SPEAKERS

Mark Pesce was one of the early pioneers in Virtual Reality. The writer, researcher and teacher is co-inventor of VRML. He is the author of five books and numerous papers on the future of technology. Pesce has taught as a VRML instructor at both the University of California at Santa Cruz and San Francisco State University, the University of Southern California, the USC School of Cinema-Television and at the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) in Sydney, Australia. He holds an Honorary Appointment at the University of Sydney. He has lectured around the world on tech and the future.

Dorothy and her team at Pt England School in the Tamaki Basin of East Auckland have been using Macs extensively in their drive to raise student achievement in a low-income (Decile 1a) school. She has worked as the eLearning facilitator in the schools in the area, is an Apple Distinguished Educator and a Google Certified Teacher. Dorothy has traveled and lectured extensively, both spreading and absorbing knowledge. (Dorothy’s blog is http://manaiakalani.blogspot.com/.)

Matthew JC Powell, Keynote Day 2 and celebrity MC for CreativeTech Wrap. Former editor of Australian Macworld, the larger-than-life, Canadian-raised Australian is renowned for once tapping out an entire Steve Jobs’ Macworld conference keynote live on his BlackBerry from the audience. Matthew now spends his time running MacTheMag, an electronic Mac magazine, plus producing MacTheBlog, MacTheForum and MacThePodcast in Sydney.

Zac Cohan and Nik Youdale are only 22, but the two Australians have developed two successful Mac apps and have since moved into iPhone App development. Zac and Nik founded Mac software development company Acqualia in Sydney, Australia in 2004. In 2006 the pair were the recipients of Apple University Consortium WWDC scholarships, allowing them to attend Apple’s WWDC (World Wide Developer Conference) in San Francisco. In 2007 Acqualia released a third application, Picturesque, a simple app to beautify images for the web with tasteful effects, which won an Apple Design Award for best student application. In 2008 Zac and Nik exhibited at Macworld, and were then offered internships as software engineers at Apple.

Miraz Jordan is the author of practical MacTips on YouTube and via her site MacTips Info http://mactips.info/ . She has been using Macs for 20 years now and is a total Apple fan. The proud owner of several iPods and an iPhone, Miraz has her credit card ready for the iPad. Miraz has worked extensively with beginners: those new to Macs and those new to using any computer at all. She is also co-author of the ‘WordPress 2: Visual Quickstart Guide’ with Maria Langer.

Roger has over 20 years experience in Television, Media and Public Relations. He has contributed to programming for UK network television and radio (BBC, Zenith & Channel 4). He then took his knowledge into the corporate arena establishing Soundhouse Media working with blue chip companies including GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer & Yorkshire Bank. Roger is currently Vice President Business Development for Kiwa Media who recently launched the QBook digital format for children’s books on the iPad.

Aucklander Danica Aitken is the Microsoft Australia and New Zealand Category Marketing Manager. Danica is the only Australasian representative of the Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU) of Microsoft, one of the biggest Apple developers in the world outside Apple.

As a Creative Systems Engineer at Adobe Systems Pacific and former owner of McHugh Digital Graphics, Mike McHugh is an experienced presenter with several books under his belt. Mike has authored many articles about Adobe Software. Mike acts as a point of contact for the five InDesign User Groups in the Pacific area and regularly speaks at them. His podcast for designers is called ‘Creative Sweet’ (www.creativesweettv.com).

David Head is a Systems Engineer for FileMaker in the Asia Pacific region based in Sydney, Australia. He is both an experienced FileMaker developer and a qualified teacher. David developed FileMaker solutions for over 20 years before joining FileMaker. As a FileMaker 11 Certified Developer and FileMaker 11 Authorized Trainer, David has been published in FileMaker Advisor magazine and contributes to the FileMaker Newsletter. He has presented at user conferences, FileMaker meetings, seminars and the FileMaker Developer Conference. He comes to CreativeTech fresh from presenting at the FileMaker Developer Conference 2010 in the US.

Auckland-based Ben Green is the Windows Business Group Manager, responsible for all the versions of Windows from XP to Seven, as well as Windows Mobile and the Windows Live set of programs, such as Hotmail and Messenger. Since Mac users often run Windows on their machines, Ben is keen to put Windows 7 through its paces for CreativeTech attendees. On a Mac, of course ...

Tom is a musician whose experience covers most dimensions of music production. He is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist (guitars, basses, saxophones, flutes, percussion, keyboards), and has written, played on, produced and released multiple albums for Alloy, Bluespeak, the Inner City Jazz Workshop, and Trip to the Moon. In recent years he has composed and produced music for multiple documentary films broadcast on national television. When not teaching at MAINZ he runs the Jazzscore label and website. Among the resources Tom brings to MAINZ is a Ph.D. (Auckland 1981) and 15 years experience as a university teacher.

The Kiwi triathlete has been been with Phitek for over four years, working in Phitek’s award-winning Active Noise Rejection (ANR) and acoustic enhancement. Rob also runs a small contract design company under 2fDesign Ltd www.2fdesign.co.nz. This revolves around short-design-cycle industrial electronic systems, most notably livestock weighing systems for the US market. His small subsidiary trisport.co.nz was formed in 2009 to support the iPhone application development of Endurance Diary. Rob spent early 2009 teaching himself cocoa for iPhone development, and Endurance Diary went live on the Apple iTunes App Store in November of 2009. Rob’s talk at CreativeTech 2010 will revolve around the iPhone app development process from concept to store-live. It will focus on the app development process rather than cocoa. Rob will touch on pitfalls of the app development process, mistakes made and app store review with an emphasis on practical tips to get to the app store faster, and how to make your app stand out.

Ivan came to New Zealand from Kiev, Ukraine, in November 2002 and was immediately snapped up by MAINZ. He is now Programme Coordinator of the Certificate in Audio Engineering and Music Production programme in Christchurch (MAINZ Auckland is one of the three NZ campuses of Tai Poutini). Ivan began his pro-audio career in 1996 as an engineer at one of the most successful studios in Ukraine – ‘Arkadia’. He has engineered top Russian musicians. The Pro Tools specialist brings his expertise in music production to CreativeTech.

General Manager of Training at Renaissance, Kirsten is a Professional Applications Specialist and an Apple Certified Trainer of Final Cut and other applications. Kirsten has presented and taught countless educators and has been specialising in Apple’s professional video production software, Final Cut Pro, for several years. She recently became head of the new Training Division at Apple’s exclusive New Zealand distributor, Renaissance.

Lee has worked as the national channel trainer at Renaissance for several years. The natural comedian has an engaging manner, and the experienced trainer runs courses which cover all consumer applications on Apple Computers, iPhones, iPods and iPads for the retail channel in New Zealand.

Leon Dahl is the product specialist at the Hitech Rockshop on Karangahape Road in Auckland. A working producer and DJ, Leon loves everything from rock to house music. Rockshop is an Authorised Apple Reseller specialising in customised Apple Mac Music setups – Rockshop Digital covers Apple, M-Audio, Digidesign, Novation, Akai Professional, Native Instruments, Ableton & Propellerhead hardware and software.

In the 25-plus years that Zed has been involved with the music industry, he has worked in many diverse aspects of it, including studio design and management, radio production, and producing/engineering hundreds of indie acts. Since taking over the role of Head of Audio Department at MAINZ he has narrowed his professional field somewhat, but still actively writes his own music and performs regularly. He is an experienced Logic user and teacher going right back to version 1.

James Charlton gained his BFA from Elam School of Fine Arts in 1982. As a Fulbright recipient he completed his MFA at the State University of New York in 1986, and exhibited extensively throughout the US. James lectured in sculpture at the University of New Hampshire, Monserrat College of Art and the State University of New York at Albany.

Back in NZ from 1991, Charlton was a founding member of the ASA School of Art Visual Arts Degree, and was subsequently appointed Curriculum Leader of Sculpture in the Visual Art Programme at AUT. In 2008 he left to take up the position of Programme Leader for the newly established Bachelor of Creative Technologies at AUT where he lectures in Sculpture and Interactive Media.

Philip Fierlinger is Head of Design at Xero. He's managed to make accounting "sexy, fun and addictive" according to thousands of Xero customers worldwide. Philip's work has received numerous major awards, sets new standards in design and helps generate millions of dollars in revenue every year. He's done groundbreaking work for a wide range of major clients, including Apple, Beastie Boys and the United Nations. In addition, he conducts popular design workshops.