Refresh 2011 is aimed at developers and designers who are wanting to increase their knowledge and extend their reach to the growing range of connected devices. This year Refresh will be in Brisbane, Sydney & Melbourne and has a great lineup of content & speakers.

Subjects Covered

• Multi-device Multi-screen
• Flash Professional Future
• HTML5 and Open Web
• Adobe Town Hall
• Adobe Digital Publishing Solution
• Flash Builder (Burrito and Hero) Future
• Sneak Peeks and Prizes

Keynote Speakers

Experience the best of Adobe MAX (recently held in LA) and hear from these leading industry experts in multi-screen delivery:

• Richard Galvan – Product Manager, Flash Professional
• Serge Jespers – Platform Evangelist, EMEA
• Paul Burnett – APAC Evangelist
• Michael Stoddart – APAC Evangelist

Who Should Attend

Developers and designers or anyone else with an interest in multi-screen delivery

More details here: http://www.adobe.com/au/special/adoberefresh2011/

This year Adobe Australia is supporting the Cancer Council and the local office divided into teams in a fun competition to see who could raise the most money for charity. My charity team decided to sing for your amusement. We also put together some great giveaways to encourage people to donate, including a Fair Dinkum Aussie Value Pack that we’re shipping to the winner, plus we had some Adobe software up for auction on eBay.

Check out this quick video;

Included in the Fair Dinkum value pack that was given away at random to a lucky donator was

Boomerang, Aussie fly swatter, Eucalyptus soap, Aboriginal culture cd-rom, Aboriginal music cd, Dangerous Australian animal tea towel, Stubbie holder, Soft toy koala, Soft toy kookaburra, The True Blue Guide to Australian Slang, “Does a Kangaroo have a mother too?” – childrens book, Chesty Bond’s men’s singlet, Zinc cream, Children’s classic Aussie book pack, Minties, Caramello Koala, Chocolate Freddo Frogs, Wizz Fizz, Tim Tam’s, Aeroplane Jelly, Twisties, Rosella Soup, Jar of Vegemite, Jaffas, Fantales, Box of Roses Chocolates, Can of Solo, Crunchie Bar, Picnic Bar, Cherry Ripe

Adobe employees from around the world donated more than $3000 within 24hours. Congratulations to Jenn Hathaway of the Adobe Newton office in the USA who was the winner of the hamper! Add the other donations + eBay auctions of software and my team raised a total of $9300 on the day. We won the competition between the teams but the even more rewarding is the good feeling of being able to help a great cause.

Five teams at Adobe raised a total of $24,000 for the Cancer Council in less than 24 hours! Thanks to everyone who donated!

BTW – You can still donate here if you wish! http://www.everydayhero.com.au/TFD

2007 is now history and it’s time to begin a new year. Before I share my personal goals for this 2008 I thought i’d share some interesting facts from last year;

• Ruth & I celebrated our 15 year anniversary
• Average reading one paperback per month
• 554 Tweets on Twitter
• 31,000 emails in 2007 (25,000 in 2006)
• 78 Flights (Domestic and International)
• 93 nights away from home (although 31 were for non work)
• 37 blog posts
• New countries discovered: Hong Kong & Dubai

Personal Goals for 2008 (in no particular order)

Weigh less this time next year.
I managed to lose some weight in 2007 but put most of it back on. This year i need to not slack off during winter!

Become a better husband & family member.
I need to spend more quality time with Ruth. I also need to be there more for my family, both immediate and extended.

Discover a new country
This is an annual goal that i want to maintain. This year i’m thinking either India or China.

Become a better manager
This crosses over into a work goal, but personally I want to serve the people that report to me better.

Join a new band
I’ve been playing Bass & Guitar for over  15 years and not being  in a band is starting to depress me. Time to fix this.

Keep up with technology
Not just Adobe related technology, I love geeking out with the latest innovations and that has to continue.

Be more adventurous and have fun
Most importantly, I want to get  to the end of 2008 and look back at the fun I had. Life’s too short.

Wow.. another lifetime acheivement marked off the list. Last night i saw one of my all time favourite bands, Rush, live in Sheffield in the UK
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Had a great visit to Cardiff. Ruth & I are huge fans of the new Dr Who series as well as the spin off show Torchwood. For this reason we decided to include Cardiff in our travels so we could visit some of the filming sites. The No 1 place on our list was Roald Dahl Plass, at Cardiff Bay where a lot of the exterior shots of Torchwood and a fair few episodes of Dr Who are filmed.

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I had grand plans of writing extensive blog posts about my trip to Europe but considering i’m now half way through, i’ll summarise here and expand later..

Poland

Spent a few days in Lodz, Poland with my fathers side of the family. The picture below is of me and my cousin. I can honestly say that I know more Polish than before and can ask for a beer, train, bus etc and can call out dog, cat & cow   It was really great to meet up with them again and i really fewel a special connection with Poland as a result.

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