More details and tickets are available from the Leeds Girl Geeks site.

Code

An eye-watering 242 million apps were downloaded on Christmas Day. We’ve expanded our portfolio with new courses for aspiring mobile developers. To compliment our iOS and Android courses we now also offer  HTML5. We’re working with Richard England, Digitally Leeds Awards’ Freelancer of the Year.

We predict PHP’ers will love these three new specialist one day workshops designed to sharpen your developer skills.

Learning to code is quite the fashion for 2012. Is this one of your New Year resolutions? Talk to us about what you want to achieve and we’ll help you get there.

Creative

We’re working on a new InDesign for iPad course to coincide with the release of Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite, currently scheduled for ‘Spring’. Dates of  upcoming Adobe Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator courses can be found on our website.

We’d like to extend an invitation to Made North 2012, a unique one day conference exploring the roles of design, art and technology in the future of the North on 24th February. Use code ntidiscount and this booking link to get 25% off.

Apple

There’s lots of shiny new courses in our Apple training portfolio. As you’d expect from Apple-badged products, we’ve had excellent feedback so far on the new Lion courses. To help you plan your certification we’ve scheduled a range of Lion dates for 2012 and our first Final Cut Pro X course is in March. Have a look at our new one day workshop on deploying iPhones and iPads too.

Events

Ignite is back at Old Broadcasting House on 2nd February for another evening of lightning talks where each speaker has 20 slides and five minutes.  A highly entertaining evening is guaranteed.

Some of the meetups we’re hosting include  LSx Cafe, Exposure Leeds, Service Design , Agile Yorkshire and the  4Talent Inspiration event in February.

News

Our first sleepover at Old Broadcasting House for Culture Hack North proved a truly amazing event. It was a great experience working with Opera North and Leeds Hack, and we’re looking forward to more of these.

Coworker James Ward gave a demo of startup Pianola at January’s LSxCafe. With a number of our coworking members involved in the development, Pianola is a powerful endorsement for all that coworking offers and we wish James and Pianola success in 2012.

We’re working on the development of a new professional Masters course in the area of software development to provide a route to job vacancies for people who need to develop the ‘right’ skills. If you’re recruiting developers and have something to say we’re listening, so please get in touch.

We wish you every success with your plans for 2012.

Spend time with experienced industry professional Lorna Mitchell and learn first-hand the best-practice approaches, tools, tips and productivity boosters  recommended by the expert.  As an added bonus ask specific questions related to your own working environment within this lab setting.

You’ll gain specialist skills and resources which enhance your own expertise and open doors for you to take your own development further, beyond the course itself.

The  three worshops are on the topics of:

Databases;

Object Oriented Design;and

Tools.

Why these topics in particular?  We asked Lorna to explain the rationale for these in more detail:

“These are all areas that I find myself spending time on when I work with PHP developers from all kinds of backgrounds.  Very often these topics aren’t the reason that I’m working with a team, I might be there for something else completely, but I always make time to fill in any gaps in these areas because they make such a big difference to a development team.

The PHP  Zend II course gives a good grounding covering core topics, but these new workshops are very focussed, with hands-on time for people to flex their new skills and explore new techniques. There is also unstructured time where I will demonstrate approaches, recommend resources for a particular topic, and give specific advice for a particular scenario from my own experience in reponse to your questions.

Each workshop is different in their benefits, but in all three cases  the pre-requisites are kept to a minimum.  Each of these workshops starts with some degree of a refresher, so whether that’s a recap for you or if some of the content is new, that’s fine; everyone will quickly get onto the same page These courses are a ‘packaged’ version of advice I find myself giving frequently, so they’re a cost-effective way of getting access some of the expertise I’ve built up over time .

Object Oriented Design : this course talks about object-oriented architecture and specifically design patterns.  While the topic itself isn’t necessarily rocket science, I do think it’s very important for developers to be familiar with the terminology we use when building systems. Understanding design patterns means you can build any wheel you like, and be confident that you understand how to use and adapt existing wheel designs.

Databases : web developers often don’t realise how much there is to know about databases and so they continue to write applications that are “good enough”, deploying more hardware or changing technologies when they hit problems.  Being able to design well for the storage layer, and retrieve that data quickly and confidently makes the difference between an experienced but ‘OK’ developer and someone who is quickly gaining a reputation for great systems, often even while they are relatively new to the industry.

Tools: These tools will save your time and and occasionally your life! It is quite difficult to implement new tools from scratch, in an existing team, with existing work pressures. This one day course makes it possible as you learn how to use the tool and also gain an understanding of how to manage that change. Good platform and process tools are vital for technical leads and senior developers so in some ways this is the most advanced of the courses.  This is the course I needed when I took my first senior developer role! ”

Thanks Lorna. Our New Year prediction for 2012 is that these workshops will prove to be excellent value for money for PHP developers everywhere.  Write the dates into your diary and contact us to book your place today.  Use the form below, call 0113 812 1725 or email hello@ntileeds.co.uk

“Single Edition provides individual designers, traditional media publishers, ad agencies, and companies of all sizes that want to create and distribute engaging content and publications for tablet devices  an intuitive and affordable way to deliver iPad apps such as brochures, portfolios, and highly visual books without writing code or relying on developers. Use familiar Adobe InDesign® CS5.5 skills to explore your creativity and develop content that inspires and engages.” Adobe.com

Latest news from Adobe is that the Single User license for the Digital Publishing Suite (DPS) will be rolled out during the first quarter of 2012 (the initial timescale was “2012″ for regions outside Northern America) so we’re anticipating an April launch at the latest. With this in mind, we’re working with Gary, our lead Adobe Creative Suite trainer to deliver a new one day on using InDesign and the Digital Publishing Suite to publish to the iPad for  April 2012.

Contact us to register your interest in this new course and get a head start on publishing your digital content to the iPad. If you’re not an InDesign user you can make a  start now with our  two day course.

Visit the Adobe Digital Publishing gallery to see examples of how you can create engaging content for tablet devices from within InDesign CS5.5 at

http://blogs.adobe.com/digitalpublishinggallery/.

For further details on the Single Edition go to

http://www.adobe.com/products/digital-publishing-suite-family.html.

Helping people to develop their skills and and make connections is what we love doing and  Old Broadcasting House somehow seems to be the perfect place where these things happen. That’s why we’re really excited about being asked to host this event.

You’ll gain an insight into the industry from the Channel 4 team as well as meeting Sky 1 boss Stuart Murphy, who will be sharing his story and discussing what he looks for in new talent. There’s practical workshops in front of and behind the camera including:

• Producing and Directing Comedy - As the world’s media looks for the next comedy sensation this session will look at practical ways of filming for laughs.

• Producing and Directing Music - Everyone says they want to see more music television but audiences are hard to hold. This session will look at what’s involved in creating a music video.

• Presenting Comedy - Sharing ideas on building your own brand, tips on how to get noticed on the circuits and getting out there and doing some filming on the day

• Using Film with Music -This session will look at ways to use film with live music from ‘VJ’ to on-stage brand reinforcement.

Free registration is via the C4 website but the closing date for registration is the 15th of February, and spaces are limited, so do it now!

Participants will have the opportunity to apply for an internship at Channel 4.

This course is one of a family of THREE one day courses designed by Lorna Mitchell. These are aimed at PHP developers who want to take their skills to the next level, boost productivity and develop robust systems.  You may also be interested in these:   Databases and PHP and Object-Oriented Design in PHP

An experienced web developer working particularly with PHP, the LAMP stack and related technologies, Lorna’s also a prolific conference speaker, and writer. She recently co-authored PHP Master: Write Cutting-Edge Code which was published in September 2011. All delegates receive a copy of this book.

Need to convince your boss? There’s more information on all three of our new PHP workshops on our new post here

Learn short cuts in producing blockbuster motion graphics.

Develop an understanding of high-resolution multilayer compositing and animation

Adobe After Effects is recognised as the essential tool for motion graphics and visual effects. It offers a fast, flexible, affordable 2D and 3D compositing and animation toolset to help you develop your creative ideas with speed and control and deliver high-quality results for film, video, multimedia or the Web.

Learn how to use Adobe After Effects to produce motion graphics, compositions and movies that will bring your work to life and equip you with the skills you need to enhance your creativity and please your clients.

Whether you already have some hands on experience with After Effects and wish to have a better understanding of the many features and tools within After Effects or are looking for a course that will give a strong foundation in the key aspects of After Effects, this course is for you.

This course is also available with the three-day  Adobe Premiere Pro 101 course as part of the Adobe Video Editing Masterclass for just £850.

HTML5 and CSS3 enable web designers and developers to create dynamic and flexible web content. CSS3 is used in conjunction with HTML5 to add effects to page elements and even create animated effects without the need for browser plugins. Content can be made to respond to different devices, screen-size and orientation - important for both desktop and mobile websites and applications

Starting with building dynamic HTML5 JavaScript applications, you’ll build up to using canvas, JavaScript, video and WebGL, using these tools to create cutting-edge web and mobile apps for your business or clients. It’s an intensive two days but based on what you’ll learn, and be able to develop, it will be well worth your investment.

Meet our academic colleagues, tell us about your plans and discuss how the university  knowledge and expertise in digital technologies  could help your business to improve creativity, efficiency, productivity and  performance. You’ll also be able to see first-hand what we can offer.

As well as training and coworking services, we have a number of flexible and cost-effective ways for you to resource new business projects, which combine both graduate and academic expertise.

We also offer consultancy, research and software and app development services.  In the computing and creative technology areas, our  expertise covers software and web application technologies, computer security and forensics, computer communications, sustainable IT and the creative applications of digital technologies.

If you’d like to find out more, here’s the details:

When: Tuesday 6^th December, 6 - 730pm

Where :  Leeds Met’s Old Broadcasting House, 148 Woodhouse Lane, Leeds LS2 9EN

RSVP : email hello@ntileeds.co.uk or call 0113 812 1725

If you are unable to come along and would like to find out more, or if you have any questions about this event and our services, then get in touch.

A hack event can be a way of injecting innovation in to your organisation in return for opening up some data and coming along and taking part.

Those who were up for this challenge included :  Breeze Leeds, Cornerhouse, Culture Grid, Leeds Libraries, Leeds Museums, Museums Sheffield, Manchester Museum, National Media Museum, National Railway Museum, Northern Ballet, Opera North, Pilot Theatre, Sheffield Theatres, and Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

The event started on Saturday morning.   After a welcome and introduction from Dom, Ash and I, teams were formed and work commenced on the datasets. The hackers had an opportunity to meet with the data sponsors who were keen to ’sell’ their  data and encourage teams to work on what they had provided. Data on films, books, and art with images included was popular. Trains went down well too.

A series of talks and debate on the digital future of arts and culture had also been scheduled by Rachel Coldicutt so whilst many of the hackers carried on working, we squeezed into the downstairs training lab - iMacs pushed back against the wall - to take part. Highlights for me were:  Frankie Roberto’s talk on his experience of using the blue plaques (on buildings) data, and so much more; Leeds’ Matt Edgar on ‘Down with Facadism’ - what if the interior lives of buildings were as exposed as their exteriors; and Lucy Bannister ’s call for a more open debate on the use of copyright for images of art .  Some of the ‘no photo’ policies in galleries stop people from socially sharing their experiences. For most of us trying to promote what we do using social media, that’s a huge positive so why wouldn’t you want people to do that?  I really enjoyed the talks and debate, and it was great to see so many people come along from the arts to support the event.

I’ll fast forward now to Sunday lunchtime. I have to confess that I did retreat to the comfort of my own bed, so I passed on pizza, beer, coffee, and bacon sandwiches in favour of Strictly. Everyone was looking surprisingly energised when I returned on Sunday morning, and there was a real buzz as the teams got ready to present their ideas.

Tim Walters’ hack had already been previewed via twitter that morning, generating a great positive reception. Tim had taken the Whitworth Gallery dataset to produce a map which tags the geographical setting for the subject of a landscape artwork, with a nice link to Flickr to see people’s photo landscapes too.

I must mention the team of Tom Wade from Leeds agency Creode  and Jonny Sedman,  not least for their sheer productivity: delivering three excellent hacks.  The one which really stood out for me was Colour Tone, which turns a work of art into music.  Red values are drums, blue guitar, and green bass. You can try this for yourself at http://chn-music.twade.co.uk/

The  InformedApp - an opinion generator -  from Mick Adams, James Hitchcock, and Carolyn Jones is great for those difficult situations when you are put on the spot with a question such as  ”What’s your opinion on Mario Merz latest exhibition at the Henry Moore?”  InformedApp will come to the rescue so you can reply -  ”I like the way Merz discarded abstract expressionism’s subjectivity in favour of opening art to exterior space”.  Take that Siri!

The hack that seemed to me to be ‘of our time ‘ is Consider The Library , a Chrome plug-in that  will prompt you, before you buy a book on Amazon, that you could loan the book instead - if it’s in one of Leeds’ libraries. This saves you money and spreads the love for libraries at the same time.  Great work from Alex Wolfe and Jonathan Powell.

For sheer genius and vision, I was bowled over by KhaKauRe - described as “Like wikipedia, but with a graph. And bettererer” .  The team of David King, and Leeds Met students John Tate, and Joe Woodhead had difficulty choosing which data set to work on so they decided to work on them all! I would recommend taking a look at  http://khakaure.oodavid.com/

These are just some of the hacks, you can see many more outstanding ones at  http://culturehacknorth.co.uk/the-hacks/ including a great one for the trainspotters out there from Heather Burke and Alistair Macdonald.

This was our first experience of Culture Hacking and it was a pleasure to work on this with Ash and Dom.  Thanks to everyone who took part, we hope you enjoyed the weekend.

A  huge thanks to all the behind-the-scenes teams here at Leeds Met including the security and housekeeping staff.  I’d also like to thank the Leeds Met Broadcast Journalism students for their great work - looking forward to seeing the video guys. And Lloyd and Tom, from Exposure Leeds too, for the photography. Marketing Leeds very kindly paid for the refreshments and other expenses.

Over the last four years I’ve been lucky enough to experience an incredibly diverse range of events and looking back, it’s amazing what we’ve been able to support and enable through inviting people in to Old Broadcasting House.  What next I wonder?

Linda Broughton 14/11/2011

Apple say:

‘It’s not just a different cut.  It’s a whole new production’

So is this a whole new product rather than a new release?

Does it enable whole new groups of people to create professional quality video like the pros?

And what does that mean for the pros? Is FCP X worth a look?

We’ve invited Apple Certified Master Trainer and Final Cut maestro Chris Roberts to nti Leeds to help to answer some of these questions.

We caught up with Chris at the Apple Training Centre Conference at MediaCityUK  last week, where he shared his knowledge and expertise on these topics with 280 delegates from 31 countries. We were so impressed with his presentation that we invited him to come to Leeds to help to answer some of the questions that you’ve been asking us.

So you are very cordially invited.

When : Wednesday 16th November 6pm - 745pm

Where : Old Broadcasting House

Booking : Please book your  complimentary ticket online here

This three-day, hands-on course teaches you how to perform editing functions while becoming familiar with the new ’smart’  user interface,  which has been designed to streamline many of the editing tasks, allowing you to focus on what you do best - the job of story-telling.

Start with basic video editing techniques and work all the way through Final Cut Pro’s powerful advanced features. You’ll work with dramatic real-world media to learn the practical techniques used daily in editing projects.

The film will start at 7pm promptly, and finish at 8:40pm when there’ll be a Skype Q and A with Martyn Burke, the film’s producer.

We’d like to extend an invitation to you to come along to this free evening showing. We’ve a limited number of tickets so please book your place.

All our Apple Authorised Training Centre courses are delivered by Authorised Trainers. Lion courses (101 and 201) are taught by Jeremy Gledhill, who is an outstanding communicator, with an unrivaled knowledge of his subject area. Jeremy has been delivering MAC OS X courses here  since 2003 and we believe he is the best Apple technical trainer in the business.