Florida Creatives

CoLab Orlando Coworking Open House

ryanprice — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:20:10 -0700

Start: 08/27/2008 - 18:00

End: 08/27/2008 - 19:00

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

Cow-orking and collaboration for Central Florida's tech/creative community.

CoLab Orlando is the home for those wanting to have a home in downtown Orlando while collaborating in an environment built for innovation.

John Hussey, the owner of the historic Angebuilt Hotel building on Orange Avenue in downtown Orlando, has converted office space on the sixth floor of his building into a coworking spot.

Don't miss CoLab Orlando's open house August 27th at 6PM. There will be appetiers and beverages provided by Finn Henry's (the Irish pub downstairs), as well as a raffle for CowOrking space. But the main purpose of the open house is to get feedback and direction from the community on what they want out of CoLab.

CoLab is located at 37 N. Orange Ave - 6th Floor
Orlando, FL 32801

Please RSVP and send any questions/requests to info [at] colaborlando.com

Coworking

CoLab Orlando Open House: The Afterglow

ryanprice — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:45:34 -0700

Etan Horowitz of the Orlando Sentinel's weekly tech column, was at last night's CoLab Open House. Here's what he had to say.

Orlando Sentinel - A recap of the CoLab Orlando open house

Below is a video of Hussey, and Greg Pollack, a local web developer and one of the CoLab organizers, speaking about the space at last night's open house.

Pricing to rent a desk in the CoLab space ranges from $225 a month for a six-month membership to $300 a month for a month to month membership. There are also entire suites adjacent to the CoLab space which are available for rent. Several people asked about rates to rent a desk for a day or a couple days a week. Day rates are a staple of other coworking spots like Independents Hall in Philadelphia and they contribute to the laid back atmosphere. Although no day rates were listed on the pricing sheet handed out [...] Hussey said he is open to it if that's what the community wants.

"This is like a restaurant, Hussey said. "We just want to get it open. Then we can work everything out."

John Hussey, the owner fo the building, promised us that Tuesdays will be free until the end of the year, in honor of the Coworking Tuesdays we've been holding at Stardust for the last 6 months. Right now the only amenities are the space and the internet connection. Lots of folks asked about print/copy/fax, and John himself mentioned having some seminars by lawyers (whose offices are in the building) about whether to set up an S-Corp vs. and LLC and other such legal advice for small tech companies, and possibly hooking up a small business loan program with the folks from Seaside Bank.

One thing that seems to be missing right now is administrative help. A big hurdle in the way of having day rates is the lack of a door man or woman to regulate who is allowed in. If said door guard were someone who was using the space anyway, that could work out well. If the space had to support an administrative person's salary, it would probably have to be larger or charge higher rates.

There is also a concept of a few community leaders acting as advisers for the space, namely, David Rogers, Gregg Plloack, and myself (Ryan Price). I'm sure this will all take better shape in the next month, and particularly in the first 3 to 6 months that CoLab is open. Until then, the concrete answers, traditions and culture of the space will be in transition, so just relax and keep your eyes open and your ears pricked for news and updates.

Orlando

100 Ideas!

Smeets — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:48:30 -0700

Brain Noise Studios Presents - 100 Ideas!

1. Draw a picture with your eyes closed.

2. Take a roll of tape and stick the pieces to a canvas until you have finished off the roll. Paint every piece a different color.

3. Paint or draw over old, discarded magazines.

4. Draw a picture with rigid, immovable strokes.

5. Draw a picture with loose, swift strokes.

6. With markers or pencil, draw the most beautiful thing you can think of with only 12 lines.

7. Take an old comic book, one you don't like and have no idea why you still have it, and cut out the panels and rearrange them to make your own comic. Then paste them onto Bristol Board.

8. Go outside with markers in hand and write/draw a comic book for someone on a wall. leave space for someone else to come along and add to the comic book.

9. Buy an electric eraser.

10. Make a sculpture out of household items, i.e. cooking pot, a fork, a blanket, a CD. Then take a picture of it.

11. Go out and start drawing with sidewalk chalk.

12. Get a hot glue gun and start assembling something out of stuff around the house or yard.

13. Make posters or handmade stickers and put them up somewhere for strangers to see.

14. Make wheatpaste (also look up recipe instructions) for sticking posters onto walls and other structures (also wheatpasting is safe for environment).

15. Make stencils which you can do from photos, magazine clippings, printouts, your own drawings then you can use that stencil on clothes, canvas, walls, etc.

16. Just visiting galleries and museums can inspire art making and creative ideas also.

17. Always have something to draw ideas on all the time with you (great ideas could come out of anywhere).

18. Use napkins when out at restaurants or coffee houses to draw on when you have forgotten something to write and draw on.

19. Have friends scribble on a page and turn it into something. Make it a game.

20. Stare at the bumps on the ceiling, or the tile on the floor or the texture in a towel and pull images and shapes out of them.

21. When out and about use your imagination to morph everyday things into monsters, food, psychedelic shapes and then draw them.

22. Draw in a car on a bumpy road... it's frustrating but you learn to use it in your favor.

23. Work yourself into a frenzy by dancing to strange music and moving about and then sit down

and illustrate the craziness you feel.

24. Juxtapose as many strange objects on one page as you can.

25. Draw something without doing any pre-prep or sketches. Start in a corner and fill the page.

26. Go out in a public setting and take pictures based on a theme i.e. space, subjectivity, the color red.

27. Paint on rocks then give them a personality and a name.

28. Save your pencil shavings in a small container. Dip a paintbrush in it and use it as shading/wash on your artwork.

29. Get dressed up in a Halloween costume in the middle of summer.

30. Take a long exposure in a dark room with a digital camera. Use a flashlight and paint the room with your light while the shutter is still open.

31. Take screen shots from computer games and use them as reference.

32. Search the internet for jokes and/or quotes - draw out the most interesting ones.

33. Draw an architectural blueprint of your dream home. Do you have a four car garage? Twelve bedrooms? The danger room from x-men?

34. Draw a robot and then write out in detail the purpose and function of every wire, chip, circuit board, piece of metal, etc.

35. Listen to the music of Beethoven or Mozart or any music with no lyrics. Try to paint a picture of what you are listening to.

36. Write out the ingredients for a cake, given that the cake has a bizarre theme, then draw it out. For example, what would a raw sewage cake look like?

37. Design a movie cover to sequels that have never been made.

38. Take 20 minutes out of your day to look up famous artists on the internet. You'd be surprised how much art is on the web.

39. Buy some mannequin heads that they use for clothing stores. Paint your favorite super-heroes face on them.

40. Find an abandoned tire outside. It shouldn't be too hard to find one. Take out the aluminum wheel well and paint it. The wheel well can be used to frame paintings.

41. Use sponges, leaves, moss, twigs, feathers, and such to paint creative textures in your work.

42. Take some of your old baseball cards and make your own cards out of them. All you would need to do is illustrate some designs, print out the new design on some thin cardstock, and then paste it to the original card.

43. Use tea bags for color washes. For instance a cranberry tea would produce a red wash. Experiment with green teas, chai teas, cranberry teas, blueberry teas, and other teas to get different colors. If you develop your own film, use teas in the developing process to produce various colors.

44. Re-design the famous Mona Lisa.

45. Create a mini comic book based off of a song.

46. Try all the styles of art (impressionism, abstract, realism, cartoon, etc) at least once.

47. Paint a picture based off of a purely random word. To randomize it, have someone you know pick a letter, then have somebody else you know pick a word from that letter.

48. Draw the same picture several times. Give each picture a different style.

49. Create a new species of insect from pipe cleaners and random household objects.

50. Paint a picture with no prior influences or ideas for that picture - just start painting. let your mind be silent and see what you can create from your heart.

51. Paint/Draw in a single color, using various shades of that color.

52. Redo a famous painting as a line drawing.

53. Redo a famous line drawing as a painting.

54. Pick a photograph, be it from a magazine, or off the net, or whatever, and write a brief story about what is happening.

55. Draw the same exact thing every day for a week. Put it away for about a month or so. Redraw it from memory.

56. Make a single line drawing (draw a picture with out ever lifting your pen/pencil from the paper.)

57. Get a group of 5 or more people. Each person writes a single sentence on a piece of paper. Pass the papers to the right. Read the sentence and write the next one to create the story. Fold the paper so that only your sentence is visible. Pass it to the right again. Continue until everyone has written on each page.

58. Take a photo or picture of someone and draw it upside down. When reversed, see if it comes close to the original.

59. Collect soda/beers caps. Glue onto a board or canvas, then spray paint white. Paint a portrait on your new canvas.

60. Using old dolls, strip off their hair and lashes and recreate a new one. The more demonic, the better.

61. Take a black and white photo of your pet and color it in with different patterns and crazy colors.

62. Recreate a famous painting using family photos.

63. Do a self portrait using pointillism.

64. Using markers, draw out your dreams.

65. As with surrealism, paint objects that shouldn't normally go together. for instance, paint a massive rose sitting in the living room.

66. As with impressionism, paint a landscape with quick colorful strokes.

67. Try to illustrate or write what a chicken is thinking.

68. Paint characters on wine corks. come up with a storyline with those characters and then take pictures of them. collect the pictures to be printed in a book.

69. Draw the same scene from a bird's eye view, straight on, and a worm's eye view.

70. Make a flip-book.

71. Have yourself & your friends think of things for you to draw or paint. Write them on slips of paper. Put them in a jar. Randomly draw one each day and do what it says.

72. Design your name into a Logo.

73. Paint using different body parts. Hold the brush between your toes, in your teeth, etc.

74. Paint on canvas and before it dries, sprits it with a water bottle to make the colors run.

75. Create a mosaic. Experiment with different tiles and stones.

75. Make a 3d pointillism project using pompoms or beads. Glue into place.

76. Write a poem about your favorite cartoon.

77. Draw a picture based on a popular song.

78. Make macaroni art like you did when you were a kid.

79. Create artwork totally blind. Close your eyes or work in a complete dark room.

80. Make a diorama based on a room of your house.

81. Draw/paint a picture of a room in your house in an underwater setting. Give it a surreal aspect.

82. Sit in a park, mall, or other public place. Based on your first impression, write a fake bio-paragraph about each person you see.

83. Without saying what you are, write a paragraph as if you were an inanimate object thinking. EX. Oh no, the bell! Soon my enemies will stab me with their yellow swords and twist my arm behind my back! (Pencil Sharpener)

84. Sit outside. Listen. Paint the sounds. Be abstract.

85. Write a poem or draw a picture then roll up the paper and stick it in a bottle. throw the bottle in a public urban setting somewhere. leave your business card in the bottle.

86. Try drawing with a pencil in each hand. sure it can be a total "splitting" headache, but you can eventually master drawing with two hands.

87. Take some tracing paper and trace over multiple images. once you have at least thirty images traced or the paper looks extremely crowded, go over one image in ink or markers to have a focal point.

88. Spray paint graffiti on your driveway.

89. Draw a life size portrait of yourself.

90. Cut masking tape into long jagged strips and place randomly on canvas. Paint a picture, then remove the tape. Either fill in the negative areas with color or print. Be adventurous, draw another picture within the spaces.

91. Draw a portrait of yourself as being from another culture or nationality.

92. Create a portrait using only strips of colored paper.

93. Create a picture using glue and different color ribbons.

94. Turn a mannequin into a work of art using different media.

95. Make a Paper Mache egg using a balloon, glue and
newspaper. Add details and paint it when dry.

96. Make a life size person out of packing tape and saran wrap.

97. Build a sculpture out of wire coat hangers.

98. Build a an edible sculpture using vegetables and other foods. Toothpicks and skewers work great to hold together.

99. Draw people you know as comic book characters. Give them all silly powers.

100. Paint a mural of cartoon characters on your own bedroom wall.

Florida Creatives

BarCamp Tampa Bay

ryanprice — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:13:00 -0700

Start: 10/11/2008 - 00:30

End: 10/12/2008 - 17:30

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

BarCamp Tampa 2008 conference will be the first in the Bay area for this unusual technology and new media conference.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tampa, FL – August 8, 2008 – BarCamp Tampa 2008: the interactive BarCamp conference (http://barcamptampabay.com/) will take place October 11-12, 2008 at the University of South Florida College of Business in Tampa. This is the first year for a BarCamp event in Tampa and will bring together thought leaders from technology and New Media to explore exciting new developments in their fields.

Topics may include, but are not limited to: open source software, startups, UI design, entrepreneurship, iphone applications, AJAX, hardware hacking, Ruby, Java, .net, PHP robotics, mobile computing, bioinformatics, RSS, Social Software, video, podcasting, music, blogs, programming languages, Virtual Reality, mashups and the future of technology.

Saturday’s events will start at 8:30 a.m. and end at 5:30 p.m. and will focus on technology. Saturday evening there will be a party for conference attendees to share and get to know each other a little better. Food and music will be provided. Sunday will start at 10:00 a.m. and end at 5:30 p.m. and will focus on New Media.

Unlike traditional meetings, a BarCamp, is what is known as an unconference where people interested in a wide range of technologies come together to participate, teach and learn. The format does not have scheduled speakers. Instead, the morning of the BarCamp, everyone proposes the sessions they would like to have covered. Those sessions are put on a schedule and groups form and start an intense session of learning. Everyone who attends a BarCamp is expected to teach and to participate. Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join.

People who attend should be prepared to share with barcampers, and when they leave be prepared to share it with the world.

What is BarCamp?

The BarCamp concept originated when people realized the best times they had at conferences were the times between sessions when people could meet informally and share and learn. The goal of BarCamp is to facilitate this type of informal learning interaction for an entire day. The event organizers provide the food, the space, the wireless, and the audio visual equipment. The attendees bring their laptops, some ideas for session topics and provide the content and the participation.

BarCamp Tampa is sponsored by local business and technology professionals. For more information, visit: http://barcamptampabay.com/

Contact: Peter Radizeski
Phone: 727-369-0741
Email: peter at barcamptampabay.com

Download in Acrobat pdf format

BarCamp

Florida Creatives Happy Hour #22

ryanprice — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:13:43 -0700

Start: 08/18/2008 - 18:00

End: 08/18/2008 - 21:00

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

Every single 3rd Monday for the past 20 3rd Mondays, a group of geeks, artists, writers and other creative types have been gathering in Orlando for a networking event otherwise unheard of in this part of the country.

Folks from a wide variety of jobs - designers, poets, programmers, entrepreneurs, bloggers, podcasters, painters, filmmakers, musicians, actors - plus plenty of friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, wives, husbands, and acquaintances get together for some delicious Cajun/Creole food (and the ever-popular hot tots and fried pickles), beverages, and discussion.

Admission is free, there is no sign-up form, there are no nametags, just come and be yourself, and the creatives will guide you from there!

Orlando

Likemind.orl

ryanprice — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:08:40 -0700

Start: 08/15/2008 - 08:00

End: 08/15/2008 - 11:00

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

Likemind.us just added a few more cities: Ankara (Turkey), Shanghai, Bucharest and Frankfurt. On the same day, people in these cities and 40 other places around the globe, other likeminded individuals will be getting together for some good coffee and conversation.

Coffee sponsorship ($25 is plenty) could be kindly paid for by your employer. Last month, we were given free copies of the "Buying In" (Murketing) book.

If you love Orlando and you want to find other people of a like mind, you've come to the right place. Chris and Ryan and some friends get together once a month before work to have a good conversation. Come talk about anything, exchange emails, share stories and walk away with a smile on your face ready to face the last day of the week knowing you have made some new friends this week.

Panera is at the corner of Robinson St and Eola Drive on the North East corner of the lake.

Orlando

Calling Home: A Plurk and Twitter Science Fiction Story

rspoerer — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:03:13 -0700

I love Social Media. I’m on at least five different services and spend way more time than I should on them, but I enjoy it considerably and have befriended many great people. With as much enjoyment as I get out of these services I thought it would be great if could combine together two things I feel passionately about: Social Media and Writing Fiction.

But how do you develop a story in only 140 character bite sized morsels? You could write a longer piece and serialize it, or you could even write Flash Fiction which thrives in such small spaces. Also, how do you develop characters in serialized stories when you use one account for both posting and comments? I felt all those approaches left much to be desired. What I wanted to see was a story, using Social Media where one character interacts with another using separate accounts. And what’s more, I wanted the story to be science fiction.

The big problem with writing science fiction or fantasy is you usually need quite a bit of space to build your world and have your characters explore it. Could this be done in 140 character pieces and still be a compelling read? My answer is yes it can. And the way to do it is by telling the entire story in dialogue.

Dialogue is powerful. It’s one of the best tools a writer has in their arsenal to convey emotion and feeling. Think of the last novel or story you read. What were the parts which moved you the most? It was when the characters were speaking. The author manipulated the words coming from the character into a stream of emotional strength. You knew how the character was feeling because they told you so in their own voice.

With this in mind, the idea for Calling Home popped into my mind. A story entirely told within the confines of a damaged ship’s system status messaging and emails. Each character would have their own Twitter and Plurk account, and communicate with each other through those accounts only.

After some refinement of the idea, I’m proud to announce I have started posting the individual Plurks and Tweets for the story. Here is where you can get information on how to follow the story: http://tinyurl.com/CallingHome

This story will run for at least a couple of months, so feel free to follow and see what happens to our characters in the deep reaches of space. For the time being, there will be twice daily updates, however that could change as things progress in the story. Read and you’ll find out why….

Lastly, if you enjoy the story please tell your friends about it and spread the word on any other Social Media services you’re on. If you’d like to see it posted to another Social Media service then email me and I’ll look into it.

Enjoy the story!

R. Alexander Spoerer
http://www.renegadesanctuary.com

Orlando

Café Scientifique: "Evolutionary Antecedents of Obesity"

chadmiller — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:53:29 -0700

Start: 08/06/2008 - 19:00

End: 08/06/2008 - 20:30

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

Presenter:
Lieberman, Leslie Sue

Evolutionary medicine provides insights into why we are experiencing a global pandemic of obesity, and what we might do about it.

The presenter, Leslie Sue Lieberman, Ph.D., is a Professor of Anthropology and the founding Director of the Women’s Research Center at the University of Central Florida. She is a biomedical anthropologist with research specializations in type-2 diabetes, nutrition, and obesity. She has co-authored or edited 11 books, and published over 70 journal articles and book chapters. Her research has been supported by NIH, NSF, HRSA, NIMH, and others.

(Publicity flier)

…and after that,

"Removing Pollutants from Water" 3 September, 2008 19:00 - 20:30
"Invasive Species" 1 October, 2008 19:00 - 20:30
"Tidal Modeling in the 21st Centurys" 5 November, 2008 19:00 - 20:30

Florida Creatives

FL Creatives 18: Eric Marden

ryanprice — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:10:24 -0700

Download Show 18
flcreatives_18_eric.mp3
Length: 1:34:26

Eric Marden, AKA Xentek or Dr. XNLB, shares with us some stories from his past about starting record labels, trying to form creative collectives, and the creative climate in Orlando.

Shameless Links:

Florida Creatives

Coworking Miami: Brikolodge

ryanprice — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 13:09:56 -0700

Reposted from a message on the international Coworking discussion list:

...we recently opened a coworking facility in Miami's Wynwood Arts District. Brikolodge is a loft unit in a live-work building, home to design shops, galleries and some of the best views of downtown from the roof-top pool. We have been hosting RefreshMiami meetups since our inception and we have recently opened our doors to The Figure Network - a local artist who conducts weekend workshops on figure drawing and has also posted some of his artwork around the facility.

We are always looking for more ways to expand our community. If any of you are ever in the Miami area, please stop by and visit :) Check out our website: www.brikolodge.org

Coworking

Orlando Sentinel Editor speaks to Orlando Arts Blog in informative podcast

markbaratelli — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:29:58 -0700

When the Orlando Sentinel did that recent re-design of their print version, I was floored. Why did they do it? Who did it? Where did they find the inspiration? What do other readers think?

Bonita Burton, Orlando Sentinel's Associate Managing Editor for Visuals and the person who lead the team that carried out the project, was gracious enough to do an interview with me about all the above questions and more.

Find the interview here:
http://orlandoartsblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/orlando-sentinels-bonita-bur...

Orlando Arts Blog (http://www.orlandoartsblog.blogspot.com) will celebrate it's one year anniversary in August 2008.

Thanks

Mark Baratelli

Florida Creatives

Orlando Entrepreneur Meetup - Business Networking Opportunities

feravolo — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:42:13 -0700

Recently (two weeks ago) Mike has taken over an established meet up dot com group, which wasn't holding any meetings. This group has a membership of over 500 people, and everyone here is encouraged to join:

http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/2/

Our plans for this group is to build a realistic business cooperative for people in our community. By connecting with people everywhere in the Orlando Market, which includes people in Brevard and Volusia Counties.

We presently have a cooperative agreement with the East Orlando Chamber of Commerce (EOCC), to post "Business After Hours" events as "meet ups". Mike is an chamber ambassador for the EOCC, and would be glad to introduce you to anyone that could help you.

We also will be hosting monthly happy hours (on a Thursday Night) at the Holiday Select at the Airport, there is plenty of free parking, free internet terminals in the bar area, and plenty of open space to kick back and to talk to people.

You never know who you will meet at one of these kind of events, or the insight that you may obtain from them to help your business.

Peace,

Mike Feravolo
Software Freedom Innovations
Orlando: (407) 745-1545

Florida Creatives

FL Creatives is the Best of Orlando!

ryanprice — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 08:02:18 -0700

Exciting news: I was informed that Florida Creatives and BarCamp Orlando were named "Best way to staff your social networking startup" by the Orlando Weekly as part of their annual Best of Orlando issue.

Orlando has been cultivating its reputation as a technology center, and there's evidence that it's working. There's a community of people who straddle the line between artist and techie, and you can find a good number of them hanging out with the Florida Creatives Group. They host a happy hour once a month, and they've hosted two "un-conference" BarCamp events where anyone could give a presentation. It's a somewhat nerdy crew, but there's no better place in town to meet that user-interface expert or the Drupal developer that you've been dreaming of.

Mad props to the Orlando Weekly. In fact, this is not the first time Florida Creatives has appeared in their pages. The editorial team there does their best to keep their fingers on the pulse of the community, and this year they've chosen our nerdy slice of Orlando... three cheers!

BarCamp

Florida Creatives Happy Hour 7/21

ryanprice — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 22:50:54 -0700

Start: 07/21/2008 - 00:00

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

Admission is free, there is no sign-up form, there are no nametags, just come and be yourself, and the creatives will guide you from there!

Florida Creatives

Kasey Crouch to speak at Orlando InDesign Users Group

frecklefoot — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:08:56 -0700

Start: 07/22/2008 - 00:00

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

We are fortunate to have Kacey Crouch return to our club and participate as our speaker for our next meeting. Kacey is an Adobe Certified Software Instructor, the owner of Pixeldot, Inc., and a well-known presenter at Adobe events and InDesign conferences. Her topics for the night are:

Using the Assets of the Creative Suite
CS3 ships with many built in goodies. Some you may have used before, such as templates in InDesign, or brushes in Illustrator, but are you really getting the most of these freebies? We will explore where to find the hidden goodies Adobe gives to us, and how to use them in ways beyond the obvious.

Managing Images and Choosing File Types
While the idea of picking a file type may not sound glamorous, it is essential to maximizing the capabilities of your images. Learn when to choose PSD over TIF, and when PDF is better than EPS.
==========================
Date, time, and location
==========================
Tuesday, July 22 2008 - 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Orlando Sentinel Conference Center
633 N. Orange Ave.
(corner of Orange Ave. and Colonial Dr.)
Orlando, FL 32801

=========
Agenda
=========
6:00pm to 6:50pm: Registration, Eat, Meet and Greet
6:50pm to 7:00pm: Announcements, Introductions
7:00pm to 7:50pm: Using the Assets of the Creative Suite
7:50pm to 8:00pm: Break
8:00pm to 8:45pm: Managing Images and Choosing File Types
8:45pm to 9:00pm: Q&A - Raffle

Be sure to register so we have an accurate count for our usual pizza and refreshments... If you’re new to the Creative Suite or a professional, please invite your friends and colleagues, and help us grow our/your Orlando InDesign User Group. While it's all about graphics, many related applications are covered in a wide-ranging, freeform interchange among members. Our InDesign User Group is a Special Interest Group of FLMUG. CS3 works on both Windows and Mac systems. Bring your laptops as our meetings have WiFi.

Starting with this meeting there will be a minimum $10 suggested entry donation to support the cost of our meetings. Our raffles offer great tools to help you advance your knowledge and achieve your goals, with our top winner receiving a full version of InDesign CS3.

$10 suggested admission donation = 3 Raffle tickets
$20 = 8 Raffle
$30 = 15

Orlando

Likemind.orl

ryanprice — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:28:36 -0700

Start: 07/18/2008 - 00:00

End: 07/18/2008 - 11:00

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

Coffee sponsorship ($25 is plenty) could be kindly paid for by your employer. Last month, we were given free copies of the "Buying In" (Murketing) book.

Panera is at the corner of Robinson St and Eola Drive on the North East corner of the lake.

Florida Creatives

BlogOrlando 2008

ryanprice — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:58:38 -0700

Start: 09/25/2008 - 00:00

End: 09/27/2008 - 23:59

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

what: an unconference
when: September 25-27, 2008
where: Orlando, Florida
cost: free

tracks:
Journalism
Technology/Tools
Local/Community
New Media/Creative
Marketing/PR

Latest BlogOrlando news:

The dates for the 2008 edition of BlogOrlando have been set, Sept 25-27th. Of course the big change is the main event is moving to a Saturday.

In the past I always debated about the Friday/Saturday thing, but this year we have some external forces....mainly the venue....we're just too big :-) In order to accommodate close to 300 people (like we had last year) we need to hold the event on Saturday.

Registration will be open shortly and we'll start to fill in the session leaders and schedule as well.

As I referenced in my previous post there will an invite only event on Thursday the 25th. The main event will kick-off Friday night with a reception and the full un-con and happy hour on Saturday.

If you're traveling in, then you can look to arrive on Friday and head back out on Sunday.

Of course we're always looking for sponsors to keep the event FREE. If you're interested let me know.

Florida Creatives

New Group: Jobs

ryanprice — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:24:33 -0700

Since the beginning of Florida Creatives, the people have always clambered for a place to post and seek jobs. In the past, I have used the FLCreatives blog for this purpose, or some folks have used the Google Groups list: those days are over.

Florida Creatives Jobs

The ground rules:

Use this space to post job availabilities, or say that you are looking for work. Please understand that joining this list will (by default) sign you up to receive email for every post or comment in this group; you can always unsubscribe and re-subscribe any time you like.

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Florida Creatives

Orlando Coworking News: CoLab Downtown

ryanprice — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:50:51 -0700

Plucked off the wire via NFi Studios' latest update:

NFi is working with other techs and creatives in the community to support the launch of CoLab Orlando. CoLab Orlando is a Coworking Space for anyone looking to have a dedicated work area (desk or suite), and be part of a community environment. CoLab Orlando is located on the 6th floor of the Angebilt building and is a work in progress. The tradition of the Angebilt, Orlando’s most historic building, combined with the innovation of Orlando’s tech and creative talent, make CoLab an exciting project we can all share in.

Owner of the Angebilt, John Hussey, is calling on the communities feedback and support…
“Over the past several years I’ve seen the Orlando tech & creative community really emerge. As a commercial real-estate owner, I am proud to be part of Orlando Coworking. However, I know it’s not my vision that will make this space successful. CoLab Orlando is founded the community’s support and feedback. I ask for your feedback in what you want from CoLab Orlando, and with your support we will make this a success for our city. ”

- John Hussey, President/CEO, RealTrend Inc.
For more info on getting involved with CoLab Orlando, contact Sterling (sterling@nfistudios.com) or Dave (david@hydrastudio.com)

FYI, the Angebilt is the same building as the April BarCamp - at the corner of Orange Ave and Wall Street. It's a historic hotel, as well as the current home of the Downtown UCF Technology Incubator, Subway, Finhenry's, and several Wall Street venues. Easy access to the Library, lots of downtown eateries, bars, clubs, hangouts, coffee shops and the like. I couldn't think of many better places for Orlando's first official full-time 24/7 cow-orking space.

Coworking

Great Networking Opportunity for Freelancers

digidonkey — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 05:25:11 -0700

For those of you in the Merritt Island area there is a networking opportunity every Tuesday evening at the Chili's in Merritt Island. It goes from 6:30 to 7:30, it's free to visit, has free appetizers and 2 for 1 drinks. Around 15 - 20 business owners have been showing up the last couple of weeks and it's a great place to meet potential clients that need creative services.

Here is the web site for more info: http://islandstylesgroup.com

It's a Cocoa Beach Chamber of Commerce event but you don't have to be a Chamber member to visit.

Does anyone else know of any other networking opportunities out there?

Florida Creatives

OnA1A Business Network

feravolo — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 05:08:27 -0700

Start: 07/01/2008 - 10:00

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

Our meetings are an open forum where ideas are freely exchanged in a relaxed environment. Meet with people that use computers & the Internet for business. Get the answers to your questions about computers & the Internet in plain English.

We are now meeting with the Island Styles Leads Group at Pizza Uno on Merritt Island.
Tuesday Nights at 6:30PM

Venue: http://ebizowners.meetup.com/169

Wiki: http://OnA1A.com

Contact: Mike Feravolo (407) 745-1545

Brevard

Florida Creatives Barbecue/Picnic

ryanprice — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:24:40 -0700

I've thrown this idea out there in the past, but never put any serious time our thought behind it.

The Holiday Party in December was a pretty decent success, so I was thinking we could do a barbecue or Creative Picnic of some kind.

We have several new friends in Brevard, so for myself it would be nice to get out of Orlando and hit the coast for a little sea air and some good food, good conversaton, and geeking out.

For the sake of leaving enough time to plan and get people RSVPing, I was thinking the last weekend of July or first weekend of August - pretty much the worst weather ever then, huh?

The next Happy Hour is July 21st in Orlando. I'd like to have something figured out before then so we can announce it.

Florida Creatives

Brevard Wiki is Live

lsalberg — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:57:38 -0700

The first draft of the Brevard wiki is up. For now, we are a one-page wiki called Brevard East Coast Creatives.

There's a list of the companies represented by our present members. New members, please go add your companies.

There's also a list of free wi-fi hotspots in Brevard. If somebody wants, they can add a list of subscription wi-fi hotspots separately.

If the page becomes too big, we'll start breaking stuff into separate pages.

Any ideas about what else to include? Comment here -- or just go post the stuff on your own.

Brevard

create chaos 2008

ryanprice — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:10:34 -0700

Start: 10/13/2008 - 00:00

End: 10/17/2008 - 23:59

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

Create Chaos 2008. One week. Ten shows. Thousands of creative professionals.

Create Chaos is a concept that speaks to the evolution of our industries — a “create-a-palooza” that will bring together some of the most interesting, educational and inspirational creative industry conferences simultaneously — and all in one location.

Create Chaos 2008 will Inform, Connect, Inspire and Educate creative professionals from multiple industries through an all-inclusive conference event featuring training, seminars, speakers, awards gallery, exhibit arena, career center, film festival and a number of unique, one-of-a-kind experiences. As producers, we are bringing together multiple, existing industry conferences, trade shows and events that are experts in their respective fields under one “super conference” to deliver an experience for our attendees and exhibitors which is second to none.

Based on the Medici principle, by bringing together creative professionals from different industries and walks of life in one place at one time, the resulting collision of ideas, inspiration and general creative experience far surpasses any conference-going experience these professionals could receive by attending these industry specific events separately.

The Create Chaos experience brings together creative professionals from around the world to connect, share ideas, exchange information and be educated on the latest in training, trends and technology.

The conference also acts as a recession buster by co-locating the conferences and reducing travel and registration costs for attendees and participations.

Also, if you had a particular speaker in mind, please see http://www.createchaos.com/08/public/speakers/speakers for details on how to submit a speaker recommendation. Thanks!

info@createchaos.com
http://www.createchaos.com

BarCamp

Your southern can is worth a dollar a half a pound

deloresdefacto — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:35:48 -0700

I have to step up on my platform, and call all of my Orlando pals to hear my speech regarding our "City Beautiful".

I found a random slide show on Youtube entitled Downtown Orlando that depicts the daytime colors and buildings that we're all accustomed to, have grown familiar with and connect with as our place of "home." That's why when this wanker made the comment of, "don't go downtown at night . It's a very dangerous place" I had to take a stance.

While we have all discussed time and time again about how we miss our days at Cairo and our trips through Church Street, we still are trying to keep our night life and our culture alive. And I'm not just talking as far as music culture, I mean the "real" substance and history of Orlando.

But this guy, who lives in Windermere mind you, made comments about how only idiots go downtown and the only "culture" we have is tattoo parlors (incidentally, didn't they close that one down on Orange Avenue by the old Laser Tag place?)

So with this scare tactic mindset put in place, I had to retort by giving examples of what downtown is really about and how tourists are not going to be randomly shot while on Spring Break, trying to check out a club or a show on a Saturday night. I think what he's perceiving as downtown Orlando is the now defunct Church Street that we've all been moaning about for years now. That's something that hopefully will be renovated soon. Not that I have any interest in going down to any college pubs and watching naked women hand me a Jell-O shot, but, yes, we use to have a lot going on down there. But if you'll all recall, we also had the law passed that said the homeless were only allowed to stand on certain, marked areas of the sidewalk. The younger generation (as I was part of back then) was harassed by being pegged as a "gutter punk" who wanted nothing more than to loiter. After that happened we lost anything substantial on Wall Street Plaza and now we have the Cantina that targets, woo hoo, tourists.

By this man not living and being a real part of downtown Orlando for the past ten to fifteen years as I have, as everyone in town as been, the real essence of pride and home and culture and pride that we've been trying to support and promote time and time again, is being refuted by now putting fear into tourists minds that downtown is totally unsafe. Well, there's crime but there's crime in every city. That's common knowledge. Actually, the only time I had a problem with a break in of my car (and a handful of other people I knew who were targeted at the same time) was ten years ago when this nesnman guy is saying was safer. So much for what he knows.

I just wanted to send my opinions out to anyone in town who may read this and see what had gotten me so worked up about. All of us are trying to build up our town and to have someone say that only the theme park areas are "safe" just makes me irate. Unfortunately this is probably the opinion of many cash heavy snow birds who put money into big corporations and leave the smaller businesses to crumble. This is why we have lost so many clubs, restaurants, pubs and decent shows to the overly expensive Disney/Universal/MGM machine.

I've made a list of links and historical and cultural items that make up the real Orlando that we're proud to have thriving to this day. As I stated in my YouTube comment, "Walt would be appalled at what Disney has become these days."

Orlando is also home to the University of Central Florida, which is the second largest university in Florida in student enrollment and has the 6th largest enrollment in the nation.

Orlando is home to the Orlando Magic, an NBA pro basketball franchise that plays at Amway Arena in downtown Orlando. Led by Shaquille O'Neal, the Magic made it to the NBA Finals in 1995. Orlando's Amway Arena, opened in 1989 is already one of the oldest arenas in the NBA. It will be replaced around 2010 by the $480-million Orlando Events Center.

Orlando Public Library, the main downtown library of the Orange County Library System, which features 15 locations system wide. Situated on an entire city block in the heart of downtown Orlando, the library is an epicenter for arts and cultural events, educational and entertainment resources, and solitude.

The Kerouac House, in the College Park neighborhood of Orlando, is where writer Jack Kerouac lived during the time his novel On the Road was published and released, making him a national sensation and Beat Generation icon. He lived in the house with his mother Gabrielle from July 1957 to the spring of 1958, and wrote his three-act play, The Beat Generation, a 51-chorus poem called Orlando Blues, and the novel The Dharma Bums during his time there. In 1997, the Kerouac Project of Orlando formed, and restored the Kerouac house. It is now a haven for aspiring writers who can live in the house as they create their own work.

Eatonville is a town in Orange County, Florida, six miles north of Orlando. It was one of the first all-black towns to be formed after the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and, on August 15, 1887, was the first such town to be incorporated. Zora Neale Hurston grew up there. Every winter, Eatonville stages its annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities and the Zora Neal Hurston Library.

Harry P. Leu Gardens, which is an inner city oasis covering 50 acres (20,000 m²) and features colorful annuals, palms, an orchid house, a floral clock and a butterfly garden.

The Orlando Museum of Art is Orlando's largest modern art museum. Located in Loch Haven Park, the museum has ongoing exhibitions of American portraits and landscapes, American impressionist works, and art of the ancient Americas. In 2003, the museum hosted the world-renowned full exhibition of the famous glass sculptor, Dale Chihuly.

The Orlando Metropolitan Area is also home to a substantial theatre population. Several professional and semi-professional houses and many community theaters dot the area including Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival, Orlando Repertory Theatre (Central Florida's only Professional Theatre for Young Audiences), Orlando Theatre Project, Starlight Dinner Theatre, Mad Cow Theatre, Theatre Downtown, The Osceola Center for the Arts, Winter Park Playhouse, Theatre Winter Haven, IceHouse Theatre, and Seaside Music Theatre. Orlando also hosts the Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival every summer.

Church Street Station, a multi-level shopping mall and entertainment center that once featured an abundance of specialty shops, restaurants, nightclubs, and bars. Purchased in the late 1990s by TransContinental Talent owner Lou Pearlman, it is now virtually defunct, as the area suffered in post-9/11 tourist-industry slump. The area is being redeveloped with residential condominiums. Now closed due to bankruptcy and is due to be bought over.

Based on the Morgan Quitno Press "Safest and Most Dangerous Cities of 2007" rankings, Orlando ranks #11 nationaly. It's to be noted that the American Society of Criminology (ASC) and the FBI object to such rankings and use of data stating "These rankings represent an irresponsible misuse of the data and do groundless harm to many communities" and don't take into account "factors that influence crime in a particular study area such as population density and the degree of urbanization".

Orlando for Adults - The New York Times

Orlando Sentinel - Downtown Blog

Wikipedia - Downtown Orlando

Review Orlando

And, ironically or not in the news today:

Tourist Robbed At Hotel Near Disney

Photo credit: NY Times

http://www.deloresdefacto.com/?p=87

Orlando

Ideas for Meetups

lsalberg — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:10:11 -0700

Some might wonder what types of things would we "meet" about so I thought I'd share my thoughts here on that.

First, please join the group and subscribe to the RSS feed (or the email link). We encourage lurking and realize that you may not be able to make the first 10 meetups due to the busy life we all lead, but by keeping in touch via those resources, you will be giving yourself a chance ("Just one chance!" as Braveheart would say) to one day hookup with the rest of us.

I'm loathe to go out of my way for a meeting, which IMHO, is just a throwback to the corporate practices of days gone by. So, while I'm calling this a "meeting" or "meetup", I fully expect it to be a social event with a small element of business chatter on the side. If you want. If not, it will just be a social event.

Bring your spouse - this doesn't just have to be those of us in the business.

Ideas for "Meetups":

Client challenges: Getting new ones, keeping them, horror stories, success stories.
New market trends we are seeing. Old trends we see dying off.
Carpool to O-town and crash one of their meetups
The Central Florida tech scene: (See this post at Doterati). Do we need an official organization to represent tech/marketing workers/firms in Central Florida. Will it help you? Will it just be a benefit for the big tech companies and a boondoggle for the rest of us?
The state of wi-fi and wi-fi cafes. Do you work remotely? Ever? Thoughts about Starbucks.
Marketing/Branding firms getting into web design and Web Design firms morphing into Marketing/Branding firms: good, bad, or ugly?
Business news in Brevard. What are you seeing? Are small businesses worth pursuing? How small? What's your take on getting into the big companies (Harris, Health First, etc)?

Got more ideas? Add them to the comments. Even if you can't make the meetups, it will give us fodder for discussion and growth.

A big thanks to Ryan Price for starting and managing this wiki-site to help Floridians all over more easily meet and connect.

Brevard

Welcome. Come encourage me - and yourself!

lsalberg — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:57:39 -0700

I'm jumping out on a limb based on a few conversations with folks around Brevard and starting this group in the hopes that there are others, many more others, of creative types equally interested in community.

Over the past year, I've been privately surveying various web companies and firms to see if they would be interested in having a get together one evening.

I've had all manner of responses. Some positive. Some very suspicious. Some literally threw me out of their office.

But I've begun to feel the time is turning.

While I certainly don't think I'm the type to lead something like this, maybe I can help by getting it started to get it off the ground with hopes that more qualified and resourced individuals will eventually take the reigns and run with it.

For the moment, I'm suggesting a meetup once a month at SunShoppe in downtown Melbourne (free wi-fi and great food and tunes), but I'm very open to other ideas and places.

For the time being, we'll probably alternate days and times to allow as many people to come and give it a try depending on their schedule. As the group grows we may be able to harden a consistent date and time. For now, majority rules.

Brevard

Likemind.us Orlando

ryanprice — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 21:46:33 -0700

Start: 06/20/2008 - 00:00

End: 06/20/2008 - 11:00

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

Coffee sponsorship ($25 is plenty) could be kindly paid for by your employer. Last month, we were given free copies of the "Buying In" (Murketing) book.

Panera is at the corner of Robinson St and Eola Drive on the North East corner of the lake.

Florida Creatives

My BLOG

wizzlewolf — Sat, 31 May 2008 14:58:54 -0700

I will not be using this site's blog features. I have my own blog. If interested, you can always read my rants at:

http://www.shereerensel.blogspot.com/

If you want to view my art, go to:

http://www.wizzlewolf.com

Peace!
:-)
Sheree

Florida Creatives

FL Creatives 17: Darren McDaniel

ryanprice — Sat, 31 May 2008 14:18:50 -0700

Download Show 17
flcreatives_17_darren.mp3
Length: 52:20

The Director of the Essence of Irwin and former Programming Director for the Downtown Media Arts Center joins Ryan Price for a discussion about his history and the journey of creating his film.

Darren is also working on a local startup company called Petentials: The Internet for Pets.

Florida Creatives on iTunes

Florida Creatives

Florida Creatives Happy Hour #19

ryanprice — Wed, 28 May 2008 22:25:38 -0700

Start: 06/16/2008 - 18:00

End: 06/16/2008 - 21:00

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

Every single 3rd Monday for the past 19 3rd Mondays, a group of geeks, artists, writers and other creative types have been gathering in Orlando for a networking event otherwise unheard of in this part of the country.

Folks from a wide variety of jobs - designers, poets, programmers, entrepreneurs, bloggers, podcasters, painters, filmmakers, musicians, actors - plus plenty of friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, wives, husbands, and acquaintances get together for some delicous Cajun/Creole food (plus hot tots and fried pickles), beverages, and discussion.

Admission is free, there is no sign-up form, just come and be yourself, and the creatives will guide you from there!

Florida Creatives

Pecha Kucha Night

ryanprice — Wed, 28 May 2008 22:07:00 -0700

Start: 06/04/2008 - 19:00

End: 06/04/2008 - 21:00

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

Creative people from Jacksonville and beyond will, for the first time on The First Coast, present their work in the 20x20 Pecha Kucha format at the first of four First Wednesday Art Walk Pecha Kucha Nights at MOCA. Actual show time is 8:20.

Official event info for Pecha Kucha Night Jacksonville

PKN Jax Facebook

Wikipedia explains Pecha Kucha

Organized by Chris Wojda, who is starting the Florida Creatives chapter in Jacksonville.

The idea behind Pecha Kucha is to keep presentations concise, the interest level up and to have many presenters sharing their ideas within the course of one night. Therefore the 20x20 Pecha Kucha format was created: each presenter is allowed a slideshow of 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds. This results in a total presentation time of 6 minutes 40 seconds on a stage before the next presenter is up.

Florida Creatives

Café Scientifique Orlando, "Phoenix on the Red Planet" omnibus

chadmiller — Wed, 28 May 2008 21:48:16 -0700

Start: 07/02/2008 - 19:00

End: 07/02/2008 - 20:30

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

Come to our first event, where we'll hear about NASA's newest explorer, Mars Phoenix Lander, and the exciting discoveries it's made in the past few weeks, and what it could mean for our thoughts about extraterrestrial human habitation.

Official Website

Florida Creatives

Stirring the Orlando Coworking Pot

ryanprice — Wed, 28 May 2008 21:37:55 -0700

I got an email today through a local creative named Tiffany - she asked about shared office space.

In my reply, I pointed her to the Orlando Coworking Wiki page on the Official Coworking Wiki and here on FLCreatives Wiki.

Obviously, you've got to know about the coworking mailing list as well.

Once you've checked all of that out, then you can start going to Coworking Tuesdays at Stardust. They are literally every Tuesday during the day - not exactly 9 to 5, but hours like those. Stardust has free wi-fi, great food, coffee, tea, wine, beer, liquor (for those really hard client phone calls), and videos for rent. What more could you ask for?

Stardust is centrally located, so as a first coworking experience, it's very accessible.

1842 E Winter Park Rd, Orlando, FL 32803

Coworking

Heloooo Jacksonville!

ryanprice — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:24:43 -0700

To my knowledge, Marc Rapp, Chris Wojda and a couple of other folks got together in Jacksonville last week under the banner of Florida Creatives (or maybe it was Pangea Day?).

This is... awesome.

Chris is starting up a Pecha Kucha (pechak-cha) night in Jax that will be held at the art museum. Chris is also the Jacksonville organizer of Likemind, which is how we know each other.

Both Chris and Marc are advertising folks, so if you want to meet some ad guys in North Florida, watch the Jacksonville group on Florida Creatives for more event announcements and any updates with the group up there.

Also, much like we have Likemind here in Orlando this Friday May 16th, there will be a Likemind.jax up there - free coffee and free copies of a book called Murketing.
Likemind Jax starts at 8AM at Starbucks, 1980 San Marco Blvd., Jacksonville, FL 32207

Florida Creatives