Year-end Flash PDX User Group Meeting

December 8th, 2009

I’m pleased to announce that the final 2009 meeting will be held at Second Story next week Thursday, December 17th. Space is limited to the 50 people. Please RSVP on the Adobe Groups site: http://groups.adobe.com/posts/19f0ccb4a1.

Agenda:

  • Ignite presentation: How to get rich and be extra happy planning a programming project or, “Phillip’s process FWIW”, by Phillip Kerman
  • Show ‘n Tell: UG members can present projects from this year
  • Software raffle: Attendees will be eligible to win a software item from Adobe, valued up to $2100!

Location:

Second Story
714 N Fremont St.
Portland, OR 97227

*** Entrance to the meeting will be on the second floor, but not through the main Second Story doors. Look for signs indicating the meeting room. ***

Time/Date:

6:30pm - 9:00pm, Thursday, December 17th, 2009

A huge thank you to Thomas Wester and Second Story for being our host for this meeting.

Year-end meeting to be held the week of December 14 - 18

December 3rd, 2009

The final 2009 meeting of the Flash PDX user group will be held this week, at a location to be determined. We don’t have a confirmed speaker yet, and it may be an open show ‘n tell session with a sign up sheet. We will be raffling off Adobe software. The winner can choose from a wide range of Adobe software, including Creative Suite 4 bundles (not including Master Collection).

Next meeting: “Using FDT”

October 9th, 2009

David Knape, Jon MacDonald and Matt Gitchell will show how they use the FDT development environment in their daily work.

When: Thursday 10/15 11:30 - 1:00pm
Where: Second Story 714 N Fremont St #200

Pizza will be provided, seating is limitted to 25.

Please RSVP with shane@secondstory.com

PowerFlasher, the makers of FDT, have generously donated a copy of FDT Pure edition for a raffle, and will send discount codes to anyone who provides an e-mail address for the raffle.

(Don’t know what FDT is? In short, FDT is a professional code editor for ActionScript. More info on FDT at http://www.fdt.powerflasher.com. )

David Knape to present “Discovering MVC with the Bumpslide App Template”

June 24th, 2009

David Knape will be at Fashion Buddha Friday night to discuss his Bumpslide App Template. The app template is part of his open-source Bumpslide Library and will be used as a launchpad for discussion of the Model-View-Controller pattern for application development. The goal is a relaxed talk where we can discuss the basics of why and how to separate application state from view components while touching upon some more advanced topics including data binding and the command pattern. We’ll also talk about general coding best practices and how the app template relates to some of the other frameworks that are currently floating around the web including PureMVC, Cairngorm, Gaia, and this thing called Flex. Don’t be scared. There will be beer.

Location: Fashion Buddha studio
123 NW 2nd Ave. Suite 206, Portland, OR 97209
Date: Friday, June 26, 2009
Time: Doors open at 6:30pm. Talk begins at 7:00pm

Noah Brockman to present “Differentiating Opportunities from Ideas: Exploring the Foundations of a Solid Business Model”

April 3rd, 2009

I thought it would be nice to have a speaker that can address small business issues, as more and more of us venture into self-employment as our full-time gig. Noah is my business counselor under the State of Oregon Self-Employment Assistance (SEA) program, and was super-helpful with me getting an updated business plan together.

“Differentiating Opportunities from Ideas: Exploring the Foundations of a Solid Business Model”

Thinking of launching a business? Before you jump in with both feet, join us for a discussion about the key attributes of a successful business model.

Bio:

Noah Brockman is the principal at PointMan Consulting LLC, a Portland-based entrepreneur development firm that assists clients to grow their business through opportunity assessment, business coaching, and strategic business planning. Noah is also a part-time Business Advisor and instructor at the Portland Community College - Small Business Development Center (SBDC). As an SBDC Business Advisor, he guides entrepreneurs along their entrepreneurial journey and teaches classes on business planning, sales and market research. Noah holds a Masters degree in Business Administration with a focus in Entrepreneurial Business from the University of Portland and a Bachelor’s degree in English from Linfield College. His eclectic background encompasses time spent working in legislative and campaign politics; market research; international affairs; and national security policy.

Time/date:

Tuesday, April 21st
Portland State University - Extended Studies Building
Market Square
1515 SW 5th Avenue
Rm 1053 1050

6:30pm - 8:30pm

Watch the recording of the session here:

http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/p11715138

Note: The fan noise from the laptop is loud, but you can still make out most of what Noah is saying. All of the slides from his PowerPoint presentation are shown in the recording.

Show and Tell PDX - March 3rd at Substance

February 28th, 2009

Substance and Pinch, along with the Flash PDX User Group, invite you to an evening of show and tell. We know that you have been working diligently on the next big thing, so we want to give you the opportunity to brag about it a bit. So on Tuesday, March 3rd at 6:00 pm, at Substance, we will be hosting an event where you can come and share what you’ve been working on.

The Lineup so far…

Jason Sherwood - Choffy for everyone
Shaun Tinney of Substance - Adobe AIR Image creator
Scott Benish
- State of the Salmon
Gene Ehrbar of Anomaly Incorporated - An Introduction to SnappyCards
Vince LaVecchia of Instrument - Building Flash sites that don’t suck
Anselm Hook - Spinny Globe
Cinco Design - They haven’t told us yet, but promise to show some cool UI/UX stuff
Noel Franus of Sonic ID - Picasso meets the flow chart
Jason Glaspey - Mmmm. Bac’n
Rael Dornfest - Thinking about Twitter

Hot beverages provided by Choffy.
Cold beverages provided by Substance and Pinch. A design office.
Spinning vinyl by Brian Emery.

We plan on getting started around 6:00, with drinks and music, then begin the program at 7:00. The event will be held at Substance World Headquarters, 1551 SE Poplar Ave, Portland.

We’re looking forward to you joining us for an informative, enlightening and entertaining evening. If you’d like to attend, we’d appreciate your RSVP via Upcoming or Facebook.

Lee Brimelow to present “The New Flash Platform”

January 10th, 2009

A couple of weeks ago, Lee Brimelow emailed me to let me know he was coming to Portland in mid-January, and I asked him to present at a UG meeting. He graciously agreed to come give us a presentation on all that is new and cool in the Flash world:

“The New Flash Platform”

Join Lee Brimelow as he describes the recent changes and additions to the Flash Platform. New tools like Flash Catalyst along with major updates to Flash authoring, Flash Player, and Flex means a lot of new things to stay on top of. This informal session will allow you to get answers to your questions directly from Adobe. Two copies of CS4 Master Collection will be raffled off so don’t miss out! 

Lee Brimelow is a Platform Evangelist at Adobe focusing on the Flash, Flex, and AIR developer communities. 

http://www.theflashblog.com/
http://www.gotoandlearn.com/
and now… http://flashermag.com/

Location:

Thursday, Jan 15 - 6:30 pm to 8:30pm
Portland State University - Extended Studies Building
Market Square
1515 SW 5th Avenue
Rm 1053 

We do our best to make a nice recording of this presentation too. :)

The Connect recording can be viewed at:

http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/p14116582/

Meeting tonight: John Lindquist and PaperVision3D

December 9th, 2008

John Lindquist, creator of pv3d.org and software developer at Schematic, is presenting a remote session on PaperVision3D tonight at the Flash PDX User Group meeting. Join us at:

Portland State University - Extended Studies Building
Market Square
1515 SW 5th Avenue
Room 1050 1051

UPDATE: PSU will validate parking ($4 value) in the Market Square building. Entrance is on the north side of SW Market between SW 5th and SW 6th. If you park in this complex, you will need to walk outside (or use the stairs/elevator) to go to the ground level and use the entrance on SW 5th to access the elevators to the 10th floor. 

Time: 6:00pm to 8:00pm, Pacific time
Presentation starts at 6:30pm  

If you want to join the meeting remotely, go to:

http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/flashpdx

More about John, excerpted from O’Reilly’s site:

John Lindquist is currently a Software Developer for Schematic. John graduated from the University of Alaska Anchorage with a BA in English focusing on technical writing. He will also soon graduate from the University of Utah with a JD focusing on Intellectual Property. Before recently joining Schematic, John freelanced for five years mostly developing in-house Flex and php applications for the University of Utah. Last year, John gained a strong interest in the development of 3D Flash applications and runs a popular tutorial site, pv3d.org, to help newcomers enter the 3D fray. John also manages the Utah Flash User Group: uFlash.

Flash PDX now listed on the new Adobe Groups site!

November 20th, 2008

Ted Patrick wonderfully assisted me with getting our group listed on Adobe’s new groups.adobe.com site. Check out the Flash PDX listing:

http://groups.adobe.com/groups/1616505c1e/summary

If you attend (or plan to attend) meetings, please register on the site and add yourself to the Flash PDX group!

September meeting cancelled

September 8th, 2008

I’ll be away for most of this month on business trips and won’t be able to host a UG meeting this month. However, there will be a meeting in October. Thanks to all those who attended the last meeting!