We talk to a legendary Apple evangelist and personality, announce our new podcasting option, cover MUG news, offers and more.

Guy Kawasaki, venture capitalist, author and former Apple Evangelist talks about his new book, The Art of the Start, and how concepts such as partnering and branding relate to starting and improving any organization, including Macintosh User Groups.

User Group Report #418: Guy Kawasaki, The User Group Report Podcast & More [ 36:28 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This bonus-length show features three interviews with major players in the Macintosh industry who are either starting or extending their support for Macintosh User Groups, a MUG that is making the transition to MacOS X a multi-meeting topic, iLife ’04 resouces, and an invitation to play MUG Web Site Roulette.

Jim Dalrymple of MacCentral and Macworld.com discusses his involvement with both sites, his views on user groups and why he opts to cover their events, his experiences with his daughter in building a web site, and his personal offer of a brand new web option for user groups to promote their event.

Dan de Grandpre from dealmac tells us about the history of the site and how it has expanded over the years. Dan announces a tour of Macintosh User Groups, and provides details on how to invite him to your group.

Adam Engst of TidBITS spends time with us talking about the “Take Control” series of electronics books, why they are trendsetting in their use of the PDF file format, how they could be used as the basis for MUG meeting topics, and a new offer that not only extends a discount to all MUG members, and will get copies to user groups for review or raffle.

Lyle Turner of the Serious Macintosh Users Group profiles his group, their series of MacOS X transition meetings, how they decided what topics were important to cover, and in what order, and some of the resources they are using to plan the meetings.

Jim Dalrymple of MacCentral, dealmac User Group Tour, New TidBITS Support for User Groups & MacOS X Transition with Serious MUG [ 1:29:51 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This edition features an industry icon, an Asian Regional Liaison Team member, our first tag-team interview on a 25th anniversary celebration and the latest vendor deals.

Adam Engst of TidBITS talks about how his carrer started in a user group and how he continues to support MUGs by allowing TidBITS reprints, why huge user groups may not be the best thing, being named (again) to the MDJ Power 25, and much more.

Yan Feng, Apple Regional Liaison Team member for Asia (excluding Japan), talks about the Beijing Maicntosh User Group and how it is growing slowly but surely, the Macintosh market in China and more.

Dan Buchler, the founder of mini’app’les, talks about the early days of that group, why he was inspired to start the group 25 years ago, what they did, and why he has made the switch, all these years later, to MacOS X.

Les Anderson, the current president of mini’app’les, talks about the group’s status today, how they have formed a unique SIG partnership with a local PC group, and how they celebrated their 25th anniversary.

Adam Engst, Asian Regional Liaison, Mini’App’les Times 2, and MUG Deals [ 1:10:39 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download