Recap of Eleventh Annual San Francisco SuperMeet

The 11th Annual San Francisco SuperMeet is now history and it was blast! The San Francisco/Bay Area crowd never fails to support the SuperMeet and each other. Thanks SF. Can’t wait for 2013.

500 people showed up to watch an array of excellent presentations on stage and mingle with each other and with the over 25 companies supporting the SuperMeet Digital Showcase. Lots of short films were showcased in the Open Screen Theater and they were all wonderful. Great talent in the Bay Area.

As most of you have heard, at this SuperMeet we formally dropped the “F” from our umbrella organization, “FCPUG Network” to create the “Creative Pro User Group Network," or CPUG Network. This name change simply reflects what SuperMeets have become over the last few years and should not in any way be viewed as a reaction to the release of Final Cut Pro X. We all share an understanding of and passion for the future of Visual Storytelling, and we remain just as enthusiastic and committed to Final Cut Pro X as we are with all other NLEs. If there is a motto to the CPUG Network and to the SuperMeets, it would be “We don’t care what tools you use, we only care what you do with the tools you use.” Over the next few weeks you will see the name change propagate throughout our websites and our outreach.

We had some great presos from some very talented folks.

Canon presented Alex Buono, DP for NBC's Saturday Night Live Film Unit. Alex showed off the new EOS C300 and a few short films from past SNL shows.

DP and editor Curt Pair gave an excellent preso on using Matrox MXO2 LE with MAX technology in his workflow.

Adobe’s Al Mooney showed us how to accelerate our workflow with Premiere CS5.5 and gave a sneak peak at “Prelude.” an ingest, logging and rough cut tool to be available soon.

Filmmaker Jesse Rosten had the crowd in hysterics with his short viral film, “Fotoshop.”

DigitalFilm Tree's Ramy Katrib gave us the World Premiere of a powerful mobile application that provides you a platform to view, comment, and creatively collaborate on an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. Called “Scribbeo” it will be in the App Store soon.

And Philip Hodgetts gave us a bunch of very good tips and predictions on “what to do now, and where do we go from here.”

And then we handed out about $55,000 worth of valuable prizes to dozens of lucky winners as part of the World Famous Raffle.

If you missed the SuperMeet, you will be able to watch parts of it soon on our YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/FCPUGSuperMeet

Thank you San Francisco! There were a lot of people here who helped us promote this event and you know who you are.

Big time thanks must go to Canon, Matrox and Blackmagic Design and to Digital FIlmTree for their generous financial and technical support. Without them we world have been forced to hold this event on Market St. under a tent.

Special thanks to Claudia Cask of the SF Cutters for her tireless work and to Chris Eschweiler for your council.

Thanks to all of the generous volunteers: Michael Stoffan for handling the Open Screen Theater; King Rhoton, Donald Berube, Dean Cleary, Liam Johnson for helping out with the videotaping, Joanne Dorgan and all the “Cutters” who pitched in and helped.

SuperMeets are so much more than what is on stage. They are a gathering of like minded creative Visual Sotrytellers. As producers of these events we get a front row center seat and a chance to hang out and learn from all of you. That alone is why we do these events. They are a privilege and we thank you all for attending and for your continued support.

The next SuperMeet will be in Las Vegas on Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at venue to be announced. Tickets go on sale soon. Don't miss it!

Until then, support your local UGs, and keep checking the supermeet.com web site for further news on when and where a Supermeet will be coming to your city.

http://www.supermeet.com

Daniel Bérubé & Michael Horton