Brian Govatos, Microsoft Senior Trainer

Brian Govatos is a Senior Trainer for Microsoft who has also been heavily involved in the Apple community since 2006. From 2006 to 2009, he was a Mac consultant for several small business clients in Las Vegas. With a passion for communicating ideas, Brian loves to discuss technology and to inspire users to make the most out of it.

Allen Hancock, Watchman Monitoring

Allen Hancock received his Bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education, and relishes the teaching aspect of being an Apple Consultant. In 2000, he started the Mac Consulting Group, Inc: now a full service Apple Specialist and Authorized Training Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Allen finds his thrill in helping his clients make the most of their computing experiences. In an attempt to help streamline checking on the mundane aspects of owning a computer, Allen founded Watchman Monitoring, Inc, a tool for service providers to keep tabs on their clients' computers without the heavy hand of "owning" their computers.

Sessions

Sessions are 30-50 minutes long, with most sessions are about 40 minutes. There are nine sessions in the 2013 curriculum.

Topics Covered

The topics covered will include:

• Overview of What are the Key Building Blocks for Today's Apple Consultant
• Mobility and Profiles
• Local Storage, Network Storage, Backups
• Networks and Routing
• The World of Apple IDs
• DNS
• Microsoft Office: Feature and Deployment Options
• Command Line
• Deployment
• and more...

Read on for more details.

Keynote:
How Do the Key Building Blocks for Today's Consultant Fit Together

What does today's Apple consultant need to know to be effective in serving everyone from small business to Enterprise, support personnel, or even home users and networks.

Mobility and Profiles

Who owns the data on your mobile device? How do you keep sensitive data from getting into the wrong hands? What do you do when you blur the lines between personal and business needs for a phone? At an increasing rate, clients and staff need help managing mobile devices. They need to keep their data secure, and give users the features and access they want, and they want to do so without compromising. There are a variety of ways to accomplish these goals. Learn about mobility, profiles, and the steps you can take to find the right solution for their needs.

Local Storage, Network Storage, Backups

Data is growing faster and larger than ever before. SSDs, Fusion drives, cloud, and network are just a few buzz words of the day. Do you know the proper use for each? Do you know your options for connecting storage? Do you know how to serve your backup needs properly? Learn about storage area networks vs. network attached storage, backup options and critical knowledge for keeping data safe.

Networks and Routing

Networks: Can't live with them, can't live without them -- they often are plagued with invisible, black box problems, yet need to be working 24/7. Are you trying to design a network that should not be seen nor heard about? Do you have the knowledge to eliminate or identify network issues in tackling a problem? Are you ready for what IPv6 is going to do to every network, everywhere? Learn about network design and troubleshooting from the ground up, and see a great example of what a common small business network should look like.

The World of Apple IDs

Apple is continually changing the rules for Apple IDs, iTunes accounts, and more. Learn the latest rules, how devices are treated, migrating to new hardware, dealing with multiple IDs, and iCloud. Find out how iTunes Match works, how Mac App Store differs from iTunes, and the right way for working with deployment and imaging. Learn the restrictions for merging Apple IDs and how to combine them.

DNS

There is one technology that is core to how all other technologies today work. It affects email, web, file servers, databases and in short, just about everything. As a core technology, it's often the cause of so many problems -- or as one of our sessions chairs says "It's Always DNS®". In this session, you'll learn not only about the most important parts of today's DNS, but also some of the best examples of how you can use DNS as a tool, debug, and finally, find additional resources and information about domain name services.

Microsoft Office: Feature and Deployment Options

Microsoft Office is at the core of how people work, yet many people don't know what Office for Mac can do, let alone take advantage of it. Did you know that Office includes collaborative editing features both through the web and the cloud? Or that Office can be deployed in a variety of ways, and licenses used on more than one computer? Do you know which Office features that help people work the most efficiently? Learn from Microsoft experts how you can not only make the most of Office for yourself, but those that you support.

Command Line

Because the Mac has such an intuitive user interface, many consultants forget about the power of the command line -- which can often accomplish something faster, or more easily. Sometimes, it's the only way to accomplish certain things. Learn about how the command line works, the best way to use man pages, and scripts. Walk away with real examples and useful tips.

Deployment

How do you stop doing the same thing over and over again? How do you help someone get a number of computers ready for use very quickly? Deployment and management of devices, disk images, and packages are often the critical solution. And, yesterday's best practices are quickly being replaced by new methodologies. Learn about deployment options, imaging, packages and the tools you need to be productive and efficient.