Washington, D.C. InDesign User Group

Meeting Notes Archive

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Ken Chaletzky, owner of Copy General and chapter representative of the Washington, D.C. InDesign® user group, was the mastermind of this incredibly well-executed event. He lined up seven sponsors: Adobe, Apple, Xerox, XMPie, MacMedics, EEI Communications, and his company, Copy General. In addition, he made this seminar fee-based to insure that only the serious ones would be in attendance.

This was a full-day seminar we started at 9:00 am and ended at 4:00 pm — with one hour and 15 minutes for lunch and two breaks of 20 minutes each. No sponsors had any speaking time, but all of them were extremely busy in the vendor area.

Chris Converse and Noha Edell showed every CS2 application, plus InCopy® CS2 and After Effects®. The Bridge and Version Cue® were the hub of our presentations, and they worked flawlessly. Chris finished his GoLive® presentation by sending an HTML file to his cell phone and an animated GIF to Noha’s cell phone, that the attendees were able to see through an iSight camera and iChat.

The audience was very receptive and very much alive — it felt like we were at a concert. At each break, we had over 20 to 30 people standing in line to ask questions and share their excitement about the applications. There were many sales and upgrade questions, which Dave Gasek handled beautifully.

Below are some of the comments; they do reflect the overall sentiment.

“Great kick-off to our CS2.”

“This has been a great seminar. Chris and Noha were excellent presenters, entertaining and informative. They shared some great information. I only wish I was more familiar with CS1 so I could have understood the differences more accurately and put the new knowledge to use immediately.”

“So much good stuff it can’t be covered in just one day. I want to go out and buy it all.”

“Great overview. Adobe is trying to take over the world.”

“Wonderful that you are so human! Love you guys.”

“I think this is a great way to let users know what to expect in the new updates and get excited. Enjoyed the presenters’ interaction.”

“Speakers were both well-spoken and humorous. The speakers’ individual personalities gave the seminar life.”

“Noha is always informative and amusing (even amazing). Chris is truly versatile and so very knowledgable about the entire Adobe suite and he communicates all of it to every level. Thanks.”

“Second workshop with Noha (Richmond last year) - Wonderful! Terrific! Chris too is very good. Impressive additions to already great software.”

“Everything was wonderful, especially the presenters’ humor! Sometimes these seminars can be technical and boring. This was energetic and lively.”

“Great seminar. Enjoyed interaction between presenters, especially Noha’s sense of humor. I like Adobe’s sales approach: educating consumers. The seminar is worthwhile and never reduced to a commercial for Adobe.”

“I was happy to see improvements in text formatting, editorial functions, and sharing options. Vanishing Point should be fun! Now if only you could buy out MS Word…”

“I find these events to be entertaining, informative, and inspiring — not necessarily in that order.”

“Glad to see this is going to be a completely worthwhile upgrade.”

“Noha is fabulous. Chris is hilarious. Love them both.”

“Wonderful presentation! I thought the 9:00 am to 4:00 pm demo would be overkill, but as the day progressed I found taking notes on all the new features to be a great challenge; each new feature seemed to trump the one before it! An outstanding suite of applications — that’s what we were witness to. No doubt, we will be upgrading our systems.”

“Adobe rocks! Great presentation — sure beats working! Chris rocks like the doctor on Stargate Atlantis… More time for Q&A.”

“I feel like such a nerd because it was all very exciting and interesting — I can’t wait for CS2!”

“Our interest is basic print design and editorial control. The InCopy was great to see. Being exposed to the other software was very valuable.”

“This was a great opportunity! I can’t wait to show my staff! After seeing After Effects, I am going to talk to my principal to see if we can afford it for next school year.”

“Amazing! It’s wonderful what these programs can do. I can't wait to start using the new features and improvements. Adobe is helping designers work faster — not sure if that's a good thing or bad thing, but definitely allows more time for creativity. Noha and Chris are excellent presenters.”

“With this release Adobe has made the price of the upgrade meet the value of the new features.”

“Some very valuable upgrades/changes have been made that will allow me to move easily into the InDesign arena more fluidly. I’m glad the seminar was made available to me, and I'll benefit greatly from your product revisions.”

“CS2 kicks ass!”

“Noha is a very engaging speaker — I would listen to her read a grocery list. The fact that she is presenting useful data makes the seminar even more worthwhile. Chris is very knowledgeable and delivers the goods in language the layman can understand. They make a great team.”

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