Bill McEwen and the Dinner at Amiga2000 in St. Louis:
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	You know what sucks about this?  I lost the first set I did before I could post it!  A 
quick reminder to all of you kiddies out there: Backup your work.

Unless otherwise stated, all content is of Bill McEwen's Speech.
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	Bill: How's that? Technology.  First off, last year I had to sit over there hitting but-
tons.  We need to thank a lot of folks, first yourselves. Also, Bob Sharpe and Diana.  

<audience> Oh my god, bend over :) laughter

Bill: These are the first Amiga Bomber Jackets.  Bob Sharpe is a delight to work with, 
and I know I'm not---<Bill pretends to be Bob, "Bill, Bill you there?, Bill?, Call me back."
<laughter>

Bill: Thank you both very much.

Bill: Now on the same taken we have something for all of you.  <Pulls out a six pack of 
diet coke> As you know I need a constant stream of caffeine when I talk, and I have a 
lot to talk about tonight.  We have some special T-Shirts for all of you, and nowhere else 
will they be available.  Just line up and get them.  <Short break - while ppl get their 
shirts>  

Bill:  I would like to thank you for being here.

Bill:  I know this has been kind of dramatic. I'm going to start <Fleecy interrupts-"in the 
beginning"> <Bill continues> "in the beginning" <muffled laughter> I would like to thank 
Marc Ripkin of Scala for helping me with the templates <he mentions something quietly 
about being impressed with Scala>

In the Amiga World this is usually a day of classic misinformation, and I came this close, 
THIS CLOSE, to saying "we bought MicroSoft," but I thought it would have been known 
immediately that I was lying.

A quick recap of how we got here:  I think we all know that GW changed their plans.. I 
got fired (laughter) So I made them an offer in November, they accepted December the 
29'th.  And, today we own Amiga.  It is important to note that this will be the first time in 
the history of the Amiga--since the first Amiga shipped off of the assembly line--that 
there is NO PC money in the company.

We are focused 100% on the Amiga. This is our only business; there is nothing here at 
all that will distract us from our job.

I had asked the AAC members what would be the top 10 questions about what was go-
ing on, and first and foremost was, "why are you doing this?"  More curiously since, the 
first time I saw an Amiga was in 1998.

Well the reality is:  YOU GUYS

The community. If it weren't for you there would be nothing to buy but a name.  If it 
weren't for you it wouldn't have been around for GW, Viscorp, or Escom.

You guys have made it, you have kept it going, and you are the sole reason for it's sur-
vival.  You owe yourselves a round of applause; you are the reason that we are even 
here today. <Applause

Amigas best days are ahead.  We haven't even scratched the surface. <applause>

A little background on Amino Dev. Corp., a name that will ring in infamy! <Laughter

On Aug 30, I received a phone call from Jim VonHollas--he notified me that the 31'st 
was my last day. I did not receive a severance package. <someone in the audience 
"ouch">

So on August 31, I wrote a note to Mr. Collas and said I wanted to buy Amiga.  I had no 
money, they didn't know that.  <Laughter> And oddly enough, Thom Shmidt wrote me 
back--I should have saw that one coming. <heavy laughter>  And, what he said was, 
"Jim VonHolley would contact you.  And some time went by, he contacted me. Then, we 
discussed the opportunity.

Before Amino even got started there was a young man I met at an airport, a very short 
young man.  <Laughter  It was in Minneapolis St. Paul.  I had never met this person. 
Oh, and he talked funny. <Laughter>

I spotted him as only I could--he was reading some book called "programming Java for 
Dummies" or something.  <Laughter> As it turned out, he was somebody I had a kin-
dred spirit with. Now what was funny is that we had never known each other--and we 
were both flying down to visit GW.  We immediately started talking and discovered we 
had the exact same ideas. The same vision to what the future was going to be, what it 
would take to get there, and how to get there.

As a sidenote, I had known Jeff Schindler from many years before--he was one of my 
customers.  So, Jeff thinks he is going to have to introduce us and give a big Warm up 
talk.  Instead, Fleecy and I walk off the plane the best of friends.  Later, Fleecy and I 
spent more time together than Jeff and I did.

During this process at GW, Fleecy and I were contractors, we were never hired.  Also 
as we went through this , we went through many gyrations.  As we all know at one point 
we were talking to a company called QNX.  

There was a gentleman at QNX at the time, who was by far their best sales-person.  He 
likes Pokemon Reruns, but is a very knowledgable person.  Again, there was that kin-
dred spirit and understanding.

His cooperation means a great deal. Without you knowing, because of Amiga--he lost 
his Job too! So, Suddenly Randy Hughes from QNX is unemployed because of Amiga. 
<Laughter>

Fleecy was sacked first <Fleecy butts in- "You always follow me."> I got axed second, 
and Randy lost his job at QNX--ALL TIED TO THE AMIGA..

And yet, we all still had a passion to do something.  We had an ideal that something 
else had to be done.  So the 3 of us together are the ones who own the Majority of 
YOUR company.

The three of us will always have the control, we have the highest shares and we are 
never giving it up.. So we are the people who moved forward with GW to make this hap-
pen.

It wasn't an easy road, as none of us are wealthy people.  So in the beginning we had a 
tiny box to work in.  These were our offices <the screen shows a tiny office next to a car 
wash>

I left my laser-pointer at home, does anyone have one with them?

<from the audience: Robert Hamilton--Lostman--throws one up to him>

Bill: I said to myself that someone in here will have one I can borrow <Laughter>>

<a shot of the car-wash through his office window is on the overhead>
This was my view. And for an extra dollar we could wash our car whenever it was 
needed.  With all that, we raised our money and did what we needed to do.

But for some reason somebody out here loves to start rumors.  Just today I've heard 
that "we're out of money, we aren't going to make it."  Well that would be surprising to 
our bank, we are their largest depositor. <Laughter>

<pictures of the new offices>
This is where we are today; these are our new world headquarters.  <Clapping>  We 
have the second floor. We are the second tenant.  Interestingly, Tom Clancey, the 
building's owner is a technology addict--with some amazing stuff.  We have a great time 
with their engineers--they have a 3d modeling laser downstairs, so when we start crank-
ing our models we can use it for free! <Clapping laughter, ect>

Just to show that we are real, here is what the offices look like right now; we have 
10,000 sq. Feet! <Shows slide> And, every stick of furniture is paid for in cash! 

Because of our financial situation, we were not required to sign a guarantee on this 
space.  Here is a slide of the accounts payable--just so you would know. <Slide>

We have a new hire that just came on board, his name is Matt. He is our QA person.  
Now here's my view... <Slide then applause>

We put a lean on some property there <slide> we plan on building a 30,000 sq.ft. Build-
ing there.  I think that we will be needing it.

<slide of Amiga employees at some ski slopes> this is what happens when you are too 
close to a ski slope.  <Slide again> These guys are supposed to be working.  You know 
who that guy is--Fleecy <Laughter>> There is a video of him on the ground the whole 
time. <Big laughter>

As we move forward there is an interesting dynamic here.  We basically took over op-
erations on Jan. 3rd--thats when we had our first day of Amiga.  So, for us it's been 
three months.  And you guys haven't had a thing for years.  So from your prospective 
its, "OK we've been waiting for a long time." For us its  like, "It's been 90 days." 
<Laughter>

So what have we been up to for the last 3 months???

Some of the first issues that we dealt with was going out and doing a sampling...

The first was the dealers out there, and we heard all kinds of things from them.

Much had to do with add on products--there weren't any. It was hard to get any cards, 
ect. We made a resolution so you will see some new products coming out.  These will 
be coming from some third party vendors--along with some stuff from ourselves.

We have also opened up a warehouse for North and South America here.  So we have 
facilities in Europe and the US for a shorter time to get things to you.

We have also created a lower pricing structure.  This was one thing while I was at that 
other company when I visited user-groups I heard over and over and over again: Stuff 
was too expensive.

So even though some others thought this was a bad idea, I lowered them in the expec-
tation that you would buy them.  So far, I've been wrong.  So my hope is that some of 
you will start going out and buying some of these things now.  Again, this is not a fire-
sale, but we want to move you ahead to be able to run the new platform as we move 
ahead.

The second issue:  the dying market...

We've heard time and time again that user groups are getting smaller. We know about 
the magazine closings.  We know the situation that you want to know whats going on.  
So, there we are helping out there with third parties to get new cards being made avail-
able to you, and new stuff in general. Another thing is strategic alliances, but more on 
that in a few minutes.

But to understand what we're doing and why we are doing it... 

The third thing is advertising.  For those of you who have places for advertising, please 
contact us.  I know in the last 90 days we have only had two people contact us about 
advertising.  Right now we don't have a lot of time to be pro-active, to go and find where 
to advertise.  Our fist Ad is in AmigaActive--on the back of the cover.  We will have a 
new website up in a few days with our own electronic magazine.  You can download it, 
print it, give it out..  Fletcher Huage will be the editor of the publication.  <applause>>

The regular publications will translate and comment on our official words, and hopefully 
increase business for them.  Our publication will give the other publications something 
to write about, and that in itself will be helpful.

Strategies and moving forward---

Partnerships will be critical to our success.  More importantly, they will only be if they 
make sense.  We aren't going to do partnerships with everyone who comes knocking on 
the door.  It HAS to make sense for the future.

Everything that we are doing is dedicated to tomorrow.  Everything we are doing, is in 
the understanding that today we have issues we need to take care of to help create a 
healthy environment to bring you forward.  So we have two challenges before us.  We 
are dealing with the issues today at the same time we are working with strategic part-
ners for moving ahead to tomorrow.  We are constructing relationships with the Amiga 
community.

We've had conversations with Thom of DCE to get the products we want at the 
price-point necessary to get them into your hands. Thom is fantastic to work with, by the 
way.

Mark from ACT is working with us not only for the transitional stage but also on the 
NEW product line. To help us with the sound requirements.

We are working closely with Hyperion - for 3d engines ect...

The folks at Met@Box have not only notified us that their products are arriving shortly, 
but will also run the new OS.  If you don't have something that will take those cards, you 
will want to get a 1200 to do so. 

Also, there is Haage&Partner, and I heard that Jurrgan was here...  There he is 
<applause>>>  Both Juurgan and Marcus is here! <applause>  They along with Hype-
rion are talking with Tao <fleecy: it's pronounced DaO>


Right now I would like to introduce someone to you. I mentioned him briefly before.  
He's one of the founders of the new Amiga, and thats Randy Hughes.  Randy is the VP 
of sales and strategic alliances.  This is his first time under the Amiga hat, so if you 
would--give it up for Randy <applause>

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Randy: thank you very much ladies and gentlemen.  I'm going to be very brief, I'm here 
to introduce you to a fine young lady and her parents.  That young lady is the BoXeR, 
and her parents are Paul, Dan, and Scott of AntiGravity.  We have agreed to a long 
term strategic relationship whereby we would be providing the legacy AmigaOS to Anti-
Gravity, and also coming to the Next Generation Amigas.. With that--AntiGravity. 
<applause>

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<Randy actually takes the mike with him for a few moments, so it becomes hard to hear 
Dan of antigravity :)  live stuff is so much fun>

Dan:  I would like to thank everyone here for being patient and supportive over the last 2 
years. Through your support we've had the ability to stick it out.  After a while, we de-
cided to go after the technology rights from Axxis Innovations.  Mick will become our di-
rector of BoXeR developments.

We have the World Wide distribution rights, and Blittersonft will become our center for 
UK operations. We are excited because we are very close to the end of the tunnel.  The 
hardware design is finished, and we are in the very final stages of programming the 
AGA emulation.  We are really looking forward to bringing a new Amiga to the market, 
so everyone can experience that Amiga magic again--with something that is new and 
fast--and very expandable for the future---the future of the New Amiga!!
<big round of applause>

Bill:  We've been waiting for a while for the BoXeR. So please, please support AntiGrav-
ity and the BoXeR..

<more applause>
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This concludes part 1 of the Bill McEwen's Amiga:2000 speaking engagement.
Part two will contain more info about the new Amiga! JEEP!
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