CompuServe Messages

Hi Kevin; The North American Autodesk Users Group has been working hard to incorporate multimedia into every aspect of itself; from the way we make presentations to the telecourses we offer. Kathy Clinton has been a great help too. It looks like we're offering 4 courses this coming semester… good stuff too. For info on how to join NAAUG, call the NAAUG center at Autodesk at 415-491-8480. Dues go up for people starting membership after Feb 1st, so make sure to do it (if you decide to) before then. <g> They accept all sorts of payment methods. You can even reach Toby (the guy at NAAUG central) here at CIS 75663,2071. /* And while were out here in the street talkin' 'bout things why dontcha explain the bennies. */ There's a lot of'em. Ted Boardman can elaborate since he's Multimedia SIG and they have their own list of bennies, but the main ones for NAAUG are direct access to Autodesk, it's programmers and sales teams on wishlist items for future implementation, access to them physically at the annual meeting, special interest groups with disciplinary focus at the annula meetings and roadshows (we travel to various cities each year to "bring Autodesk and NAAUG to your neighborhood), we support local user groups with all kinds of discounts and resources (like the Starter and maintenance Kit), and we provide modem programs over 5 major nets including this one (such as the telecourses, the newsletter exchange program) and such. In addition, there's the old standbys; the quarterly technical newsletter, the resource and utility disks, teeshirt, secret decoder ring… <g>. It's a good sized group, about 4500. /* P.S. Who or what is Toxic Frog? And where did the name come from? */ <taking NAAUG hat off for a moment> Mark McGraw, Greg Schutz and two new arrivals (don't know if they want me to post their names here yet) and me make up Toxic Frog Multimedia. We started offas a simple group of volunteers who decided to work together to do some neat work for a few large organizations that had no money but desperately needed animations and presentation graphics to get going. These included two public tv stations, a facilities management company, a hospital and three charity organizations. It was hobby-work, but all of us get into this stuff pretty seriously. Anyway, the short of it was that several companies that had money got wind of our work and asked (after seing it) if we could do work for them. Next thing you know, business was coming in from all over. We're a weird company. We walk into most offices in jeans and tie-dye, we aren't cocky but we have no wish to do work for jerks, and we don't play the corporate shuffle game. It's been a profitable hobby so far for something that started out as "fun". Last month we did the graphics for the annual NAAUG meeting, and our next project is for companies which have to make large presentations. They have discovered the power of animated slides. On the side, we've also done numerous training and setup sessions at 10+ companies, showing them how to make MM products profitable in the first two months. Very exciting work. The name; well… that's a quickie. I like frogs, they're my favorite creature. My world collapsed for a week after Jim Henson died. Mark wanted to call the group Toxic Slime. Greg thought the world Multimedia should be in there somewhere. We hadn't decided the final name, but one of our clients had heard about our choices so far, and in a goof told someone we were "Toxic Frog" or something… this 3rd party dude called and asked (when we picked up the phone) "hello, is this Toxic Frog?" I loved it. What an image. Not only that, but the name is hard to forget. I'd be standing in a group of ten, and people would be asking me about my nametag. It's weird, its curious, it's memorable. Our slogan "a dangerous leap in presentation graphics". Love it. 'Nuff about me. You're the only one I've ever explained this to. 🙂 /* You're whacked! */ So my wife keeps telling me. <g> -dave