Refresh Denver

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.

We are continuing to grow! Even with the Bronco’s hosting Monday Night Football, we were able to fill the Hive’s conference room with 20 people - our best turnout to date. Great to see people from Colorado Springs, Boulder, and Ft. Collins making the trip!

Big thanks to Greg Owen from Effective UI for leading our topic on the Adobe® Integrated Runtime (AIR™) and their eBay desktop application. Definitely check out the eBay app - great work from a local Denver group.

Several other AIR apps were shown or mentioned in the presentation as well:

• Buzzword: slick word processing application
• MapMyPix: GPS + digital photos = a cool photo and map record of your trip
• Kuler: desktop color palette tool for inspiration
• Snitter: great Twitter client from @snookca for your desktop
  (Thanks to @danrubin for the live plug during the presentation!)

Stay tuned for our December meet-up details with Mike Hostetler will feature jquery!

Due to a low RSVP response, June’s event has been canceled. Hopefully more can join us at July’s event. See you then.

Well it’s almost that time again, our next meeting is scheduled to meet on Monday, June 18th (in other words the third Monday of every month) from 5:30PM to 7:30PM.

Looking forward to getting your feedback and seeing you again.

Find this months newsletter at: http://refreshdenver.org/newsletter/2007/05/newsletter-052007.html

In This Month’s Issue…

• Our First Get Together
• Future Topics and Speakers
• We Need Your Help
• Stay Connected

SXSW is halfway home, and the conference is proving to be another amazing experience.

The Refresh World Meetup on Friday evening was a great first stop on the journey. It was great to meet Refreshers from all over the globe.

Saturday’s highlights included a bit of local flavor as Boulder’s Kathy Sierra gave the opening remarks. Kathy is a fantastic speaker and her Creating Passionate Users talks are always a favorite of mine.

Sunday night brought the Avalonstar Bowling Extravaganza. I was proud geekmember of Team Microformats that also included Refreshers and general web geeks from AOL, Paypal, Linkd’in, The Motley Fool, and others. Our lane assignment for the preliminaries actually placed us between the Refresh DC team and the global Team Refresh. That Cindy Li can really bowl!

Out of the 36 teams, we actually made the field of 16 as the #14 seed in the tournament that pitted us against third-seeded FrogDesign. In our first head-to-head round, we rose to the occasion to knock off the design giants and make our way into the elite round of eight. We finished the evening in sixth place - which was the lottery compared to our expectations.

Look me up if you’re in Austin! Back to Matt Mullenweg’s presentation on Scaling Your Community.

One of my favorite times of the year is almost here. SXSW 2007 begins this week!

This will be my third trip to the fine city of Austin to partake in the experience that is SXSW. It will also be my first year as a platinum badge holder staying through the music festival.

I may be blogging to my yet-to-be-created personal blog site and I will be continuously updating my Flickr account with photos of all the spectacular panels and evening events.

If you are headed down to the conference this year - be sure to look for me in the mobs of geeks, designers, and bloggers. I will be at the Refresh “World” Meetup on Friday evening before heading to an event I’m organizing for all higher education attendees.

Here’s to 10 nights in a hotel room! Cheers!

Chip D.

Meet Refresher’s from around the World at this informal gathering off 6th. We’re planning two panel discussions - one on User Experience hosted by Nick Finck, Chris Bernard, Bryan Veloso, and Stephen P. Anderson — and another on Accessibility with Sharron Rush, Derek Featherstone, and Kelsey Ruger. Additionally — John Moore from Brand Autopsy will be joining our panelists to discuss how UX and Accessibility tie into Branding, Marketing, & New Social Media.

Come to learn - come to share. This event is all about making connections, exploring new media, and promoting great talent and design.

When
Friday, March 9, 2007
4:30 PM - 6:30 PM

Where
Bourbon Bar
508 East 6th Street
Austin, Texas 73301,/p>

Source
http://upcoming.org/event/155659/

We’re almost there, stay tuned.