Our final show of the year discusses a user group program that has just dellivered enough quality meeting topics for the full first quarter of next year, a brand new Macworld Conference & Expo attraction, and the final installment in the series on how to make your user group look good.

Adam Engst of TidBITS talks about the three new Take Control ebooks his team has delivered in December, how they make perfect MUG meeting topics, and the benefits of the TidBITS User Group Program.

Brian Rothschild, the Executive Director of the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, profiles this first-time attraction at Macworld Conference & Expo, how the bus was recently refitted with the help of Apple, and what it brings to students who are interested in getting their hands on professional-level recording equipment.

Adam Engst of TidBITS, The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, Vendor Offers & 2004 Wrap-Up [ 1:03:12 ] 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