|UAMIGA DAY - ALBANY STYLE|U BY DANIEL MARTIN On Saturday, October 20, approximately 500 people trooped into the meeting room at the Colonie Town Library between the hours of 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM and witnessed the first Amiga Day, co-sponsored by the Capital District Amiga Users Group (CDAUG) and the Latham Amiga Users Group (LAUG). The motivations of these people were known only to themselves but the impressions that were made upon them seemed to be obvious: people were impressed. As they entered they were greeted by flashing, colorful Amiga screens filled with games, DeskTop Publishing, dazzling Amiga graphics, spreadsheets, and a whole smorgasboard of Amiga production. But though transparent to them, hours of work and planning, spread over an eight month period, were behind the colors and noises and pretty screens that greeted them. The idea of an Amiga Day first became known to me, and I think most of our members, when it was suggested by Herb Brown at one of our monthly CDAUG meetings late last fall or early last winter. As I recall, no one exactly jumped all over the idea. People seemed to say, " Uh-huh, Amiga Day, that's cute,"and the idea seemed to languish for a while. But it obviously burned in Herb's heart and mind because soon Larry Moonan, last year's president, was approached by LAUG to have a sit-down chit-chat between the CDAUG officers group and the LAUG Executive Committee. Finally that meeting came off on LAUG's turf and eventually meandered over to Latham's 76 Diner over cheesecake, coffee, and various and sundry delectables. In general, the idea seemed to be gaining momemtum as small groups of people gobbled cheesecake and were accosted by Herb saying "It's a good idea, don't you think ? Huh ? Huh ?" It was, indeed, a good idea. Meetings began in earnest last February at the SUNY Earth Sciences Building (in the Amiga lab, no less). Meeting participants were those souls who volunteered to serve on the Amiga Day committee from both groups. Ideas were passed around in very general forms, some very good, some very bad. Some ideas would cause chain reactions to go off as different individuals would be motivated and inspired to add-on and innovate on the original idea, and some ideas when articulated would cause an embarassing silence finally broken by some particularly kind soul who would say something like "Well, I suppose we could study that." Although many people eventually came into the fold and helped out, in the initial stages Larry Moonan, Brian Ginett, Carmen Artino, and Herb Brown, familiar to me from CDAUG were rock solid in attending meetings and contributing to the planning. New to me, but no less hard-working or energetic were John Ryan, the smiling, ebullient Irishman and president of LAUG, and Larry Lowell, who may have made more meetings than anyone else. The first meetings were dominated by discussions on whether or not a "target group" would be identified for Amiga Day, and where Amiga Day would be held. The first choices didn't pan out but were soon forgotten as John Ryan made the Committee's first coup and landed the Meeting Room at the Colonie Town Library. A group went to the library to check out the room and were delighted at the prospect. The "when" of Amiga Day was then hammered out and it was decided that mid-September would be ideal. But something came along and that date soon fell by the wayside Many members of CDAUG and LAUG participated in a bus trip to New York City to the World Of Amiga show in late April. While at the show, Larry Moonan discussed our planned show with some of the Commodore representatives and was chagrined to discover that Commodore was planning a "special show, aimed specifically at user groups" on just the day we had planned. The CBM people felt that since we had chartered a bus to go to the NYC show, it would be "right neighborly" and very courteous to boot, if we would do the same for their show in Valley Forge. (Oh, Larry ! Does God reward the gullible ?) Since we thought it would , indeed, be "right neighborly" and shrewd as well ( because we hoped for some CBM participation in our show ) we pushed back the date of our show to mid-October. When a blurb in a national Amiga rag about the planned CBM user group day was published, we patted ourselves on the back for our foresight and intelligence. Indeed, the CDAUG Officers planned to make a weekend trip of it. As Spring and Summer melted together, meetings were less frequent, but with the approach of late Summer just around the corner, meetings were again resumed at a fever pitch. In the hiatus, Larry Moonan had been busy putting together graphics for Amiga Day. Various pieces of correspondence were circulated for everyone's approval and sign-off. A very important get-together took place in which we went through a lengthy listing of all the known Amiga vendors. Decisions were made as to whether or not each individual vendor would or would not be contacted to supply material (literature, software, demoes) for our use at Amiga Day and a mass mailing was made. At the same time, another mass mailing was done to every level of school that we could find in the Capital District area, from grammar schools to universities. The discussions at the meetings were taking a definite turn toward the educational group, if not as a theme for the show (which it wasn't), then at least as a target group of people who would benefit greatly from an introduction to the Amiga. The response from the vendors, though by no means unanimous, was heartening, and high-quality software and slick give-aways were sent in from all parts of the Amiga world. It also became time to get firm commitments from all entities involved. Both groups worked over their lists of volunteers and began to plan exactly what would be presented and by whom. The Computer Cellar and Contemporary Computers volunteered machines and equipment for use at the extravaganza and these commitments were solidified. After much back-and-forth and discussions, CBM contributed an Amiga 2500. In the initial stages, CBM had committed to a presence, but it was unclear whether that would include a "warm body", equipment, moral support, "attaboys", or a combination of all the above. The indefatigable John Ryan was meanwhile wheeling and dealing with some friends to develop "bags". These "bags" were designed with the two user group logos and a basic commercial for Amiga Day on them. They were a good, quality product, and although we were surprised at the number we had left, since we didn't put a date on them, they will be available for use next year. Somewhere along the line we began to smell a rat. When the aforementioned CBM User Group extravaganza didn't develop ("Hey, has anyone seen anything else about that thing in Valley Forge ?") we all got a little peeved. Plans were finally cancelled for the CDAUG Officers to go down when we discussed CBM's involvement in the event with Howard Diamond, Director of Educational Markets at CBM, when we inverviewed him in mid-September at SUNY. Howard was rather shocked to learn that we even thought CBM was involved with this show (he had been there the year before and was not favorably impressed) and jumped on the phone to confirm what we had expected: no CBM involvement. Live and learn, Ma. But during the interview with Howard, he infected us with his enthusiasm for a product developed for the Amiga called "Struggles For Justice" by Scholastic Solutions Software . Howard's description of this "software of the future" set the wheels "a-turning" in Lou Matrazzo's head and Luigi began to work his magic. Lou figured that "scoring" this piece would really make the show. For those of you who don't know, "Struggles For Justice" is an Amiga Vision application which uses a laser disk player to access sound and video output. The theme of this particular product is the history, past and present, of Black, Hispanic, and Native Americans in the United States, focusing on the fight for equality and civil rights. Just from Howard's description we wanted it: but Lou did something about it. Lou went through the normal channels at CBM, and, when he finally got in touch with the right person, he was ruefully told that CBM could not supply us with the product, since it was not their own, and that it "was doubtful" that Scholastic Solutions would let us have it. (O Ye of little faith !) It took Lou about ten minutes to get the committment from Scholastic Solutions, complete with software and laser disk player. It was shipped in time to be demoed at CDAUG's meeting before the Amiga Day event. The last few weeks before the show, Larry Moonan held meetings with his stalwart band of volunteers and made out table assignments, complete with drawings of the room, for all involved. The presentation of all the various types of Amiga products to be displayed and how they would psychologically impact on those who came into the room were considered. Name tags were made, the bags were ready, xerox copies of newsletters and other hand-outs were cranked out on CDAUG's newly acquired copy machine, and in the midst of it all, CDAUG held it's elections. And then the day came... |UAMIGA DAY|U As I entered the spacious Stedman Room at the Colonie Town Library I was confronted with frenetic energy. Boxes were heaped all over as presenters hustled to assemble machines and peripherals in order to meet the 10:00 AM deadline and show start. Despite the hustle and bustle, there was a noticeable undercurrent: How many would come ? ("If you build it, he will come.") This was discernible in the almost compulsive every-other-minute glance at wrist watches, and a few verbalizations. (" Why don't they have it on their announcement board at the entrance ?") The library, as promised, had given the show a front page article in their newsletter. The location of the library could not have been better for the Capital District: just off of Wolf Road, one of the busiest thoroughfares in the area. All the pieces were there. And they came. As John Q. Public entered the room through the door at the corner of the rectangle, he saw a large room (dimensions unknown, but bigger than a breadbasket) whose outer perimeter was outlined by tables with computers on top of them. In the middle was a table covered with literature from various developers and the floor around the table was covered with copies of newsletters. At least one person sat at each computer. The first screen to his right showed off "Struggles For Justice", the dynamite application from Scholastic Solutions. Next along the bottom wall was a large color TV/monitor, constantly playing an Amiga-related videotape from the VCR nestled underneath it on a shelf. As he moved around the room he saw Lou doing DTP, with his LaserJet hooked up so he could see output, or scanning clip art with the Migraph. Moving along he could talk to enthusiasts demonstrating CAD, Telecommunications, spreadsheets, databases, you name it. Big Al was walking people through Gold Disk's "The Office", their new integrated productivity package which they kindly donated, while next to him Peter "Brickhead" Brickman was digitizing sounds and voices from old Star Trek tapes. He could see the A-Max in action ("Hey, I didn't know it could do that"), as people asked, sometimes curiously, sometimes smugly, "Can it run HyperCard ?" John Rafalak had his MIDI stuff hooked-up and talked to all comers about the stereo sound capabilities of Amy. Most likely, John Q. Public, Jr., went to the left as he walked in, inexorably drawn by the familiar sights and sounds of on-screen karate bouts and space ships shooting it out with other space ships. Larry Lowell buttonholed some as he demonstrated, right in the middle of the game area, some educational games and programs, cunningly placed in the middle of shoot-em-up heaven. Larry Moonan and John Ryan walked around and tried to answer every question they could. People looking for a particular application were ushered to the correct area, were assured that no one was lying about how much an Amiga costs, gave out phone numbers and times and addresses of people to contact and meetings to attend. Through it all, although the sound and noise never reached the decibel level of a U2 concert, one needed to "project" to be heard. At about three in the afternoon, the crowd started to thin out, and the looks toward the wrist renewed. Everyone was tired, the fatigue of after-adrenalin burn-off. The time to pack up came soon enough and boxes re-emerged from their hiding places. We tried to leave as we came, but everyone was smiling. Amiga Day was a success. And thoughts turned to next year.