Refresh Denver

Refresh Denver returns on May 21st, 2008. We’ll be convening at Forest Room 5 in the Highlands where we have access to food, drinks, a nice private room, and free parking!

RSVP at http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/591906/

Pass it along!

Hello All,

We were unable to locate a venue for this month’s meeting and with great regret we’ll need to cancel tomorrow’s meeting.

Also, it looks like we no longer have a sponsor at the Hive and thus we won’t be able to use this space anytime soon for future meetings. Ultimately, we need a new venue!

Thus we need your recommendations for locations. Locations that can hold 30+ people, allow for our speakers to be heard without difficulty, and have the ability to project the speaker’s presentation onto the wall (if they have one). Feel free to make suggestions in the comments below.

Save the Date!

We will be gathering on Wednesday, February 20th, 2008; location TBD! Come join us for an eventful night. Meet and greet starts at 6pm, presentation starts at 6:30pm, and there will be a post-meeting/social gathering at 8pm.

This month our featured presenter is Mike Hostetler and he will be giving an “Introduction to jQuery with Drupal, and Qcodo frameworks” (NOTE: this is a reschedule from when Mike couldn’t make it to our December meeting due to the birth of his baby).

Mike Hostetler currently leads the Web and Design team of the jQuery project and he works as a Freelance Software Engineer. Read more about him on his blog at http://amountaintop.com/.

If you are a Web Designer or User Experience Designer you’ll want to be here to learn how to give your designs a Web 2.0 feel and Developers you’ll want to be here too to learn how to integrate and build a solid stack of frameworks.

Lastly, don’t forget to register yourself here on Refresh Denver and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter for future updates! Also feel free to blog about Refresh Denver and invite your friends, contacts, and colleagues — help us build the Refresh community!

PLEASE RSVP for this event on Upcoming

When:
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
6:00 p.m. – Meet and Greet
6:30 p.m. – Presentation
8:00 p.m. – Social Hour

Where:
TBD

What:
A jQuery Introduction, with Drupal and Qcodo

Who:
Mike Hostetler is the jQuery webmaster and currently works as a Freelance Software Engineer.

Here’s your chance to be a part of something grand.

The original Boulder Startup Weekend started this whole project [startupweekend.com]. It was in Boulder, late one night, that the idea was coined. Later, the idea was nudged into reality. And now 7 months later, after 15 Startup Weekend events around the world, it is time to come home. 

Boulder Startup Weekend II to occur on March 21st-23rd at CU.Visit http://startupweekend.com/boulder-startup-weekend-ii/ for more information and to sign up.

Refresh Denver has been moved to a new web server, which has been graciously provided by Crowd Favorite, – hopefully now it won’t go down as much.Other then the move to the new server, there are only a few things I haven’t been able to complete.

• I didn’t install the original theme/template — instead we’ll be creating a new one that represents our unique Denver style (more information coming soon).
• I wasn’t able to move all the registered subscribers/authors over due to import issues — so instead of spending more time trying to figure it out I thought it might be easier for everyone to just recreate their account by re-registering here. Re-registering does a couple things for us, it cleans out all the old users that don’t access the site anymore, allows everyone the opportunity to create their “perfect” username as well as update and get their information listed on the members page including your website, email (don’t worry it’s encrypted), your IMs, and any other information you want the world to know (e.g., short bio.), and lastly hopefully it will encourage the new members to register and partake in the group to.
• I wasn’t able to install all of the previous plug-ins — however, all of the critical ones are there.

So with that said — let me know if you have any questions or comments. 

Okay, all suggested locations are booked (minus Julie’s home); so we’ll be back at The Hive for another gathering on Wednesday, January 16! Come join us for an eventful night. Meet and greet starts at 6pm, presentation starts at 6:30pm, and there will be a post-meeting/social gathering at 8pm.

This month will be presenting a "Web Business Round Table Discussion With A Panel of Web Business Owners." Speakers, include Alex King from Crowd Favorite, SuzAnn Brown and Heather Morgan from Launchpad Interactive, and Brian Warren from Method Arts.

Don’t forget to blog about Refresh Denver and invite your friends, contacts, and colleagues and help us build the Refresh community!

When:

Wednesday, January 16, 2007
6:00 p.m. – Meet and Greet
6:30 p.m. – Presentation
8:00 p.m. – Social Hour

Where:

The Hive
Suite 30
2401 15th Street
Denver, Colorado 80202

Hello Refreshers,

We just wanted to let you know that we are having problems finding a location that will hold 30+ people for our next gathering — which is suppose to meet this coming Wednesday night. Unfortunately, if we’re unable to find a location we’ll have to cancel this months meeting and hope some place will present itself for next months meeting as well as future meetings.

Anyway, is there anybody out there willing to step forward and help make this happen? Can you find us a venue?

Learning about Adobe AIR by Jonathan Snook

24ways is in full effect again this year and Drew was kind enough to ask me to write an article on AIR. Christmas is in the AIR steps you through building a simple desktop application using the HTML environment within AIR. The article could have easily been three times longer with all the stuff I wanted to cover. If you’re interested in AIR, I invite you to check it out.

Changes

We’ve been working hard to improve our Refresh Chapter. We’ve grown faster then we could have ever imagined — who says the web scene isn’t here? Anyway, here is a break down of what’s to come.

Moving Meetings

On the request of many attendees we’ll be moving our meetings to Wednesday nights but still meeting on every third week so as not to interfere with other area gatherings (e.g., The Denver Web Design & Program Meetup Group, The Colorado AIGA Group, the Boulder Creative Commons Meetup Group, Denver Drupal User Group, and the Colorado Linux Users and Enthusiasts Group to name a few).

New CMS

Also as a result of many requests we’ll be changing the web site’s platform. We’ll be moving away from WordPress and on to Expression Engine with the addition of the Forum Module. Because our group has many needs we felt that it was appropriate to move to a Content Management Systems (CMS) with a separate members area. This also allows us to "re-group" and bring more of the elements we’ve been using (e.g., Google Groups, Upcoming, etc.) under one roof to simplify things a bit.

New Format

We are also working hard to bring you speakers on many relevant topics — all of which will fall under three persistent themes, Web Design, Web Development, and Web Business. We hope to get to a point where we can even have a track running for each theme each month.

In January

Starting in January, we’ll have a Web Business Round Table with guest speakers where each person, as a requirement, currently runs and operates a successful web business. So far the panel will include Alex King from Crowd Favorite, SuzAnn Brown and Heather Morgan from Launchpad Interactive, and Brian Warren from Method Arts.

Contests

We also want to hold a few design contests. One for our logo, one for our web site, one for a few web badges (you know the little banners at the bottom of web pages) and one for a few web banners, so members can proudly display and promote Refresh Denver.

Project

We will need a way to allow all our members to submit their designs for the contests above as well as vote for each category. Have an idea on how to accomplish this?

Feedback

And as always, please provide your feedback (here in the comments or via the contact form) and participate wherever you can online and off.

Help

Lastly, we would like some help in the following positions, if you are interested in filling one of these position or just assist please get in touch with us:

• Meeting Coordinator
  • Post/Send meeting announcements.
  • Communicate/Share meeting information online through blogs, social networks, etc.
  • Locate and secure suitable locations for our meetings.
  • Arrive early and stay late for setup/tear-down (e.g., have projector, chairs, sign-in sheet, name tags, food, drinks, etc. setup before and torn-down after each meeting).
  • Conduct meetings (e.g., meet and greet, start meetings with introduction announcements, end meetings with closing announcements, etc.)
  • Work with Speaker Coordinator and/or Sponsor Coordinator
• Speaker Coordinator
  • Schedule meeting speakers.
  • Act as the primary point of contact for the speaker.
  • Introduce speakers.
  • Take notes of presentation and post these as well as speaker’s slides on website.
• Special Events Coordinator
  • Make arrangements for events other than meetings, such as Startup Weekend, BarCamp, Jelly, and other simple social gatherings such as meeting for pizza, beer, web discussion, or whatever.
• Sponsor Coordinator
  • Locate and schedule meeting sponsors (e.g., for food, drink, door-prizes, etc.).
  • Work with Meeting Coordinator for meeting locations.
  • Work with Webmaster and Newsletter Manager to display sponsors’ logos and links.
• Newsletter/Blog Manager (a.k.a., a copy writer)
  • Write and post content on a regular basis to the blog.
  • Create and send out monthly newsletter.
  • Manage newsletter membership.
  • Work with other roles to communicate information for and about the group.

Feedback

And as always, please provide your feedback (here in the comments or via the contact form) and participate wherever you can online and off.