Hawaii Geek Week

Well, we just had another wonderful and successful Hawaii Geek Week, that culminated with LCC and HMAUS’ big show yesterday; Geek Day and Mactoberfest. Lots of people attended all the events. Lots of learning, sharing, and discussions on a wide variety of great topics.

Thanks to all those who participated! Hopefully you’ll check out some of the wonderful resources and groups around town — including Leeward Community College, Hawaii MacIntosh & Apple User Society, Techhui, or others.

And, of course a HUGE thanks to all those people who put this together — extra special thanks to Joan Matsukawa (HMAUS) and Christian Ganne (LCC)!

If you have any photos, stories, or tips, be sure to let us know so we can make next year’s even better! Contact here, HMAUS, Twitter, or Techhui. And don’t forget to join HMAUS as a member so you’ll be able to help make 2010’s Hawaii Geek Week as exciting and diverse as this years!

This is your chance to help promote geekdom in Hawaii while learning some neat tricks to impress your friends and family: Hawaii Geek Week 2009 is happening NOW!

Hawaii Macintosh & Apple Users’ Society (HMAUS) and Leeward Community College are teaming up to make HGW 2009 the best yet! All events are FREE and open to the public!

Fire your Twitter, Facebook, and Techhui accounts; share with others, meet some new friends, and get out of the house!

Learn more:
http://hmaus.org/mactoberfest09 and http://www.leeward.hawaii.edu/geekday

Here’s a one-page flyer: Hawaii Geek Week and Mactoberfest 2009 Flyer.

If you plan to attend Geek Day/Mactoberfest on 24th, you should consider pre-ordering your food now: HMAUS Lunch Orders (or try to find something on the LCC campus).

See you there!

Hawai’i Geek Week starts on October 17, 2009 and culminates with a full day of workshops, talks, and a Professional Photographers of Hawai’i (PPH) flea market on October 24, 2009.  All events are free and you don’t have to be a geek to attend. The goal of the week is to learn about new, interesting technology related things, things that enhance your understanding of how the world works, things that can be fun and exciting for you.

Here are things happening during Geek Week.

Star Gazing Party October 17 and October 24

Have you ever  wanted to look through a telescope with someone who knew what they were looking at?  The Hawaiian Astronomical Society of amateur astronomers invites you to do just that at Dillingham Field on 10/17 and at Kahala Park on 10/24.   Check their website for more information.  No telescope needed, just curiosity!  Everyone welcome!   http://www.hawastsoc.org/

HMAUS presents three diverse and interesting evening sessions!
Location and Parking:  ING Direct Cafe 1958 Kalakaua Avenue.
Coffee drinks are very reasonably priced sandwiches and a hot dish are offered each day so come, get something to eat and enjoy the session!

TechHui Community
Tuesday, Oct. 20 • 6:30 p.m.– 8 p.m.

Daniel Leuck, CEO of Ikayzo, the company that created and sponsors TechHui.com, will talk about this science and technology focused online community.  Apple and PC enthusiasts ranging from programmers and web designers, to people just getting started with blogging participate in the TechHui community. Social media brings together scientists and technologists in Hawaii and abroad in an exciting way!

Do you REALLY need a webmaster?
Wednesday, Oct. 21 • 6:30 p.m.–8 p.m.

Mark Johnson is the founder of logicspin, a Hawaii based software development and consulting company.  Launching a website is the just the first step – keeping a website updated and fresh will help your search engine rankings and keep your customers coming back.  Modern content management systems enable you to easily create and update a website without technical knowledge, resulting in lower initial and ongoing costs.  This interactive talk will provide real world examples with Menumill.com, a Hawaii based startup.

Mark’s experience ranges from his own online auction start-up way back in 1996, the search engine AltaVista, Oracle, and most recently co-founding Menumill and ecoBorrow, a very unique kind of social network.  http://www.logicspin.com

Mac OS X vis a vis Windows 7
Thursday, Oct. 22 • 6:30 p.m.–8 p.m.

Rolf Nordahl, owner of Macmouse Club compares features of Mac OS X with the soon to be released Windows 7.  Mac OS X has 10 built-in apps for pictures, movies, music, calendar, address book and mail, and they are all superbly integrated.  Snow Leopard. the latest OS’s big sell is it’s speed.  BUT on the other side of the table is Jeff Litvinoss, owner or Personal Touch Computers and Windows 7 with it’s new bells in whistles, faster processing, greater stability, all the things you’ve been waiting to hear.   This you need to come for!

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Mahalo to all the fascinating speakers, wonderful sponsors, and engaging participants that made Hawaii Geek Week such a success!   From Mactoberfest starting things off, to Podcamp ending the week, it was a great way to get all the Web 2.0 social-networking, photo-taking, blogging geeks together to highlight how technology is really changing our lives in some remarkable ways, right here in Hawaii!

Now, what about next year…?!

Windward Community College is having their Tech Talk 2008, Friday the 24th, from 8am to 2pm. There will be free conferences showcasing UH Community Colleges’ education and training programs along with free workshops on the latest computer and Internet applications, including “WordPress for Absolute Novices” and “Digital Media Workflow for Educators and Presenters”.

It’s all happening in the Hale Akoakoa Building at WCC, with lots of door prizes and tours of the campus.

Friday and Saturday (24 and 25th) are Podcamp/Wordcamp Hawaii, in the Hawaii Convention Center.   Lots of great sponsors have come together to help make this event really special!   Add to this a great line up of speakers, including Matt Mullenweg, Congressman Neil Abercrombie, and Neenz Faleafine, on a wide variety of topics such as; Using Video to Build Community, Podcasting tips for Musicians & Bands, and Using Social Networks & Managing Privacy, and you’ve got two great days of networking, learning, and fun!

Check out the complete schedule for the event and be sure to register!   There’s even prize giveaways, and a Beach BBQ planned for Saturday night!   See you there…

Here’s just a sample of some of the topics to be discussed during Hawaii Geek Week — October 18th through 25th:

Mactoberfest: Mac, Apple, iPod, iPhone, Macbook, flea market bargains, computer repair

Digital Photo Walkabout:  landscape photography, photo blogs, natural lighting, Hawaii’s beauty

Web Weavers Workshop: Blogging, Wordpress, articles, posts, comments, SEO, visitors

TechTalk: University of Hawaii technical education, training, classes, lectures, certifications, degrees

Hawaii Podcamp:  Podcasting, syndication, RSS feeds, subscriptions, Web 2.0

Of course, you’ll also find lots of other local Hawaii geeks at all of these events. But you better hurry and sign up now, spaces on some are very limited!

This year’s Hawaii Geek Week kicks off with Mactoberfest, on Saturday, October 18. Governor Linda Lingle will proclaim October 18 through 25 as Hawaii Geek Week. Yeah! A full week of geek.

Here’s an overview of the activities for this week long celebration:

On October 18th, for Mactoberfest, the keynote speaker this year will be noted technology blogger, WordPress evangelist, world traveler and professional photographer, Lorelle VanFossen. In the afternoon she will be joined by the co-hosts of Hawaii’s best radio show about technology, Burt Lum and Ryan Ozawa, of Bytemarks Cafe; Neenz Faleafine from Alltop; and Bob Lew, HMAUS’ long time friend and Apple evangelist. The morning session will include a presentation from Lorenz Sell on iLovePhotos and John Dalton on Studio Artist. Be sure to register for event early!

If you like photography and want to trade clicks with the best let’s do a Photo Walkabout with Lorelle. She’s a professional photographer who specializes in nature subjects. What better locale to do that than in Hawaii! That’ll be Sunday afternoon, October 19, and we’ll end the day relaxing and talking story over dinner somewhere in Honolulu. If you want in, be sure to sign up early!

If you want to really get a handle on your web site, your blog, or how to promote your web site then sign up for the all day hands-on Web Weavers Workshop with Lorelle on Wednesday, October 22. All students will be given a copy of Lorelle’s book “Blogging Tips, What bloggers won’t tell you about blogging.” Read more and register now: Web Weavers Workshop/.

Then, on Friday, October 24, Windward Community College will hold it’s free Tech Conference showcasing UH Community Colleges’ education and training programs, with Workshops and Presentations throughout the morning, along with door prizes and exhibitions!

The week hits a climax with the Hawaii Podcamp on October 24 & 25th . Meet with others at this “unconvention” and learn from others how to set up your blog site, where to host your video files, and where the best Web 2.0 applications are. There are several tracks: WordPress Blogging, Podcasting, Social Media, and Business Uses. FREE! Pre-registration required: www.podcamphawaii.com.

We’re excited to tell you about the upcoming events for Hawaii Geek Week. We’ve got a lot of interesting speakers, great programs, cool topics, and even wonderful prizes to give away.

Check our ABOUT page to learn more about the events and dates.

We’ll be adding more details and how to participate soon, so be sure to check back!