We are very happy to be bringing Big Spaceship‘s Jamie Kosoy to Pittsburgh for the first PittMFUG workshop: No Flash? No Problem: How to build an experience for all users (human or otherwise).

If you’ve been wondering how bring Flash and Web Standards together or what approach to take for the iPhone and iPad, this workshop is for you!

Here’s the full story:

No Flash? No Problem: How to build an experience for all users (human or otherwise)
A workshop with Jamie Kosoy
Saturday July 31st, 9:30am to 1:00pm
There’s a long list of common complaints about the use of Flash, but many of the criticisms just aren’t true. Detractors say that Flash isn’t search engine friendly; Screen readers can’t understand Flash content; You can’t deeplink to specific pages…

You know what? They’re wrong. These criticisms are symptoms of misunderstanding by developers on the ways different technologies work together.

This workshop will show you how to take a higher level approach focusing on user experience. We’ll break down each common critique of Flash, one at a time, and show you how to address them in your work. Attendees will learn how to use HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, XML and Flash to compliment each other in creating the most meaningful experience to the widest audience range.

The goal is to feel comfortable making decisions about when and how to use Flash appropriately and to gracefully degrade immersive experiences for Flash disabled devices (like iPhones and iPads).

Check out the full workshop description and ticket information

We’ve teamed up with Refresh Pittsburgh and On the Fridge, LLC to make this possible. And a big thanks goes out to Smith Brothers for letting us use their space.

Just a quick reminder that there will not be a PittMFUG meeting this week. Our June meeting is cancelled but we will be back in July. We’ll post here and email everyone with the meeting details and the new meeting location.

Go out and enjoy the (hopefully) awesome June weather. We’ll see you in July!

Just a quick reminder post that there will be no October PittMFUG meeting due to Flashpitt. Flashpitt is taking place on the same day our meeting would have been, and it’s a whole lot more content and fun than we could ever fit into a PittMFUG meeting.

As you might have heard at our recent meetings, Flashpitt 09 is coming up in just a few weeks.  We’re really excited to be involved in bringing a conference like this to our city again this year.  Some of the folks doing sessions include Jer Thorp, Odopod, Seb Lee-Delisle, Dan Mall, Stacey Mulcahy and more.  It’s a great chance to take a break from the daily grind to learn and be inspired. It’s not often we have this kind of representation of the international Flash community in town!

If you want to catch all these great speakers and meet the folks behind the Flash blogs you read,  attend the conference portion of Flashpitt.  But get your tickets now.  Early Bird Conference Tickets are only around until September 13th. Don’t forget to check the most recent PittMFUG newsletter for a discount code, too.

We know a lot of you have been looking for some Action Script training around Pittsburgh, so we should point out that Flashpitt is also offering a full day’s worth of Action Script training  the day before the conference.   Whether you’re totally new to Action Script or are looking to make the transition to AS 3.0, the The Beginner and Intermediate Action Script 3.0 workshops will get you there.   Taking both workshops will run you less than $200, so it’s a very affordable chance to upgrade your skills.

Flashpitt 2009
Workshops – Thursday October 15th
Conference – Friday October 16th
Flashpitt.com

It’s true.  We have a new site.  Of course, if you’re reading this, you already know that.  With the management changes we thought it was a good time to finally migrate to wordpress and make some changes to the site.  Things are still in progress,  but we’ll have everything up and running soon.

We’ve been slacking on updates during this transition and we apologize for that.  Now that we’re back to having just one site — and one that’s MUCH easier to update — we’ll be back on track with regular updates. In fact, details for our September meeting will be posted in just a day or so.

Visionary PittMFUG members, Joe Kromer and Val Head, had a great article written about them in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. The article mentions their involvement with the PittMFUG as well as information surrounding the countdown to FlashPitt 08. Go read the article when you get the chance!

Local New Media players to host conference
Saturday, September 27, 2008

The first 10 people who answer the skill testing question “What does FITC stand for?” get a free ticket to FITC Chicago, June 22 – 23 at the Doubletree Hotel Chicago (formerly the Chicago City Centre Hotel).

Deadline to enter is Thursday, June 19 at midnight!

To enter, go to http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pBk-8Hvbj8g-tQLuXWg_Gaw&email=true

Winners will hear back by end of day Friday, via e-mail.

For complete event details, go to http://www.fitc.ca/chicago.

One of our new members, Brendon Gonzalez, won 2nd Place at the 8th Annual West Liberty Flash Festival for his submission in the Professional Website category. Brendon’s piece, “Standpoint“, is a flash based website featuring a fictitious band designed to present a clean content layout, cool transitions, and a mp3 player. The entire solution was created with AS 3.0.

Brendon received a cash prize of $50 and spoke in front of a packed house about his project. Currently Brendon is an 8th quarter student at PTI and will be graduating this Summer.

Total Training contacted us with this offer for UG members. If you’ve been wanting to check out any of their training offerings, now might be a good time to do it.

If you’re not familiar, Total Training provides video software training for Adobe.

If you visit this site: http://www.totaltraining.com/adobe7,
you will have a 7 day FREE all-access Adobe Essentials pass, as well as a 15% off coupon if you are interested in any of their products.

Recently, Adobe sent the PittMFUG Managers a sweet metal lunchbox full of goodies! Its funny how excited two grown men can get over something as simple as a metal lunchbox. Inside was a plethora of goodies… A Wi-Fi Locator Keychain, energy drinks, Pop Rocks, a T-shirt, cord wrapper and a sweet collection of stickers! The stickers are my favorite. You have probably seen a rowing trend of these little square stickers gracing laptops in your local user group or at conferences. The lunchbox also had a CD in it full of Integrated Workflow demos.
This is a definite pickup for us and a great way to help present new content to our UG members. I thought I’d share some pictures with you guys.

Thanks Adobe!