By Bill Needle
OK it was looking real bad the day
before Tom Anzai was
to fly and present at CorelWorld
2000, September 10-15th 
in San Diego. While bicycling Tom ran into a bee who took exception to the
run-in and left a stinger in Tom's lower lip. Ouch! Well, to say the least it didn't take
too long for Tom to impersonate a prize fighter at the end of the 15th. Swelling spread
from the lip, to the cheek, to the neck, up to the ear. Wary of drugs, he decided to let
it all hang out and see if the swelling would go down en route to San Diego. While the
Flight AA1875 crew to San Diego kept repeating “Can you say that again please
sir” in response to Tom's attempts at talking, by the time the CorelWorld meeting
took place the next night no one mentioned any facial difference in Tom. But, hey, maybe
they were just being nice...
By the way, secret lip, er I meant tip. If you ever want to relax before/during/after a CorelWorld, get an invite up to chez Rick Altman's room. Nothing kinky here. Just get the pass card and relax in his hot tub, eat the DoubleTree chocolate cookies that are delivered daily, or figure out how you use a bidet (good for washing dirty socks in?). Shhhhh, don't tell too many people. Seating capacity in the tub is 12. We know, we tried it during the staff photo shoot. Contact Bobbe Singer at http://global-engineer.com/cw00/ to purchase the Official CorelWorld '00 Photo CD-ROM. Maybe next year we can do a pinup calendar complete with nodes, fractals, or extrusions fully exposed. Interested?!
One thing about Tom. Get him
anywhere near an ocean and watch him run. Forget the map, he can smell the surf 
from
the airport. Needless to say that within one hour of touch-down, Tom was body surfing at La
Jolla Shores beach. His favorite hangout for various reasons such as the scenery
(c'mon, we meant the dramatic cliff scenery :) and the fact that you can usually snatch
one of the beach chairs at the south end by the Beach Villas (yet another tip for
tourists). Maybe it was his beach lifeguard duties in his youth, this dude is one with the
sand and surf! He even has the art of changing clothes within 15 seconds in a rental car
down to an art.
Da plane, da plane. No, no. Da coast, da coast!
“San Diego is paradise on earth. There are miles of beautiful beaches and bays for basking in the sun. San Diego's sunsets are magnificent. Outdoor activities are a 365-day-a-year pastime. It's all here in San Diego.”
Excerpt from Barry Berndes' 30th Anniversary Edition of the San Diegan.
At $2.95 this is a highly recommended guide to San Diego complete with
discount coupons for most of the popular attractions around the city.
We would have to agree wholeheartedly with this description. Where else has this kind of weather, the friendliness, the surf, as well as adequate distance away from Los Angeles. Just don't try to head North to Huntington Beach on a Friday during rush hour. Tom tried and never made it. End of story.
If you've never been to a
CorelWorld, the conference actually 
starts the Sunday before with various
Crash Courses. This year, there were two-hour courses on:
Tom's Intro slide to “Ventura Doesn't Crash Course”
Tom led the “VENTURA Doesn't Crash Course” session to a sparse but enthusiastic group of students. Even after teaching this program since it's DOS days (you know, enter C:
\>VPPROF.BAT), it's still neat to watch people begin to smile and say “Wow” when you show them all that VENTURA can do. Tom threw embedded text, linked text, graphics, external bitmaps, OLE spreadsheets, Excel charts, and PDFs at VENTURA and the darned thing hardly crashed. OK, it crashed in the last minute--it's only human! Perhaps next year's session will be “VENTURA--let's market it, no one else is”. Ouch!After the Crash Course sessions, the Sunday travelers arrive at the DoubleTree hotel and many congregate at the bar to do a Corel group hug. Heck we needed one with the recent Corel disasters such as the failure of the Inprise merger, layoffs and more layoffs, resignation of Michael Cowpland, and a severe reduction in the sponsorship and tradeshow budget.
The result? An excellent turnout of almost 300 attendees (120 of
which were first-timers to the Conference) at what we found to be the most cohesive group
at the conference yet. Maybe it had to do with a 65% female enrollment. Rick said it best
during one lunch when he remarked that he felt that in spite of Corel's misfortunes that
this conference was 
more lively and had a good feeling to it. Also, for some reason which we
liked, there was an increase in the number of 20-30 year olds in attendance. Perhaps this
led to the sell-out of many of the evening social events. That and the rumor that Tijuana
was the place to go for pierced navels...
No one seems to miss lunch at a CorelWorld!
Of the attendees, 22 were from Canada, 2 from Ireland, 1 from Venezuela (Hey Luis, you're name was called for that huge color printer prize--oops, wasn't supposed to remind you ;), 1 from Italy, 1 from Iceland, and 1 from Guam (finally!).
Day One's keynote was conducted by Robert Travers, Art Director, Corel Corporation. He revealed his multiple personality disorder when he morphed into Richard Simmons and had the people do three sets of clapping, stomping, and waving their hands. No wonder everyone pigged out at lunch after all that exercise! Too bad the keynote speaker on Day Two didn't incorporate some audience participation. He needed it. Badly.
The one-hour sessions followed with presentations conducted by regulars Rick Altman,
Foster Coburn, David Huss, 
Gary Priester, and Bob van Duuren.
Too, there were some fantastic new blood with artists Paul Huntington, winner of the
Conference's annual Design-a-Brochure
contest and Sharon George,
the Goddess who works with Photo-Paint and Painter. By the way, Paul wanted to attend the
conference so bad that he entered no less than five designs in the contest. Well, he made
it, brought his family of five, and at last sight was driving a shining white Lincoln
Continental towards LA. What a plan, man!
Paul Huntington prepping for his presentation the day before
Tom's sessions on Day One, Monday were PHOTO-PAINT Survivor Skills and To Color and Back. Both were well received and the latter was chosen for an encore on Tuesday. Actually, it was runner-up to Altman and van Duuren's session A Tag Team of Tips, the last-minute hit of Graphics Mania in The Netherlands this past spring. But, because Rick was busy setting up (or was it playing ;) for the evenings social at Mission Bay, Tom stepped in and demonstrated how to use Photo-Paint to colorize a b&w photograph. You can do the same exercise by purchasing the new Anzai! Inc. Photo-Paint 9 step-by-step manual just launched at the conference.
The rest of the sessions during the week consisted of Draw, Photo-Paint, Ventura, and web topics. Corel also had five staff on hand to deliver tutorials and certification testing. Tony Severenuk, Product Development Manager for CorelDRAW gets the prize for the most laid back, casually dressed member of the lot. But then again, Tom remembers playing on the same skins team as Tony for a lunchtime game of road hockey when they worked at the same Prepress company. Guess things never change, huh Tony?!
The Wednesday Expo had a couple of neat exhibitors working the crowd. People were
snapping up the PrimeFilm
1800i 35mm slide transparency scanner from Pacific Image Electronics. Conference cost was $185 with tax and
featured 
a USB interface capable of 1800 dpi,
36 bits per pixel and weighed a measly 1.65 pounds or 750 grams. (Note: beware of a faulty
CD-ROM during installation. Contact Pacific Image Electronics for a fix.) Nicest looking
table (for various reasons) was Wacom
who were displaying their new line of pressure-sensitive tablets and pens in both serial
and USB connections. The Conference deal was $89 for the new Graphire line in your
choice of clear and an assortment of fruity colors. Hmmmmm, Hermosa Beach. That would
be a great place to live. Wacom, here I come!
In attendance at the Expo was Anzai! Inc. as well. We were sold out of our new Photo-Paint 9 manual in just a few hours and then sold out of our CorelDRAW 9 Intro and Advanced courseware! For those that were not able to purchase one of these titles, email Anzai! and we will honor the 20% Conference discount at $20US per training manual. People commented on the ease of learning through the completely step-by-step approach taken in our manuals. Thanks for the feedback everyone!
Doctor Einstein returned to CorelWorld to define creativity as “Seeing what everyone sees and thinking what no one has ever thought.” This keynote on Day Three was a welcome and responsive addition to the Conference. Attendees actually stayed in their seats for the whole keynote! As the Conference Guide stated, Albert nudged a few neurons, stretched our imagination, and generated more fun than E=mc2. Pencil in Dr. Einstein to return to CorelWorld in the future.
By the way, just say no to a schlimmbe. What's a Schlimmbe? Improvements that make things worse. Dr. Einstein, he's way, way out there.
Thursday's keynote was led by Vincent Flanders whose topic “Web Pages That Suck!” was animated and well received and was a prelude to his “Web Pages That Don't Suck!” session. All I got out of that session was how overly sucky do some sucks suck when a suck could suck sucks. Everyone is capable of sucking! Enough already...
Did You Say There's a Social Program?
My goodness. If you can't find a place to dine, tour, or watch sunsets in San Diego then it's time to get busy! Here's what some people were busy doing (after the CorelWorld sessions of course):
Host, Rick Altman and Vball mate, Nancy Moldenhauer,
at the Mission Bay Beach Party (Photo: Aaron Currier)
Talking about golf, Tom was able to discuss nodes and fractals while accompanying some
Corel clients at the Balboa
Park 
Golf course (go to Torrey Pines instead if you can make reservations). It
was so hot and dry that even the bunny rabbits were kicking back in the bushes. Of course,
Tom saw a lot of the bushes on the front nine but he claimed it was all due to his rental
clubs. Ya, right! But he was able to chip in on the 18th to register a 40 for the
back. If you ever golf at Balboa Park be prepared to stand in three lines to pay for
everything. Makes government bureaucracy look like a cake walk.
Golfing at Balboa Park. Fore! Or, is it Three?!
With no surprise, the Tuesday Mission
Bay Beach Party was completely sold out with a waiting list. In fact, some people left
immediately after the last session(s) to practice their bumps, sets, and slams. People at
the event played volleyball, nerf football, and ultimate frisbee (kinda like football with
a frisbee except no
tackling-darn!). Patty & Abigail, a cheery duo from Fremont, CA,
belted out tunes from their Here We Go CD including my favorites No Comprendo
and Shame on You. In true Californian fashion, these two gals decided to duo
together after singing in a fitness center hot tub. It wasn't their original idea, but the
urging of other members at the club. Check them out, they're great!
Our version of the Olympic flame but at Mission Bay
The End is Far From Here
No, no people. This is not in reference to an end to Corel Corporation. While many in
attendance were wondering what would become of the mother ship and their favorite
applications, the answers were few and far between. Jill Perry, 
Product
Specialist at Corel, made a speech during lunch and said it was business as usual and the
mood was upbeat back at Corel. But then again, what was she going to say--the mood sucked
like some web pages and she was planning to hightail it to Wacom and the wonderful world
of Hermosa Beach? Nah, not Jill.
She's one of our favs.
Tom bags a few zzzz's (finally) on the flight home.
In fact, because of the escalating problems with Corel and their applications there is an inverse relationship to how third party products and services such as Anzai! Inc. are needed to assist Corel users. And as the Conference Guide says,
“CorelWorld is in business because of you, and it will continue for as long as there is a “you.”. We have never known a community of users as loyal, as spirited, and as bonded as this one, and we intend to stick around,no matter how much the Earth shakes.”
Amen, brother.
Notes: Copies of the Conference Guide are available while quantities last for $35. This includes the 221 page book, CD-ROM with notes, tutorials, and favorite free/shareware. Visit Conference Guides for more information. If you wish to order the CD of photos from the official photographer, Bobbe Singer, visit Conference Slide Show Photos. Lastly, if you wish to get on the mailing list for CorelWorld events, send mail to brochure@altman.com and indicate your mailing address.
Rick Altman's CorelWorld '00 Diary
Rick Altman's CorelWorld '00 Photos
“A Day in the Life of CorelWorld '99”
Coming Soon...Paul Huntington and His How Did I Do That?!
For related articles and step-by-step tutorials, please visit Articles & Tutorials.
| I thought about writing this article on the flight home but then got to
trying out some of the neat things I learned in Corel Photo-Paint 9. Problem was figuring
out how to set up the laptop in the plane. Do you use the pull-out tray directly in front
of you and assume the praying mantis pose or do you tell your neighbor beside you to beat
it and use their tray while maintaining a 45 degree angle sitting position. Or, dang it,
just get moved to first class and go horizontal on them there retractable leather seats
and bag a few zzzz's. Ah, geez, there goes my battery supply... |
[Home] [Courseware] [News] [Articles] [Resellers] [About Us] [Order] [FAQ] [Support]