Lots of Macintosh User Group (MUG) activities are planned for this week’s Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco. And making its first Macworld San Francisco appearance will be the Final Cut Pro User Group Film Theater in booth 3740, which will run films contributed by various FCP User Groups and feature a Filmmaker Talk Series. What’s more, the Apple User Group Advisory Board will also be on hand, hosting user groups and educational content.
The Macintosh User Group (MUG) Lounge, located in Rooms 250 and 262, will host Mac luminaries for informal “fireside” chats. Scheduled guests include New York Times columnist and author David Pogue; Macworld contributing editor and author Chris Breen; Ted Landau, Macworld contributing editor and author; Shawn King, host of the Internet radio show Your Mac Life; Adam Engst, publisher of TidBITS; and more. There will also be a variety of sessions on the operation, benefits and resources offered by MUGs.
The MUG Booth (#2245), hosted by the North Coast Mac Users Group, will feature a rotating slate of user groups to help attendees learn what MUGs offer Mac users of every experience level. Featured MUGs will represent community, specialty, online, campus and Final Cut Pro user groups.
Participating user groups include the Apple Student Core at Emory, Boston College Macintosh Users Group, Boston Final Cut Pro User Group, Champions of the Mac Proletariat (CHOMP), Colorado State Macintosh Users Group, University of Colorado Macintosh Users Group, Digital Design Group, Diablo Valley Macintosh Users Group, Apple Users Group Gravenstein, Maui Apple User Society, Mac Chico Users Group, MUGSIE (Macintosh Users Group Serving the Inland Empire), QMUG/LA, San Gabriel Valley Mac Users Group, Santa Clarita Valley MUG, Serious Macintosh User Group, Sonoma Valley Computer Group, and Stanford/Palo Alto Macintosh User Group.
What’s more, volunteers from the Macintosh User Group community are once again providing guide services during Macworld Conference & Expo, including formal guided tours of the show floor each day starting at 2 p.m. At other times the guides will be available to personally assist individual attendees in locating specific exhibitors, products, services and resources. The guides will be located in the South Hall of the Moscone Center, near the Internet Cafe.
Sponsored by Canon, Focal Press, Think Stock, Peachpit Press and Focus Enhancements, the Final Cut Pro User Group Film Theater will allow attendees to mingle with members of the San Francisco Cutters, Los Angeles Final Cut Pro User Group, and others within the Final Cut Pro User Group network. The Boston Final Cut Pro User Group will host a program on filmmaking, short films and works created in Final Cut Pro.
In the theater, attendees can watch films contributed by the various user groups and meet with the filmmakers that created them through a Filmmaker Talk Series. Among the featured speakers will be Brian Meaney, product designer for film and video applications at Apple. A complete schedule of speakers will be available on-site as well as on the Macworld Conference & Expo site.
“Macworld Conference & Expo San Francisco 2003 is going to be the biggest and best yet for Macintosh User Group events and activities,” said Chuck Joiner, chairman of the Apple User Group Advisory Board and editor of The MUG Center, an online resource for MUGs. “From the opening of User Group University on Monday to the closing of the User Group Lounge at the final bell of the Expo, MUG members, leaders, and events are a vital current running throughout the show. Macworld Conference & Expo is the ideal setting for Macintosh users to connect with the MUG community, find out what they have to offer, make new friends and have more fun than ever before.”
Joiner will host the “Mega-Macintosh User Group Meeting” on Wednesday, January 8, at 6:00 p.m. in Gateway 102 in the Moscone Center’s South Hall, where MUG enthusiasts from around the globe will gather to present information on their groups. The session will include members of the Apple User Group Advisory Board and Apple Regional Liaison Team and the Campus Group Advisory Board leading discussions on all facets of the user group experience. Details on MUG events during Macworld are online.
MUGs are good places for making new friends, finding Mac-loving buddies, boning up your technical expertise, finding solutions to technical problems, and sometimes finding a good deal on used hardware. For more info on MUGs, and to find the location of the one nearest you, go to Apple’s User Group Web page.