APCUG 2015 Las Vegas Conference

2015 INTERNATIONAL COMPUTER &
DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE

September 25, 26 & 27, 2015
Palace Station Hotel & Casino
Las Vegas

Thank you to all of the 2015 International Technology & Computer conference attendees, volunteers, presenters and sponsors. Another big thank you to Bob Vance, conference chair, and his committee.

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.

Abby Stokes, author of Is This Thing On? kicked off the conference with a talk about Social Networking: What the Heck are Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram? Abby’s presentations are geared toward both ends of the digital divide; she always has new content to share with her audience. Visit Abby’s website at: www.askabbystokes.com

Attendees then had the opportunity to choose to attend: Security is Everybody’s Business by Bob Gostischa, Avast Evangelist; Genealogy by Sandy Jackson from the Las Vegas FamilySearch library; or How Technology Has Changed the Way We Listen to Music by Ray Baxter, President, Payson Area Computer Association & APCUG Treasurer.

After the break the choices were: Care and Maintenance of Your Tablet & Mobile Device Screens, by Christopher Cooper, CEO, Cooper-Product; How I Save Hours Per Day Keeping up With Technology by Hewie Poplock, APCUG Vice President; or Conquering Annoyances and Tips on Using Word 2013 presented by Lee Laughner, member of the Computer Club of Green Valley.

The lunch presentation was by Barbara Duckett, from the Social Security Administration. Her presentation covered What’s New with Social Security as well as their online services. There were many interesting questions from the audience; she was available at the Vendor Show for attendees to sign up for their my Social Security account. https://ftp.ssa.gov/myaccount

After lunch (the beef stroganoff was outstanding), Gene Barlow, User Group Relations, gave a presentation on Selecting the Best Backup Approach; Sunny Easawaran from the conference co-host club Sun City Anthem Computer Club, gave a presentation on managing user group activities using Google Docs; and Judy Taylour’s presentation covered How’s Your Group Doing? Let’s Talk.

Sunday featured presentations by Orv Beach, Linux SCALE Training Chair, on Linux – Winning Pretty Much Everything; Getting Creative with Your Computer by Terri Begas, President, Sun City Anthem Computer Club; and Utilities 4 Computers & Smartphones by David Williams, APCUG Director.

After the break, Terri Begas gave a presentation on Adobe Creative Cloud 2015 and Bob Gostischa talked about You’ve Got a New PC – Now What?

The lunch buffet was great, the Annual Meeting informative, and the giveaways plentiful – everyone took home at least one prize.

Manny Pacheco was scheduled to give a presentation on Self-Publishing but had airplane trouble and didn’t land until his presentation should have started. After he arrived, he set up his table in the foyer and talked with many people who also had the opportunity to buy one of his Forgotten Hollywood books. Elliott Stern, PC Maestro, gave a presentation on Perfecting Your Computer Backup: The art of backing up; and How to Beta Test was presented by Kathy Jacobs, member, Los Angeles Computer Society.

After the break, the last three presentations were: Intermediate iPad by Jere Minich, Program Chair, Lake-Sumter Computer Society & APCUG Advisor for Region 5. Avram Grossman, President and CTO, E-Novative, Inc. gave a presentation on A Brief Time in the History of Technology Or, “don’t blink: the technology you understand today may change.” Another choice was the hands-on demo of Windows 10 by Bruce Jacobs, member, Los Angeles Computer Society and Bill James, VP, Computer Club of Oklahoma City.

Carey Holzman, was the closing keynote speaker talking about many topics relative to technology. Visit Carey’s YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/user/CareyHolzman

If you would like to see pictures taken at the conference, Hewie Poplock has uploaded his to flickr:
https://flic.kr/s/aHskhyJhpN

Carey Holzman interviewed Abby Stokes at the conference; see the interview at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLppIbe_JbI