FlashPitt 08
Design. Develop. Art. Flash.
On The Fridge LLC & Pittsburgh Adobe Flash Users Group

Date: Friday, October 10, 2008
Time: 9:00am – 6:00pm
Location: Sheraton Station Square Hotel
300W Station Square Drive, Pittsburgh, PA

New Media conference announced for Pittsburgh

Another push for Pittsburgh’s new media and web technologies market: a conference that will bring some of the big names in the national Flash community to the “Steel City” in October.

PITTSBURGH, PA [April 15, 2008] On the Fridge LLC and the Pittsburgh Adobe Flash Users Group (PittMFUG) announce the first Flash-centric New Media conference for the Pittsburgh area. Flashpitt 2008 will take place on October 10th 2008 at the Sheraton Station Square in Pittsburgh. National industry leaders will be present to educate, inspire, and engage the region’s New Media community.

Flashpitt 2008 is for the Pittsburgh region’s designers, artists, students, and developers working with Flash, Flex and AIR. Two tracks of sessions will run from 9am until 6pm. The day will be finished off with an after party full of fun and networking opportunities.

Visit flashpitt.com to sign up for the event notifications mailing list and to be notified when tickets for the event go on sale.

PodCamp Pittsburgh is a FREE community UnConference, run by and for people who create, enjoy or are interested in learning more about:

• blogs
• vlogs (video podcasts)
• audio podcasts
• web video
• social and content networks
• new media monetization
• more!

PodCamp Pittsburgh 3 will take place on October 18 and 19, 2008, with a meet-and-greet the evening of October 17.

WHEN: October 18 and 19, 9am to 4pm each day
WHERE: Art Institute of Pittsburgh, 420 Boulevard of the Allies, Pittsburgh, PA 15219 (map/directions)
COST: free! 

Register on the website

http://www.podcamppittsburgh.com/

Hi everyone! I’m happy to announce the next Refresh Pittsburgh meet-up is scheduled for Wednesday, July 16th at 7:00pm. This month’s meeting will be downtown at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.

Did you catch that? Let’s make sure you read that again: This month’s meeting is at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh - no Treehouse this month!

AIP is located downtown at 420 Boulevard of the Allies. We’ll be in room 440. Take the gold elevator up to the fourth floor. Take your first right and the room will be a few doors down on the left. There may be a security guy at the door - if there is just let him know you are there for the Refresh Pittsburgh meetup.

A HUGE thank-you goes out to our friend Norm Huelsman for offering to host a Refresh meeting at AIP.

Presentations

We have a really cool lineup for this month’s meeting. Here is what you can expect:

Nathan Swartz of clicknathan and is one of those freelance web designer-types living and breathing in Pittsburgh, PA. When not indenting <p> tags or cursing IE6, he likes long walks through the city with his son and wife or enjoying summer afternoons at the Harris Grill in Shadyside. On Wednesday night, Nathan will be sharing some of the lesson’s he’s learned from being a full-time freelancer in “How to Work from Your Underwear: Some Freelancing Tips for Web Designers“. You can find out more about Nathan at his blog or a recent feature on freelance switch.

Jonathan Brodsky graduated from Carnegie Mellon in 2005 with a degree in design. He now spends his days working on web development, and nights as a musician and artist. Jon will be showing tools for programmers to improvise live music and visuals using text editors and code as their instruments. This practice, generally referred to as “livecoding”, is about exposing the audience to the mechanics of a computer based performance. He’ll also give a demo of a livecoding tool that he is developing in javascript and openGL. Read more about Jon at his website.

Finally, Geoff Barnes is currently the Senior Information Architect at Elliance, Inc., a Pittsburgh-based e-marketing agency. From 2005-2007, Geoff was the UI Engineer for Collaborative Fusion, a Pittsburgh-based consultancy to state and federal emergency management authorities. Geoff has a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from the University of Oregon. In 1999, Geoff co-founded San Francisco web firm Trendmedia, Inc., and came to Pittsburgh in 2001 to help create the Media Arts BFA at Robert Morris University, where he served as a full-time faculty member until 2005.

Geoff will present “What Purpose IA?”. What is the purpose of a marketing website? While marketing websites are more application-inclusive than ever, the fundamental marketing task of persuasion is still the purpose nexus of any marketing-driven website. The site’s IA needs to go beyond content organization, and embody the persuasive goals driving the project. The difference between creating systematic order and creating a systematically ordered, compelling argument is often the difference between a me-too site and a persuasion machine. Learn how to protect your client’s marketing objectives with purpose-driven discovery and IA.

Please RSVP!!

We think we have a great lineup for the next meeting and we’re really looking forward to it.

As usual, please RSVP to info@refreshpittsburgh.org so that we have a good idea of our headcount. I’ll make sure to bring the usual cookies and coffee too.

Social Networking. Instant mobile communications. Unprecedented worldwide information accessibility and organization. Massive political outreach. These are today’s internet.

In this session we’ll explore, in an interactive setting, how the internet is affecting our lives and our businesses at an ever-increasing pace and in an ever-increasing number of ways. We’ll examine how businesses are embracing the new outreach opportunities the internet is providing, and where they’re failing. We’ll discuss how communities are utilizing the internet to fight crime, and how one company is taking on the world.

About the Speaker: Robert Faletti is a Principal at Blue Archer, a Pittsburgh-based application and website development group.

Mr. Faletti has over 12 years of management, consulting, and entrepreneurial experience. Prior to Blue Archer, Robert founded two successful ventures and spent two years with Arthur Andersen where he participated in building the national practice for E-Commerce Strategy.

Mr. Faletti is Past President of ACG Pittsburgh, President of BNI of Western Pennsylvania’s Circle of Excellence chapter, and regularly speaks regarding internet strategy, marketing and website development. Robert is an active volunteer, a Duquesne University graduate, and currently resides in Gibsonia with his wife and two daughters.

Sponsored by: The Council on Realizing Excellence in Management (CoREM). www.CoREM.org

Date: Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Time: 4:00-6:00 PM (Discussion) 6:00 – 6:45 PM (social time and snacks)
Location: Conference Center, Forbes Road Career & Technology Center, 607 Beatty Road, Monroeville
Cost: Free
Event Information Contact: Brien Palmer, CoREM Director of Publicity, at 724-733-5007
To Register, Contact: Brien Palmer, bpalmer@interlinkbusiness.com

When: Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Refreshments and Networking: 6:30-7:00 PM
Presentation and Discussion: 7:00 - 8:30 PM
Post-event Mingle: 8:30 PM onwards

RSVP:
Please let us know you’re coming: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pXQ-v5NgcfQnvYmkxLZzReQ&email=true
 

Thanks,

Michele Marut

IXDA Local Ambassador for Pittsburgh  

Questions?
Direct inquiries about this event to Dana Pruszynski at Fit Associates, dana@fitassociates.com

We look forward to meeting and sharing ideas with you soon! 

AIGA + Adobe Workshops 2008
Monday, June 30, 2008
Sewall Center, Robert Morris University Moon Township Campus

Our summer AIGA + Adobe workshop returns with three workshops designed to help you work more effectively with Adobe CS3. The morning workshop “Unlocking Cross-Media Workflows” demonstrates time- and cost-effective ways to use CS3 to your advantage whether you design for print, web, video, or mobile content.

Then choose between two afternoon workshops: “Web Design using Photoshop CS3 and Dreamweaver CS3″ or “Flash CS3 Professional Workshop” focused on moving your design from Photoshop CS3 to Dreamweaver CS3 and taking files from rough comp to fully functional flash movies.

You can choose to attend the morning and afternoon sessions together or just attend one. Registration is first come first serve, with free admission for AIGA members. Non-members pay $35 and student non-members pay $25.

For more information, contact Doris Short at designshort@comcast.net

Date: April 24 2008

Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

About This Event

Date: Thursday, April 24 2008

Time: 6:30 PM Refreshments & Networking

7:00 PM Presentations

8:00 PM Optional trip to the Walnut Grill in Shadyside for drinks

Place: Daedalus Excel’s Offices, 4914 Baum Blvd, 15213

Map: http://www.daed.com/contact_maps.tt2

RSVP: An RSVP is not required, but it helps us to have an idea of the head count for the venue. Please send RSVPs to mmarut15 at gmail.com

Local IXDA members will be giving brief presentations on a timely IXD topic for the purpose of engaging the group in a discussion.

Sofia Mirza, MDes ‘07, Communication & Information Design, will present her Visualization Toolkit: Tools for Visualizing Qualitative Information for Understanding

Peter Bird, MDes ‘08, Communication & Information Design, will present his ongoing thesis work on Designing for Travel: An Analysis of Public Transportation System Information Aids

Don Charlton from Wall-to-Wall Studios will present his Lessons for Interface Designers
:A series of quick, easily-digestable ideas

William Bernstein from Daedalus Excel will present a case study on the Development of an Interface for Home Dialysis

With the Easter holiday arriving a bit early this year, it’s resulting in scheduling the next Refresh Pittsburgh meeting one week later than usual. Our next meeting will at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, April 1st at the Creative Treehouse in Bellevue.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008 | 6:30 pm
MAYA / General Dynamics | Viz
2730 Sidney Street, South Side Works

Please join AIGA Pittsburgh and the Western Pennsylvania chapter of IDSA for an evening with Tucker Viemeister.

Viemeister is best known for his work at some of the world’s more innovative design firms. He co-founded Smart Design with Davin Stowell in 1985, where the team designed the acclaimed OXO Good Grips universal kitchen tools. In 1997, he teamed up with Hartmut Esslinger of frog design to launch frog’s New York studio, working on branding, packaging, and industrial design for clients such as Motorola and Unilever. And from 1999 to 2001, Viemeister headed Razorfish’s R&D group, working on design projects for corporate giants Nike, Procter & Gamble, and Vodafone.

Now as LAB Chief at Rockwell Group - a cross-disciplinary architecture and design firm - he spreads his creativity on projects for clients like Coca-Cola, JetBlue, Viking, Gap, McDonald’s, and Sheraton.

http://rockwellgroup.com/

FREE for AIGA and IDSA members
Non-members: $5