By Bill Needle
Well, I might take a train, might take a plane,
But if I have to walk,
I'm gonna get there just the same
I'm going to Kansas City,
Kansas City here I come
Excerpt from the song “Kansas City Here I Come” (Wilbur Harrison, 1959)
Airline ticket? Who Needs an Airline ticket?! Who would have thunk that you would actually have to click Purchase when you book airline tickets online? Well, the check-in employees at US Airways certainly want you to. Tom Anzai was caught at the check-in counter with a reservation in hand but no ticket. After some frantic calls to host, Rick Altman, and to expedia.com agents it became apparent that Kansas City was looking farther than Oz especially when faced with a same-day flight booking of up to $1300 US. “Try one last time to charm the US Airways check-in people,” said Rick via cell phone. Well, the charm worked as Tom huddled with US Airways employees Chandra daCosta and Nick Farah along with their anachronous mainframe computer. Commands were entered with the mutterings “I'll try this trick another employee once showed me.” “Well, alrighty then...how about $300?” Sold! After some high fives and a complimentary pen to Chandra Tom was off to KC with only a half-hour delay than the original schedule. Yes, I'm Goin' to Kansas City, Kansas City here I come.
Wait a minute...Why the heck is the conference in Kansas City? Well, KC was chosen for its central location to the rest of the continent giving attendees an “approachable, affordable, and painless” alternative than previous conference locations. Tom found KC to be suprisingly interesting in terms of downtown architecture, and more importantly, the Embassy Suites had an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet and happy hour each day! The hotel was clean, airy, and with big rooms that had an adjoining sitting area. A great place for a conference.
Yo, down there! Just look down from your hotel door
and you can see who's lounging around at the café.
Ninety-seven attendees were on hand to hear Day One's keynote speech by Ventura Product Manager, Kim Rotshtetter. If the length of her speech is any indication, Ventura will be out SHORTly. While she didn't say anything to offend anyone, she didn't bring down the house with a deserved coach Lombardi speech about Ventura being back either. But we love her all the same. She's such a swell gal to have on our side. *Gush!*
BTW, if you need some Lombardi quotes go to the Vince Lombardi Official Quotes page. It may help you to rally the troops and sound really inspirational. Well, OK at least to a bunch of jocks on a football field...
“She didn't tell them that.” Jim Hart sneeking
a peek at Kim Rotshtetter's laptop notes.
After almost four years of neglect, Ventura is now on its way back on the store shelves by October, 2002 with version 10. Here's some of the most-asked questions regarding Ventura 10:
What's in the Ventura 10 box?
» Corel Ventura® 10
» Corel® DataBase Publisher
» Corel CAPTURE™ 11
» Corel Barcode Wizard
» XML Mapping Editor
» Color User Guide
» 1,500+ TrueType® and Type 1 fonts
What's missing?
CorelScript Editor and no WordPerfect or Photo-Paint (as in versions 7 and 8).
What operating system do you need to run Ventura 10?
Windows® 2000 or Windows XP
What are the notable new features and improvements?
» XML import
» Table tags
» Publish to PDF
» New bitmap filters
» Revamped print engine with preflight warnings
» New import filters including SVG and CorelDRAW 11
» Improved footnote capablilty
» Fixed search and replace
How much does it cost?
Suggested retail price is $699 US. Registered users of Ventura 7 or 8 may upgrade at a price of $249 US.
Where can I go for more information?
What to Do in KC
Kansas City began as nothing more than a place providing supplies for those headed west. It was a town founded, at least in the beginning, to serve people who had no intention of staying. (And we wanted a conference here?) The debate over what to name the town began when tracts of land were sold to 14 men. Abraham Fonda (no relation to Henry, Jane, or Bridget), one of the land owners, wanted it named after him but that was quickly dismissed. Other suggestions, including Possumtrot and Rabbitville, were similarly rejected. Thank goodness for that. Finally, it was decided that the town should be named after the Kanza (or is that Kanzai?) Indians who lived just beyond the boundaries of the new town. Thus, the Town of Kansas was born. The town was officially incorporated by the state of Missouri as the City of Kansas on March 28, 1853.
The conference attendees had a choice Saturday night to either board a bus and go down to the Country Club Plaza in downtown Kansas City or watch pay-for-view reruns of The Green Mile. Fortunately, a bus load and several cars full of attendees headed downtown. Good call as The Country Club Plaza area was modelled after Seville, Spain with stores, restaurants, bars and Spanish architecture. That, and a whole lot of large, ceramic teddy bears. I guess it has to do with the March of Teddy Bears event held in KC to mark the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the teddy bear. Either that or they ran out of places to put water fountains.
Kansas City is known worldwide for its sizzling steaks and world-famous barbecue dating back to the early 1900s. KC boasts more than 90 barbecue restaurants and dozens of steakhouses. I wonder if Kansians bother to eat the vegetables on their plates? Judging by the lineup at KC Masterpiece Barbecue and Grill with its New York Daily News' “The very best barbecue in Kansas City” label and Bon Appetit magazine's “Best ribs ... in the universe” the patrons will just about eat anything that's resembles cooked flesh. Here's a tip if you do go to the KC MB&G: avoid the lineup by ordering at the take-out booth beside the restaurant and eat dinner down by the river (preferably not in a van down by the river). Tom would recommend avoiding the sizzling flesh and head to The Cheesecake Factory offering over 200 menu items from avocado eggrolls, tuscan chicken salad and specialty pizzas, to fresh fish, pasta, and omellete plates...and yes, over 40 delicious cheesecakes and desserts. Yummy in my tummy!
Thou shall let the water spout in Kansas City!
Everywhere there's water
fountains of all shapes and sizes.
Peter Hancik and Bob van Duuren bear it all.
Interesting Spanish architecture silohettes the KC skyline.
The patrons boarded the bus back to the hotel with full bellies and some with shopping bags. There were bags from the Discovery store, GAP, and Thongs-R-Us. What was that? Read on and you'll find why Bob v. was the butt (pun intended) end of a lot of undergarment jokes especially by one Sherri C. from PIT, PA.
One Dutchman, No Luggage
What do you get when you cross a dutchman with 7000 air miles? Lost luggage. Presenter
Bob van Duuren survived over ten days on borrowed t-shirts (Corel conference shirts at
least) and hotel-supplied toothbrushes and razors. Poor Tom had to room with Bob and
witness the bi-weekly Dutch wash day in the bathtub as well as Dutch lounge wear sponsed
by Hanes (briefs not boxers or thongs). Fortunately, Bob was able to get
his luggage back the day after the conference and he got the last laugh when
fellow presenter and heckler, Allan Shearer, lost his en route back to Ottawa, Canada (it
arrived three hours later). Oh...the irony!
I'm not taking a shower with those in there!
At least Bob's sharp wit and counter-punches were left in tact as he presented to standing room only for his Bob and Allan's Tips and Tricks as well as The Art of Scripting. If only he could correctly pronounce “icon” and “IDea” properly. <gr>
The (Re)New(ed) Beginning for Ventura
It was one of the best-received events we've had. The
software exceeded expectation in many ways, and the group was just so happy to be there.
It's interesting to note the dichotomy: When we hold events that are not in major cities
and/or downtown, the DRAW group gets a bit restless and we hear about it. They want to go
out and see stuff. But the Ventura group is just happy to be together; that's what they
come to these events to do.
~ Rick Altman via email after the conference
That's right. Venturians are passionate about their software of choice. Lend them an ear and they'll tag it to death. Quip that Ventura can't do something and they'll come back with a viable work-around. Mention a product name change and they'll deep six it. Oh, BTW it's now called “Corel Ventura 10”. Publisher is gone from the product name. No big whoop. As long as Ventura keeps what it's doing we'll continue to support it. Another excellent conference gone, another few months of anticipation as we await version 10 to come to a store near you.
Suishi anyone?
Part of the Ventura family (l to r: Phil Frank,
Tom Anzai, Allan Shearer {with Larry the Lobster},
Rick Altman, and Peter Hancik)
Ventura Summit 2002 Photos by Bill Blinn (includes link to who uses Ventura)
“The Ups and Downs of CorelWorld '01”
“The Continuing Saga” CorelWorld '01 Part Deux
For related articles and step-by-step tutorials, please visit Articles & Tutorials.
| What's with hotels that have mini fitness centers and swimming pools where two people have trouble sharing space? And why is it that the only other person in the fitness room is using the machine that you want...at 6:00 in the morning? I mean, how else can you burn off all those calories ingested while eating Kansas City steaks, ribs, and cheesecake? And why...oh, oh. Gotta go. Last call for free drinks and snack foods at the bar. L8r! |
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