We've two stellar presos lined up:

--------------

Flashify Drupal
Owen Brierley - Executive Director, Guru Digital Arts College
Drupal is a wickedly cool open-source content management system. Owen will walk through setting up a connection to Drupal and ingest the CMS based content into a Flash environment. It's tasty and fortified with geeky goodness.

--------------

(Insert intermission, socializing, networking, bingeing...)

--------------

Ten Essential Things We've Learned at gskinner.com
Maurice Leier - Junior Developer, gskinner.com
Oscar Hungsberg - Junior Developer, gskinner.com
Junior developers Oscar and Maurice give a quick introduction to the ten most essential Flash skills they've learned so far, covering AS3 best practices for beginners, and even the basics of Flex Builder 3.

--------------

Check out efug on Adobe Groups!
http://groups.adobe.com

Still hot out of the oven, Adobe Groups is live and running! Set up your profile and join the efug group at:
http://groups.adobe.com/groups/b37b274b9a/summary

Adobe has gone to great lengths to make an online presence for our community, so feel free to participate and contribute to our group space by using the discussion board, posting resources and job listings, populating the reference library etc. I plan on making this group page the main source for efug & Adobe User Group info over the next few weeks.

--------------

Mark the 24th in your calendar and get involved in Adobe Groups! Hope to see you there!

Randy is going to kick off the evening by doing a dry-run of his 360|MAX session he will be presenting in San Francisco in mid November.

----------

Randy Troppmann: www.randytroppmann.com
Using Yahoo! Maps AS3 API in Flex, and making money with Mapvertising

Early in 2008 Yahoo! released an AS3 version of their maps API. Randy will demonstrate how to quickly get up and running with the Yahoo! Maps in Flex. Randy will also demonstrate how you can add geographically relevant advertising (Mapvertising) to your mashup and start making money!

----------

After a short intermission for networking and socializing, Erik is going to take center stage:

----------

Erik Johnson: www.disruption.ca
Building Games in Flash for Free

Did you know the Flex SDK contains everything you need to build flash apps? Did you know that Adobe gives it away for free? You can even use it to build applications without writing any XML or MXML. Erik will talk about how to get started with mxmlc, and show a simple flash game built with the Flex SDK.

----------

I managed to get us free pool after the sessions if anyone is interested and also will be bringing a microphone to combat the ambient noise we've been battling at the Billiard Club. As per usual, we will be enjoying happy-hour drink prices, five-buck appetizers and swag giveaways to lucky attendees.

It is going to be an awesome evening, hope to see you there!

As per usual:
The Billiard Club
10505 82 Avenue NW
Second Floor of the Historic Post Office Building

Come get the skinny on 2 killer projects that have recently launched out of our local community:

------------------------

Christopher Caldwell: Caldwell Creative

Case Study: Cricothyrotomy
A look at the development process of an online surgical simulation.

This case study will take a brief look at the process, learning methodology, development, co-ordination, and resources required to create an e-learning application developed for the University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. This application contains multimodal instruction, illustrative support, audit trails, surgical activities and simulated procedural competencies required to augment existing medical training. This simulation is designed to provide third year medical students a safe way to become proficient at procedures that are not commonly encountered in a traditional teaching environment.

Check it out.

------------------------

Ryan Matsikas / Nick Johnston: gskinner.com

DIRECTV SUPERCAST SHOWCASE (Adobe / Blitz / DIRECTV / gskinner.com)

Are you a die-hard NFL football fan? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to watch live NFL games on your Macbook, or 30" cinema display? As a DIRECTV customer, you can gain access to real-time video (in both fullscreen and mini mode), near real-time highlights, and game stats in a clean UI.

From building custom animations using a combination of programmatic code (GTween/TweenLite) to using Flash & Flex assets deploying to both AIR and the web, the overall goal for this presentation is to discuss techniques used to embed assets and give a brief under-the-hood look at the app which uses the Pure MVC framework.

DIRECTV SUPERCAST

------------------------

As always we'll be enjoying five-buck appies, happy-hour drink prices and swag giveaways to lucky attendees.

Hope to see you there, invite your friends and colleagues!

Additionally, I'd like to extend an invitation to an industry event that is occurring in Edmonton (free of charge) on September 23rd, once at 9:00 am and then again at 10:20 am at:

Centre for Excellence in Print Media
NorQuest College
10135 109 Street, Edmonton, AB

------------------------

Paul Trani: Adobe Systems
Assets in Motion: Cross Media for Print Professionals

In the future, successful printers will need to adopt new business and growth strategies in order to prosper. Ways to connect more meaningfully with new and existing customers. In this session, Adobe will discuss the latest trends in communication and show how the tools available in the Adobe Creative Suite will enable you to put your assets in motion -- extending your print communications to the web, video and beyond

Paul Trani is a passionate and knowledgeable 15 year veteran of the interactive design and development scene as well as a respected speaker nation-wide on all things Adobe. Paul has spent many years as an Adobe Certified Instructor, courseware developer, and trainer. He is also an Adobe Community Expert who contributes weekly through numerous forums, blogs, and Adobe online and live seminars, reaching thousands annually. Using his degree in Illustration, a background in Motion Graphics Design and ability to write high level code, Paul has created first-class cross-media projects for diverse clientele such as Bacardi, Neutrogena, Adobe, Best Buy, Hallmark Channel, Qwest, Western Union, Lucent Technologies, IBM, and Sprint.

When Paul is not inspiring the community through online or live events, he can be found at Starz Entertainment where he is the Senior Designer leading a talented design department to create award-winning experiences across multiple media. Paul’s blog can be found at http://www.designupdate.com

------------------------

If you are planning on attending Paul's session, register here to get your free lunch:
Assets in Motion

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
The Billiard Club on Whyte (map and address in the left-hand sidebar)
7:00pm

Chief Architect & CEO of gskinner.com, Grant Skinner is going to shed some light on his design process and tools.

------------------------

Designing With Flash?

While much better known for laying down code than for laying out websites, I still love dabbling in interface design when I have an excuse. Lately, I've found myself doing almost all of my conceptual design in the Flash IDE, instead of Photoshop. This has very obvious workflow advantages, but I would also make the contentious argument that Flash is now a *better* tool for designing certain types of sites. I've even used Flash to design HTML sites, which I then rebuild in part with Photoshop - this is a complete reversal of my workflow from two years ago.

In this informal session, I will talk about the new features in Flash that have made it such a useful design tool, my design process, and some of the things I think make it a better tool for certain projects than Photoshop.

Designers may find this talk useful for their own process. Developers might find it useful to convince the designers in their lives to work in Flash - wouldn't that make the designer developer workflow so much more peaceful?

------------------------

After Grant's session, we will be having an informal open-podium portion of the evening. This is an opportunity for you to share with the local community a cool project you've been working on, a sweet Flash feature/tip you'd like to share or simply show a stellar use of Flash you've experienced recently. Contributions are limited to 5 minutes max, and will earn you a ballot of some of our larger prizes of the evening.

Don't forget that the Billiard club offers us happy-hour drink prices and five-dollar appetizers all night long — hope to see you there!

Monday, April 14th, 7:00pm
The Billiard Club on Whyte Ave
10505 82 Avenue NW
Second Floor of the Historic Post Office Building

As the 2008 Flash in the Can (FitC) Festival draws near, we've put together an evening you don't want to miss! Mark it down.

Flash superstar Grant Skinner has agreed to present his 2008 FitC session that he will be sharing in Toronto. This is a fantastic opportunity for you to enjoy a world-class session, free of charge, amidst five dollar appies and happy-hour drink prices. As always, we'll be swaggin' it up, and yes — even giving away a full commercial version on Adobe Creative Suite 3!

If you are able to make it out to Toronto, FitC has generated a discount code for all efug members to receive 10% off! Your discount code is: EFUG331

Here is the skinny on Grant's sess:

----------------------------------------

My Favourite Things

When the client bites,
When the run-time error stings,
When Flash makes me mad,
I simply revisit my favourite things,
And then I don't feel, so bad.

A fun trip through some of the code, concepts, and approaches that have particularly intrigued or interested Grant while doing visual experimentation in ActionScript. This session has a particular focus on visualizing important concepts in coding, and using unexpected approaches to tackle tough problems in interesting ways. No "girls in white dresses and blue satin sashes", but there will be virtual "snow-flakes that stay on my nose and eye-lashes".

----------------------------------------

More about FitC:

Break IT! Break your tools. Break your patterns. Break the norm. Break the standards at FITC Toronto: The Design + Technology Festival. FITC Toronto is the largest event of its kind in Canada and a highlight of the international conference circuit with over 1,000 attendees from more than 15 countries.

FITC Toronto is where the world’s top designers and developers come together to share their insights and expertise across three subject areas: creative, technical and business. Sessions cover all aspects of the creative process, explore the latest developments in rich media technology, and provide insight into the ups and downs of running an Interactive business.

This is the 7th year for the three-day festival, which also includes a kick-ass Awards show, a speakers’ series devoted to experimental art and programming, a large scale interactive art exhibit as well as some very cool parties.

FITC Toronto 2008
The Design + Technology Festival
April 19 - April 22, 2008,
Hilton Toronto, Canada

www.fitc.ca/toronto

----------------------------------------

Hope to see you there — bring your friends and colleagues!

Flex 3 is a feature-packed release, adding new UI components like the advanced datagrid and improved CSS capabilities; powerful tooling additions like refactoring; and extensive testing tools including memory and performance profiling, plus the addition of the automated testing framework to Flex Builder.

Adobe AIR is game-changing in so many ways, delivering rich applications on the desktop, enabling access to the local file system, system tray, notifications and much more. Now you can write RIAs on the desktop using the same skills that you've been already using to create great web apps including both Flex and AJAX.

Don't miss out on this opportunity to see and hear about this highly anticipated release of Flex 3 and AIR at this meeting. If you have been working in Flex or AIR, feel free to bring down your applications for a quick demo of what you have been developing.

Additionally, Adobe's Ted Patrick has put together a stellar promo for the release of Flex 3 & AIR, it is called "30onair". The project involves creating 30 second videos answering one of the following questions: Why Flash Player? Why AIR? Why Flash? Why Flex? Why ColdFusion? Why AJAX? Why JavaScript? Why ActionScript?

Rules:
1. 30 seconds of video (estimate)
2. Answer one of the questions above
3. Be creative.

You can talk about your favorite features, why you use these technologies, or just a guitar tribute to Adobe AIR! The best ones will be showcased on Adobe.com, community blogs, and http://www.30onair.com. For instance, check out our own local celebrity Randy Troppmann on the 30onair.com front page, and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9iopziDEug

Tonight I'll have a camera set up for you to shoot your own ~30 second clip, it would be great for us to send some casual, fun feedback to Adobe. Feel free to bring ideas and props!

Hope to see you there tonight!

February efug Extravaganza
7:00pm, The Billiard Club on Whyte
10505 82 Avenue NW
Tonight, February 25, 2008

---------------------

Join efug for this "can't miss" meeting!

Adobe's RIA technologies enable you to rapidly build and deploy the most engaging applications across browsers and on the desktop. Efug is hosting a special live event to share exciting new information on Adobe's platform tools and technologies for building RIAs. You'll see an exclusive user group video presentation by Adobe Chief Software Architect, Kevin Lynch, hear some important product news, plus get your hands on some exclusive schwag and other giveaways.

Be part of the fun and excitement and join the rest of the Adobe developer community by participating in this very special event.

Monday, February 25 @ 7:00
The Billiard Club
10505 82 Avenue NW
Second Floor of the Historic Post Office Building

---------------------

Come early to enjoy a beverage on Adobe's tab while supplies last!
Hope to see you there!

A big 'thank-you' goes out to Duane Nickull of Adobe for rocking into Edmonton in sub-zero temperatures to give his presentation. Congratulations to our iPod, Adobe Creative Suite and FlexBuilder 3 winners too!

I am just working out the details for our February gathering, which should be an equally epic event. Just a reminder that you can sign up for the newsletter and community forum on the left, or join our facebook group.

Thanks for your participation!

Flex and AIR Pre-release Tour with Adobe’s Duane Nickull

Flex 3 and AIR are getting close to launch and in preparation, Duane Nickull from the Adobe Flex/AIR product team is traveling to select cities to show off the great new features and help prepare us for this exciting launch.

Duane Nickull works as Senior Technology Evangelist for Adobe. He participates in many architectural and developer forums on various subjects including Web Services, SOA, Ontology and Computational Intelligence as well as writing frequent trade publications on Web 2.0. He is currently the chair of the OASIS SOA Reference Model TC and has worked on previous technology architectures for W3C (Web Services Architecture) and the United Nations. He is also in the process of writing a book on Web 2.0 for O'Reilly Media and Publishing.

Flex 3 is a feature-packed release, adding new UI components like the Advanced DataGrid and improved CSS capabilities; powerful tooling additions like refactoring; and extensive testing tools including memory and performance profiling, plus the addition of the automated testing framework to Flex Builder.

Adobe AIR is game-changing in so many ways, extending rich applications to the desktop, enabling access to the local file system, system tray, notifications and much more. Now you can write desktop applications using the same skills that you’ve been already using to create great web apps including both Flex and AJAX.

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to see and hear about this highly anticipated release of Flex 3 and AIR during this special pre-release tour. Plus, in addition to giving away some one of a kind Flex/AIR branded schwag, we will also be raffling off a copy of Flex Builder 3 Professional (pending availability) and a full commercial copy of CS3 Web Premium at this event!

Have a safe and relaxing holidays — hope to see you on January 31st!

To accompany our usual five-dollar appetizers, happy-hour drink prices and swag extravaganza, two of our local community experts have stepped up to share some of their recent work.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Using a Custom CellRenderer with an AS3 List Component
Randy Troppman
http://www.runningmap.com/

The new List user interface component in Flash CS3 is “the grenade.” That is to say, it is not quite “the bomb” but is an everyday workhorse version of “the bomb”.

Sometimes though, you just need change it up a little. Like perhaps grenades with yellow flowers painted on them? In this session Randy will demonstrate how he used a custom cellRenderer (and FileReference) to build a List based upload tool (AS3) and talk about the 'gotchya' he encountered.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Taking Control Away From the Player
Chris Caldwell
http://www.caldwellcreative.com/

From the perspective of a designer new to AS3, Chris will take a look at creating persistent sound using various MP3 player controls in a changing html framework.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

This may be your last chance to enter your name for the December Adobe CS3 Suite giveaway! Bring your friends and colleagues — hope to see you there!

There was a great turn-out from the local community, which is an accurate reflection of the welcoming, positive energy John takes everywhere he goes. Many thanks John! Truly world-class.

To learn more out PaperVision 3d and the future of 3D in Flash, check out John's blog, and the PV wiki.

This Monday, October 15th, 7:00 pm (MDT), at the Billiard Club on Whyte (map and address on the left), John Grden will be walking us through the smoldering hot technology that everyone is talking about…

Nobody lays it down better than John:

Papervision3D: Everybody Wants to Touch You!

Yeah, yeah, it's nice being able to make a cube in 3D space and all, but where's the pizazz?! It's not good enough that PV3D gives you real-time 3D and collada support - you gotta touch the stuff now?! Freakin' whiners. Fine.

We'll make interactive materials all night and throw down some casual gaming samples with an x-wing demo — 'cause, I don't do stuff without x-wing demos ;)

- John Grden

We're really lucky to have John volunteer for us in between his Adobe Max and Flash on the Beach sessions, so take advantage. If you're new to Papervision, check out the wiki.

Join us for happy-hour drink prices, five-buck appies n' swag in a super-casual environment where anyone is welcome. Bring your friends and colleagues — hope to see you there!

In one of the best presos we've enjoyed over the years, Michael walked us through his creative and technical process in creating a unique, 'worldly' experience where users navigate through a blend of photography, abstract pseudo-3D, and beautiful renderings of the University of Lethbridge Campus.

We wish Michael all the best in his new adventure and look forward to continuing to 'Connect' with him over the information superhighway.

An Update from the Sunny South

Join Michael Warf (formerly of Edmonton's devbox studio) for a remote update on his decision to relocate to a city 10% the size of Edmonton, and to work for a major educational institution! Aside from a personal update, Michael will be showcasing some creative work of planetary proportion that involves creative process, photography, technical Photoshop skills, and translation into a Flash UI.

Expect to enjoy the usual five-dollar appetizers, happy-hour drink prizes, and September swag aplenty.

Tell your friends and colleagues! Hope to see you there!

This Monday (August 20th: 7:00, Billiard Club), Grant will be wrapping up his presentation, touching on 25 more reasons that AS3 is arguably the largest step forward in the history of Flash. Grant is internationally renowned for his expertise and contributions to the Flash community - offering an evening you won't want to miss.

Following the break, we are going to have an open-podium portion of the evening. Volunteering to speak will earn you an entry for our major giveaway of the evening.

To earn your entry, you simply need to comment on one of the following, for no longer than five minutes:

- sweet feature in AS3, Flash CS3, AIR or Flex
- handy or awesome Flex / AIR application
- showcase a project you've completed or are working on
- show a stellar Flash site you've found and why it appeals to you

We will have a laptop & internet connection available to you, but come prepared if you need any additional files or resources.

Expect to enjoy the usual five-dollar appetizers, happy-hour drink prices, great socializing & networking.

Hope to see you there!