawing were all handled smoothly and
efficiently. It’s a pleasure to attend an event like
this and I look forward to next year’s.
For more info about CCS, see
www.ccs.org.
[Groups of pictures from the
conference will be displayed in coming issues of eHard-Copy.
—CS, Ed.]
