Live Xara Conference

[gwpriester]

because I am currently swinging into action to prepare for my 4 sessions I will be presenting in Boston next month at Rick Altman's CorelWorld Conference. Each year, Rick manages to get between 300-400 persons to shell out around $500 plus travel expenses and hotel reservations, to attend the conference.

Xara indicated some interest in participating but questioned if there would be enough interest.

At the moment, there appears to be more interest than the kind that acrues on investments (money).

Jay, before i/us was gobbled up by EyeWire and then spit out into the trash heap, Chris Dickman had mentioned some kid of software whereby people could log on to a conference and see a live demonstration with voice over, the whole thing, in real time, including the option to submit questions. Have you ever heard of that?

And (to everybody) if such a thing was possible, would there be any interest, and money, to fund such an event?

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<A HREF="http://home.earthlink.net/~garypriester" TARGET=_blank>
he tub mob relieves</A>

[Ross Macintosh]

Jens - Your offer is incredibly generous. Nice to see you trust us not to steal your stuff [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

The online chat idea doesn't work for me. After all these years I'm a one to two finger typist and I just can't keep up with a real-time textual conversation. (I *should* learn how to type - for the most, in my day job, I don't have to know but it would be a useful skill).

I also don't think I'd find the kind of web-based event Gary is talking about anywhere as interesting as a in-person gathering.

Budget considerations are real. For many of us Xara is really a hobby - and at that, it is a relatively inexpensive one. Whilst it would be fun, in the financial end it is really a question of priorities. No doubt, the less financial commitment necessary to participate - the more who will. Does anyone have ideas how to do it low-budget. Perhaps we have a xara camp and sleep in tents! I don't know but I hope others have some creative ideas.

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[jclements]

I like Jen's ideas as well. I can paint the house, mow the lawn, babysit, shop, house-sit, and draw a little.

[Ross Macintosh]

Our friend Dmagician (Roman) noted in Bill's thread about helping starving artists that:

"I can organise quality conference in Nitra/Slovakia. Comfortable yet affordable accomodation and nourishment, very proffesional projection, auditorium, anything. And I'm sure it could cost less than 500$ per head if even only 20 people came. The half of anyones richness lies in his businness and personal contacts. In this I'm quite rich even when I'm so young. Why? Because I did hompeges for the right people in the local area, Info Bureau, Travel&Accomodaion agency. Projection renting company."

That is an interesting idea - and perhaps even more romantic than going to London. I know forum participant Neil (the egg cartoon guy) has been to Slovakia not too long ago. Perhaps he can give us a report on his observations. Anyways, the increased costs of airfares for most of us might well be offset by lower ground costs. Something to think about ...

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[Bob C.]

Gary,

Every year in the summer Amiga Inc. hold a major show in July. For the past few years a users group has provided live Audio and Video of that conference Free of charge. The Video image was updated every 30 sec this year but last year it was every 15 sec. and this was done on a shoe string budget (free to any Amiga fanatic that wanted to join in) One could ask questions via IRC and also ICQ.

This was all accomplished on a 56k modem at their end. I’m guessing if you charged between 25-50$ US (just a guess here on the amount) it could be done with streaming video and many more Xarians would (could) join in.

The UGN web page is still up (http://ugn.amiga.org/ ) but not active, it will give you a flavor of the process. It was a thrill for me to be virtually present to this event even though the on screen “talent� was an Amiga UGN geek that was skilled at getting it to
work but had no gift as an MC at all ( in fact it was painful to hear some of his comments sometimes) But it worked very well! Below is a quote from the web page and I’m sure you could contact someone to follow up if interest warrants it.

Bob C.

Taken from the UGN Amiga web page:
Welcome to the UGN live audio, webcam and ICQ from the AmiWest 2001! We could not have made this possible with the help of Amiga Inc, AmiWest, NovaDesign and AudioLabs. The planned start time of the webcast will begin Friday July 27th at 7:00 PM PST (GMT -7) and will end on Sunday July 29th at 5 PM PST. Please remember that the 7 PM PST start time is dependant on getting all the equipment setup. The Friday broadcast will be the Keynote speach by Bill McEwen which is scheduled to start at 8:00 PM PST.

[Klaus Nordby]

Tad: "Klaus Nordby travels the world and has lunch with "elect" Xarans. One becomes "elect" based on capital contributions."

NOW you're talking! Count me in. Please note that I only fly First Class.


K

[Klaus Nordby]

Jens already has a standing invitation to visit me in my house in Sweden. He was thinking of coming this August, but some biz stuff made it impossible. What a shame - I was looking forward, as I have a LOT of lawn to mowe!

Ross, consider yourself invited, too! Hmm, who else is Worthy to meet MOI? Not many, I fear . . .


K

[jens g.r. benthien]

John,

I knew you would do that! But you will be lucky: our house doesn't need to be painted, the lawn is mowed when you arrive, the birds are fed, everything is in excellent condition ;-} But you got the idea. House-sitting? Wow, that'll be absolutely fantastic if we would have someone to care for the birds for 3 or 4 days or more... great chance for us for a small escape ;-}

Ross, even if you are a slow typist, give it a try. You can type at your own speed and hit the submit button when you are finished - there is no pressure at all, no stress, no panic involved.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Jens - Your offer is incredibly generous. Nice to see you trust us not to steal your stuff <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Rest assured - everything is secure & protected. Not like in the hotels where they screw pictures to the walls, but the machines, networks, gateways, routers etc are protected.

Generous offer? No, that's pretty normal because I've experienced it for years. It's an incredible experience to meet someone face to face after months or years in chat or corresponding via e-mail. And it offers unlimited opportunities for the benefit of every participant. Just imagine you would visit our area - knowing only what's in the tourist guides. Everybody knows his local area, art museums and exhibitions, has a car to visit other places near by, and the hosts will be perfect guides for visitors - much better than any book.

The so called international student exchanges are based on the same principle: visit me, visit you. You could plan a trip through Europe with no 'ground costs', and I could plan a US trip as well. I think that's what it really makes this 'network' appealing.

Bob,

great idea!

Gary,

the web conference is quite expensive - I've seen a company where you can 'rent' time slots for conferences like the one you've mentioned -> www.webex.com

jens

jens g.r. benthien
designer
http://jens.highspeedweb.net

[Ross Macintosh]

Since posting Roman's suggestion of Slovakia as a possible site a few hours ago I've been thinking.

Another possibility is to host it here in beautiful Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is geographically quite central relative to Europe and the rest of North America. It has an international airport, good weather, good scenery, nice people, good facilities, etc. Also given the depressed Canadian Dollar other currencies get favorable exchange rates that will make goods and services seem rediculously inexpensive to Americans and Europeans.

Here in Nova Scotia we have xara fanatics Neil Fisher, David King and myself - and although I haven't asked for their support yet I'm sure we could make certain all visitors have a great time. Nova Scotia is unique. We can eat Lobster and talk xara!

To me the value of a get-together isn't to just see some demonstrations/presentations. Rather it is the social aspect - getting to strengthen friendships. Heck I want to organize a pub crawl, a deep sea fishing excursion, etc. From such activities we will strengthen our xara community. Of course there can be some form of internet-base participation allowing those who can't make it to have some participation nevertheless.

Also I would really hope whatever location gets picked we have the participation of Xara Ltd. It would really be great to get to know Kate, Mark, Thomas, etc. - And no doubt about it they could learn lots from us.

My head is swimming in ideas ...

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[stlewis]

Oh, so he's really Santa Klaus?

I would like to come - particularly if it was in London or the 'Home Counties' ie including Xara Mansions. But I would need to squeeze money out of The London House before I could find the cash.

However I'm within earshot of trains to London, so could offer a bed! Didn't tell her downstairs though...

www.thelondonhouse.co.uk