I attended my first Acrobat user-group chapter meeting last month. That may not seem like much of a news flash, but in fact, it was something of a milestone — and a harbinger of things to come.
Living in and working from Madison, Wisconsin, the closest chapter currently is a couple states and hundreds of miles away. It wasn’t practical to think I’d be dropping in to hear informational presentations by and ask questions of Adobe staffers and other experts.
So what changed that allowed me to attend a recent meeting — in far-off Boston, no less?
The solution came with Adobe Acrobat 8.0 — or more specifically, with Acrobat Connect, the latest incarnation of the Web conferencing software formerly known as Macromedia Breeze. All user-group chapters are being enabled with Connect, allowing each to host and provide a link to an online meeting room where members can log in at the appointed time to watch and participate in the session. No parking hassles or fees!
In 2007, I’ll be taking advantage of this new capability to attend meetings of many of the other chapters — I’m signed up to receive notices of all meetings. Each announcement will include a special URL for that chapter’s Connect meeting room. The geographic barrier has now been removed! I encourage you to keep an eye on upcoming meetings and to log in when you find one that matches your interests and schedule.
Also, Adobe has just announced an Acrobat Connect Professional Roadshow that will be bringing a free half-day seminar to a dozen cities, beginning next week and running to the end of February. Check out the agenda, locations and dates, then register to learn more about using Connect for online meetings, training courses and on-demand presentations.
On a related note, PodTech.net has a video podcast interview by Robert Scoble (transcript also available) with Peter Ryce, Acrobat Connect product evangelist at Adobe, that provides a detailed overview of the technology’s features, applications and benefits.
