APCUG 2016 Conference

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Thank you to all of the Conference attendees, volunteers, presenters and sponsors. A special thank you goes to the Tech crew: Garry Sexton and Bill Champlin (Greater South Bay PC Users Group) and to John Kennedy (East-Central Ohio Technology Users Club) who took care of all of the Zoom webinar presentations.

There were attendees from: Arizona, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Texas, Utah and Virginia.

One of the great benefits of attending a conference is the chance to interact with individuals from other user groups and learn from each other. Click here to read attendee reviews of the conference.

Elliott Stern, the PC Maestro, kicked off the conference on Friday with his Windows 10 presentation. Pam Holland, President & Instructor, Tech-Moxie, was the next presenter with her Social Media for the Non-Tweeter webinar presentation via Zoom.

After a Meet and Greet dinner at the Feast Buffet on Friday, Saturday began with Ray Baxter’s (Payson Area Computer Association) presentation on Is there a meet-up type group in your club’s future? with input from Bill James (Computer Club of Oklahoma City) on how his group is using Meet-up to grow their membership.

Attendees then had their choice of three presentations: Bill James’ Best Android Apps, Jere Minich’s (Lake-Sumter Computer Society) Best iDevice Apps, and the Internet of Things presented by Judy Taylour (SCV Computer Club).

After a short break, Rod Scher, Former Smart Computing Editor, gave a webinar presentation on The Dark Side of Technology: Be Careful Out There! Gabe Goldberg  (Potomac Area Technology & Computer Society) also gave a presentation on iPad Purchase, Initial Experience, Evolution, Bonding – and iPhone. 

Technology from a Different Perspective by Bob Gosticha, Avast Evangelist, and John Kennedy’s presentation on Linux is Like Cars was followed by a delicious lunch.

There were three presentations after lunch: Genealogy Resources by Ms. Sam Richards and Walter Quering representing the Clark County Nevada Genealogical Society; the AARP Fraud Watch Network by Doug Crawford, an AARP volunteer; and GIMP by Dennis Rex, Southern California Linux Expo 2017 Public Relations committee.

Then there was an afternoon cookie and fresh fruit break. It seems like we were always eating!

After the cookie break, Hewie Poplock (Central Florida Computer Society / Sarasota Technology Users Group) gave a webinar presentation on Learning Resources for Seniors; Your Smartphone is Like a Swiss Army Knife was presented by Bill James; and Gene Barlow, User Group Relations, gave a presentation on the Best Back-up Approach.

There was one last presentation before dinner: Chris and Jim Guld, the Geeks on Tour, gave a webinar presentation on Your Lifetime of Photos effortlessly organized and easy to find using any device.

The dinner featured a Mexican buffet; attendees had the opportunity to eat a little, talk a little with the people staffing the Expo tables, eat some more, etc. The Expo had the following ‘booths’ where attendees could get help up-close-and-personal.

• Avast with Bob Gosticha – everyone went home with an Avast hat
• APCUG info / Everyone wins with the Wheel of Fortune!
• Carole Montgomery was selling the almost-last-chance-to-buy Raffle tickets
• Elliott Stern, the PC Maestro answered Windows 10 questions & more
• Gene and Linda Barlow visited with attendees and helped them with their purchases
• Jere Minich and Gabe Goldberg answered questions on iDevices; Jere also brought his Apple Watch 2
• Bill James was there to give help to Android users; he also brought his Cardboard, Android watch, and Chromebit for show ‘n tell
• John Kennedy talked with attendees about Linux
• Dennis Rex, SCALE, gave attendees personal attention on how to use GIMP

Sunday morning started with a continental breakfast, followed by two presentations: iPhone 7 + Apple Watch 2 by Jere Minich and E-mail Etiquette by Elliott Stern.

We all got together for the Annual Meeting chaired by David Steward, APCUG’s Secretary. Following the Annual Meeting, the Advisors reported on their regions and Judy Taylour went over the Benefits handout.

Next came the Contest awards (see Contest page). And, of course, lunch! There were door prize drawings after each meal – everyone went home with one or more prizes. The last event was the drawing for the Raffle prizes: Mitchel Chesney, GSBUG, won the telescope donated by Celestron, and the laptop bag with chill mat and wireless mouse; Ruth Porter won the laptop bag with speaker—she said her son would love it; Paula Gillette won the red cart with wheels that can she can use to take ‘stuff’ to the Bowling Green meeting. Everett Moore (Prescott Computer Society) won the Canon printer – something he said he could really use and, last, but not least, Earle Ford (Napa Valley PCUG) won the Amazon Echo.

    

 

There were so many compliments on the food – the chef put together outstanding meals and breaks. There was also high praise for the hotel staff in all areas.