|
by Rose Lynn, President
What a trip! It was just Charlie Carlon and me but we did enough, saw enough and did enough name dropping for a crowd. Charlie has his own review so I’ll share my side with you.
First day there I attended a meeting of the newly formed advisory board so that we could have some friendly conversation, lay some basic ground rules, see each other face to face for the first time, and enjoy chocolate bars provided by the Hershey MUG. Up until that point we had been communicating through e-mail
Immediately following the meeting, Charlie and I began our bus monitor job. We checked in a group of User Group members to board a bus headed for Apple headquarters in Cupertino for an Internet strategy gathering. We played a round of "stump the experts" and gave out prizes in the name of GCM to winners. It was a lot of fun and a "first time experience" for all on board. Following the meeting we were treated to a lovely reception and some enjoyed a shopping trip to the Apple Store. On the ride back to SF, we played some more games in between our bus driver’s informative tour info.
Second day we began with the Apple sponsored breakfast and the guest speaker was "The Woz". What a pleasure just to be in the same room with this genius. Charlie obtained two Delta "buddy passes," we put them in GCM mugs, wrapped ‘em in some pretty paper and viola -- we had door prizes at the UG breakfast from Gold Coast Mac! Quite impressive. Our Apple User Group leader (Diane Cohn) announced the recently revived Apple User Group Advisory Board (UGAB). There are 2000 registered User Groups in the US and Canada, and 8 members were announced. I am extremely honored to be one of the 8. The object of the board is to transfer ideas from Apple to the User Groups and to take ideas back to Apple from the User Groups. We will communicate via e-mail and hope to have information available to all user groups with regard to how they can most easily reach various members of the board. Following breakfast, we were escorted to the Key Note address by Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs. It was long but filled with lots of excitement. Following the Key Note it was on to the showroom floor: I would schmooze with the reps and to gather goodies for GCM and Charlie would take in all tech stuff. That night we managed an invitation to a very nice party sponsored by Dantz, the Retrospect folks.
Third day, we had breakfast with Adobe, enjoyed an exciting presentation and were all given a copy of the newest GoLive. We had a brown bag lunch and brainstorming session for people to share with the UGAB and I rushed off to "booth duty." I took a break to register GCM on the new mac.com e-mail. Our address is goldcoastmac@mac.com. E-mail sent to that address will be forwarded to me. If you are using OS9, you can get your own address. Instructions are listed in another article. Charlie went to a seminar and I went to dinner with Diane, her boss Debbie, and the members of the UGAB, and we were presented with beautiful gift.. We discussed how we can best serve you, how to be most accessible, our next face to face meeting will be at MWNY. Have no fear, the job entails much e-mail, chatting and probably some conference calls.
Fourth day, began with an entertaining breakfast with Macromedia. Company employees were there to share product information and offer technical assistance. We headed on to the showroom floor, then Charlie and I met for lunch, and I headed for a brief vacation with friends in San Diego. Charlie stayed another day and did some schmoozing and videos for your enjoyment.
This was my second Macworld and both have been filled with excitement and honors. I am driven by, and I thank you all for your ongoing encouragement.
January 2000
|
