Rochester InDesign User Group

Meeting Notes Archive

Monday, April 24, 2006

The InDesign® user group has arrived in Rochester!
Rochester Institute of Technology (R•I•T) hosted the inaugural meeting of the Rochester InDesign user group on Monday, April 24. Sixty-five members attended, and were thrilled to listen to our three expert presenters. This first meeting was a great start; we will be growing in the coming months. Please mark your calendars for our next meeting, July 10, 2006. We will meet again at RIT, but this time at the Webb Auditorium, just one building away from our previous meeting. This is a much larger space, so invite all your friends. Details to come early next week, but we're listening — there will be plenty of “tips and tricks.”

Prior to the meeting, Adobe treated us to plenty of pizza and soda. All attendees had the opportunity to network, share thoughts and ideas, and meet peer creative professionals from the upstate region.

Frank Romano's career has spanned over 40 years in the printing and publishing industries. Many know him as the editor of the International Paper Pocket Pal, or have read one of the hundreds of articles he has written. He is the author of over 44 books, including the 10,000-term Encyclopedia of Graphic Communications (with Richard Romano), the standard reference in the field. He has been quoted in many newspapers and publications, as well as on TV and radio. He is one of the foremost keynote speakers. He continues to teach courses at RIT and other universities, and works with students on unique research projects.

Professor Romano started the night off with a recap of past revolutions in the printing industry, and then shared forecasts and projections for the future, and how InDesign fits into the future of print and other communications media. As always, Professor Romano's presentation was both entertaining and educational. Some participant comments on Professor Romano's presentation include:

“Frank Romano was a perfect choice for the first meeting.”

“Frank was his entertaining maestro self as always.”

“Frank Romano was great.”

At the break there was time for more networking and more pizza.

Mark T. Harter, Systems Coordinator for Wegmans Advertising, spoke during the second half of the meeting. Mark holds a BAS Graphic Design from SUNY Empire State, and has been with Wegmans for the past 17 years. He shared the process Wegmans followed to its their creative departments to InDesign. He included the metrics he used in the decision-making process, and then recounted the actual steps taken to test and install the application, along with the associated training required. Some comments on Mr. Harter‘s presentation include:

“The Wegmans presentation was great with the real-world comparison.”

“Mark was very informative.”

“Mark gave everyone a very thorough and well-thought-out process to follow for their own testing and migration.”

The presentations were wrapped up with some very useful tips and tricks, presented by Noha Edell, Adobe Business Development Manager. She thrilled attendees with brand-new tips on the application, including placement of multipage PDFs as artwork in InDesign, a tip that drew resounding applause from the audience. Attendee comments on Noha's presentation:

“LOVED the InDesign tips and tricks.”

“Tips and tricks by Noha was useful info — great humor.”

“I’d love to see Noha again; wish there had been more time.”

The evening wrapped up with a raffle of items contributed by various partners. Happy winners took home Adobe T-shirts, assorted InDesign books, an InDesign Total Training DVD, and an InDesign CS2 package. Other goodies were contributed by a number of our partners. Mac-Ave by Jessi Group brought bottled water with $5.00 coupons on store items for all, provided technical assistance, and helped us reach out to local professionals to boost attendance. Rochester Software Associates brought mousepads for all and provided T-shirts that served as an incentive during the Q&A session.

Feedback from the group on this first meeting was very positive. Our next meeting is scheduled for July 10, more info to come. There has been a general call from the group for more tips and tricks. We plan to have this topic as an ongoing part of our meetings in an effort to keep the group up to date on the most effective means of using InDesign. Please don't hesitate to forward your thoughts on topics or your desire to present at upcoming meetings.

I would like to thank our partners for providing the means to our continued success with these events:

Mac-Ave by Jessi Group
www.mac-ave.com or www.jessigroup.com

Rochester Software Associates
www.rocsoft.com

Total Training
www.totaltraining.com

Adobe Systems
www.adobe.com

Adobe Press
www.adobepress.com

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