MacTech Boot Camp Minneapolis 2012

MacTech Boot Camp is a one day event for those that support the home user, and small business market held around the country. MacTech Boot Camp is a single-track, hotel based seminar that is specifically geared to serve the needs of consultants and techs wanting to serve their base better.

Who Should Attend?

Those that already support the home and SMB (small to medium business) communities, or that want to become a consultant supporting these areas.

Packed Schedule.

Using MacTech’s proven “running order” approach, we pack in the maximum amount of sessions possible into the time available. Sessions include topics such as:


  • Marketing Oneself in a Community
  • Client Handling
  • Client Documentation, Passwords and Records
  • Apple’s New Approach to Apple IDs
  • Apple ID Management, account merging
  • Resources for Finding Answers
  • Methods for troubleshooting
  • Business technologies and the Mac
  • Windows on the Mac Options
  • Backup Systems and Options
  • Viruses and Security
  • Support Call Techniques
  • Remote Support and Access
  • and more…

At MacTech Boot Camp, you learn from the experts and get to ask questions from those “in the know.” See more details below.

September 5, 2012

Location
Sheraton Minneapolis West Hotel
12201 Ridgedale Drive

Minnetonka, MN 55305

(7 miles West of Downtown Minneapolis)

Registration at 8:15am (no earlier please)

Full day’s schedule.

Subscribe to iCal calendar.

Don’t wait. Space is limited. Register today.


Sessions Chairs




Patrick Rhone, Machine Methods

Patrick Rhone is a technology consultant and commentator in Saint Paul, MN. He is the proprietor of Machine Methods – Through which he assists individuals and micro-businesses get the best out of technology for over 20 years. He is also creator of Minimal Mac, a site that explores the theme of getting the most out of just the technology you need.


Brian Best, Best Macs

Brian Best is the founder and CEO of BestMacs, Kansas City’s only 100% Mac-based Managed Services Provider. For 14 years, BestMacs has been providing service to Apple-powered businesses in the KC metro and surrounding regions. Brian is an ACTC and a long-time Apple Consultants Network member, currently in his third year of serving on the ACN Advisory Council. When not working his day job, he enjoys time with his wife and son, and watching some Chiefs football. After seeing the success of the MSP business model first-hand, Brian is enthusiastic about sharing the experience and evangelizing the model with other Mac support professionals.


Neil Ticktin, MacTech Magazine

Neil not only emcees the event, but oversees the session chairs and content for each MacTech event. Neil has been the Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of MacTech Magazine since 1992. With both a technical and business background, Neil has authored hundreds of articles including most of MacTech’s well known benchmarking articles on productivity applications, virtualization, and performance products.



Speakers



MacTech and the event’s session chairs have some great featured speakers lined up for you, including:



Ben Greiner, Forget Computers

Ben Greiner, Founder and President — Forget Computers (makers of RobotCloud.net) Leveraging his extreme attention to detail, logic fueled rationale, and practices like change management and proactive support, Ben leads Forget Computers as an innovator in the Managed Service Provider market, and hosted tools for Apple device management. The Forget Computers team is a group of highly knowledgable Apple support specialists, focusing exclusively on the Mac and iOS market.



Brian Best, Best Macs

Brian Best is the founder and CEO of BestMacs, Kansas City’s only 100% Mac-based Managed Services Provider. For 14 years, BestMacs has been providing service to Apple-powered businesses in the KC metro and surrounding regions. Brian is an ACTC and a long-time Apple Consultants Network member, currently in his third year of serving on the ACN Advisory Council. When not working his day job, he enjoys time with his wife and son, and watching some Chiefs football. After seeing the success of the MSP business model first-hand, Brian is enthusiastic about sharing the experience and evangelizing the model with other Mac support professionals.


Charles Edge, 318

Charles is the Director of Technology at 318, a Mac-first consultancy based out of Santa Monica, CA. While certified with Microsoft, Symantec and others, Charles spends much of his time writing about and consulting on OS X and iOS. Charles is the author of several books on OS X systems administration, including the Enterprise Mac Administrator’s Guide and the Enterprise iPhone and iPad Administrator’s Guide. Charles speaks at conferences routinely, this year including MacTech and MacSysAdmin. Charles has previously spoken at LinuxWorld, BlackHat, LayerOne and DefCon as well.


David Greenbaum, Doctor Dave

Dave Greenbaum, aka “DoctorDave”, has been making “mouse calls” going onsite doing computer repair in Lawrence, KS since 1990. He alsoserves the Topeka and Kansas City areas. He’s been featured by CNN, MSNBC, FoxNews, BusinessWeek and the BBC for his marketing, businessand technical skills as well his extreme dedication to all things Apple. His small company focuses on the small office, home office and residential markets for both Macintosh and Windows based clients. As a social media maven, he uses free and low cost options to grow and expand his market base. If he isn’t Tweeting, Yelping, orFacebooking, you can usually find him writing and reviewing products for MacTech, GigaOM or various Apple User Groups across the world. During whatever time he has left after all that, you might find Daveat the gym or spending time with his family; husband Mike Silverman and Tova, a rescued Beagle/Jack Russell Terrier mix



Dusty Dorey, JAMF Software

Dusty Dorey is a Technical Training Specialist at JAMF Software where he supports and trains customers on the Casper Suite. The Casper Suite is the most powerful management solution for both Macs and iOS devices in the enterprise—developed specifically for the Apple platform. Dusty is an Apple Certified Trainer, teaching Apple and JAMF Software certification courses at JAMF Software’s Apple Authorized Training Center, and at various locations around the world.



James Alcasid, By Light Professional IT Services

James Alcasid has been involved with Mac computing for over 15 years. His experiences include assisting home and small business customers with the most common day to day issues to enterprise integration Macintosh projects in government. James’s first Mac was a PowerMac 6100/60 over-clocked to an insane 68MHz. His other computing interests include, cryptography, digital privacy and practical cyber-security measures. He is currently a Project Lead at a large federal civilian agency tasked with integration of over 3500 Mac systems into a Windows centric enterprise. James can be contacted at james.alcasid@gmail.com or via twitter @jamesalcasid


Sean Costello, Background Backup

Sean Costello has supported Macs in business since 1993. Based in Ottawa, ON, Sean represents the Canadian perspective on the Apple Consultant’s Network. He is a member of the ACN Advisory Council, he works with resellers, consultants and business owners across North America to better navigate today’s challenges surrounding IT deployment and support. Sean is an expert with CrashPlan Pro, and he excels at helping other consultants learn how to use, to sell and to deploy CrashPlan solutions for their customers.



Tom Lambotte, GlobalMac Consulting

Founded GlobalMac Consulting in 2007 and has been able to grow the business by 30% annually, even through 3 moves to completely new geographic locations. GlobalMac Consulting offers an extensive and distinguished background in training, sales and business management, combined with a passion and depth of knowledge for all things Mac. This unique combination of skill sets allows them to provide the business solutions needed by attorneys, small business owners and retail stores, in an understandable and retainable method. Tom is a Daylite Master Partner and a Lightspeed Pro Reseller and an active member of the Apple Consultant Network.


Patrick Rhone, Machine Methods

Patrick Rhone is a technology consultant and commentator in Saint Paul, MN. He is the proprietor of Machine Methods – Through which he assists individuals and micro-businesses get the best out of technology for over 20 years. He is also creator of Minimal Mac, a site that explores the theme of getting the most out of just the technology you need.


Sessions



Building Your Brand: Marketing and Business Concerns


You are new in business, or you’ve been doing this for years; in either case you can’t apply your skills as a technology consultant until you have customers to apply them to! Marketing is one of the most important, but most overlooked skills in our business. We will teach you how to market yourself using your social skills, and contacts, as well as people and organizations you may not have considered. You will learn to market your skills to specific communities where word of mouth can catch fire to set your business above the rest.

Best practices: Hardware, Software and Network Deployment


What are best practices for installing new computers? What about Windows partitions, how to install an OS, software updates, and more? What do you need to know about password strength, printer setup, and more? How do you handle serial numbers? What are the basic choices your clients need to know for wired and wireless networks, and VPNs? What are the benefits of master images and deployment methods? We’ll discuss these and other items.

The New World of Apple IDs, iTunes, and Mac App Store


Apple has changed the rules for Apple IDs, iTunes accounts, and more. Learn the new 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 doing deployment and imaging. Learn the restrictions for merging Apple IDs and how to combine them.

Troubleshooting Methodologies:Hardware, Software and Network Problems


You’ve worked your magic on the problems you’ve encountered and nothing is working. It must be hardware, but how can you be sure? What are the tests and tricks you should try, and in what order? How do you know when a problem is software based or hardware based, and how will that determination change your plan of action to get the problem solved for your customer?We walk you through the best tests and utilities, along with a best practice methodology for troubleshooting, and what to do when you are sure hardware is the problem.

Business Technologies:Mobility, Virtualization and Windows


Businesses of all sizes need business technology. Find out your options for integrating mobility, virtualization and Windows into your clients’ networks.Mobility is a big part of today’s world, and it’s getting bigger. Who are the main mobility players? What are your Mobile Device Management Options? How do you deal with iOS integration to the Mac/PC?With everything you’ve done for your customer so far, they think the world of you. It would be horrible to lose that trust just because they ask you to put Windows on their Mac. You may not be a Windows person, but you can absolutely handle Windows on your customers Mac, and we’re going to show you how. We will give you the pros and cons of virtualization and non-virtualization options. We’ll help you understand some of Windows’ main technologies, security and best practices.

An Experts Guide to Working with Clients


So your marketing paid off! You have clients. Now, can you talk to them? Can you translate those often misspoken needs and wants into tangible technical deliverables? Can you help your hard won customers to understand your ongoing value and keep coming back for more? We’ll guide you through some of the most important steps to help you lead your customers; guide them to the right solutions, and convert their unfocused dreams into fully understood needs. Learn how to best protect yourself from scope creep, incorrect needs assessment, miscommunicated rate structures and other communications faux pas’ that can lead to unpaid invoices, or worse. Your customer now knows what they want, and what you can deliver and you have agreed to do it for a mutually understood price. You are well on your way to a positive customer experience, and repeat business.Now, how are you going to document all of this? In fact, once you get started, how will you document your work, the customers serial numbers, inventory, and other important data they surely assume you will gather, keep and protect on their behalf? We will show you how to safely and securely document information for your customers, and we will expose you to some of the pitfalls of failing to do so properly.

Storage and Protecting Oneself: Backing up, Archiving and Restoring Data


Well, you’ve learned your lesson, the hard way. Before making a major change to a system, get a clean backup. But what about backups? There are so many options, some free, some very expensive, and some require you to roll your own. We expose you to the software available to perform backups, and we give you best practices for backup strategies related to backup rotation, media types, online, offline and nearline storage solutions, as well as over-the-net solutions. We talk about the pro’s and con’s so you can make an informed decision that is right for your specific customers needs. There is no “one size fits all” solution, so we prepare you to make an informed decision.One of the things that is the most fun about computers is making them do things for you automatically, so you can focus your time and effort on more important things in your life. We will talk about how to use tools like Automator, and AppleScript, and even shell scripting to help you to make your computer or your customers computers, do the types of things people expect computers to do.

How to Make Remote Consulting Work for You


You have setup the perfect small office for your customer. Every best practice followed, no expense spared, everything is right. Still, customers love to call with questions, and when they do, you need to deal with their needs in a way that meets their expectations, is fair to you and the loved ones who have to deal with you answering your phone at all hours of the day and night. We will give you solid guidance on how to handle support calls from your customers so you can keep them happy, and keep your sanity all at the same time. If you can’t fix it over the phone, you’ll probably have to actually work on the customers’ computers to fix the problem. But how wonderful would it be to do so without driving across town? If you plan ahead, and setup the proper systems like ARD, VNC, VPN and a host of other possible technologies, you can solve many support problems for your customers remotely. We show you the currently available options, talk about proper configuration, and costs to you and the customer, and ways you can track your remote support to be sure you make money for your efforts.

You Can’t Know Everything: Getting the Support You Need


Your job is off to a fantastic start. You are fantastically prepared, yet as so frequently happens, you run into a snag right in the middle of the job. Something you’ve never seen before and have no idea how to solve. You feel that knot in your throat that sinking sensation in the pit of your stomach. Where do you turn for help? Where can you find answers to those last minute, on site, make or break questions that can be the difference between success or failure? We show you our favorite places to find those answers, and how to express your searches in the most search engine efficient language.

Sponsors

MacTech selects key vendors to be a part of the event. Gold and Silver sponsors will be speaking and attending the event, and can talk to you about the solutions they offer. It’s a unique opportunity to make contacts within these companies and get your questions answered. Interested in sponsoring a MacTech event? See our sponsorship page.

Media Support

These great publications support MacTech Events in a variety of different ways.