I'm in the Final Sesson of the Final Cut Studio Conference in Mt. Pleasant, MI, and thought I'd just give you the redux and you can relive my torturous last couple of days.

Torturous?! Yes! I left for the conference on Wednesday and just before I was getting ready to leave, my Mac Book Pro died. Died with all of the notes and project files that I needed. Died with my life. I am way to dependent on my laptop. Luckily I had a fairly recent backup and also I could use the Target Boot Mode on my old G4 Powerbook, which I am now using (and very thankful to still have around!) I spent the next two hours scrambling to get my stuff together for the conference. Of course, my Powerboook didn't have FCS installed and I couldn't find the installer disks anywhere. I did get it installed thanks to my good friend Karen (thanks Karen!) but it was very stressful.

I got to the Flying Eagle Casino where the conference is held. When you drive in the front gate there are two enormous eagles on the sign in the front and I was expecting a super-cheesy Native American decorated hotel. I have to say, the hotel and conference center (and the pool) are gorgeous. This is a beautiful facility.

There was a meet and greet that evening and I got to meet the other trainers, including Jem Schofield and Mike Wilkinson. Both were huge helps to me getting things installed on this PowerBook so I could get things together. They had a nice little cocktail party spread and many of the attendees came. Most were from Detroit and the suburbs but I met some people from all over Michigan.

I was pretty frazzled about my laptop situation, so after the meet and greet I just went up to my room and tried to get myself together for my presentations. I did a presentation on an introduction to Motion first. I used a computer that Steve Julin, the guy running the conference, had set up. That presentation actually went really well. It is material that I know really well and it's easy stuff to explain. Next I did a another 90 minute presentation, this one on working with 3D, lights and particles in Motion. That also went pretty okay. It was a huge conference room with big round tables and felt like I was at a wedding reception (minus the bad music and drunk groomsmen of course!) I've never taught in such a large room, but considering my computer problems, I made it through pretty okay.

After that, lunch. They had a really nice buffet with fish and chicken in gravy with biscuits and salad and veggies. It was very swanky.

At 4pm we had a 60 tips in 60 seconds. First Mike Wilkinson covered 20 tips in Final Cut Pro. Jem Schofield then did a fantastic 20 tips on DVD Studio Pro. I then did 20 on Apple Motion. My caffine had worn off at that point and files weren't linking here and there. Let's just say it could have gone better.

Steve Julin took us out for drinks and food with the trainers and then I went back to the room to finish my keying presentation that took place this morning. I ended up changing my presentation at the last minute due to problems with not having everything I needed on this laptop, but overall I think it went okay.

Steve Julin was telling me that next year they are considering opening the conference up to Adobe products and even Avid for classes. I think that would be fantastic and I'd love to come back next year (with MY laptop in full working order) and teach some After Effects and plugins. It is what I know best, afterall. This has been a terrific conference and I highly recommend it for 2009. This hotel is fantastic. The conference was very well organized and I've learned so much from the other trainers. Thanks to Steve Julin, for inviting me to teach some seminars.