Regsiter and Win!

Four days to go! Hey! Are you still sitting on the fence about ProTrack? Register today and your ProTrack 2007 Conference Package could be FREE!

Call the International Office at 608-443-2464 or register on site and you will be in the running to have your conference fee reimbursed. We’ll be drawing one winner from all paid ProTrack 2007 Conference Package Registrations and announcing the winner during Friday’s lunch (included with your Conference Package).

So register for ProTrack today!

See you in  Milwaukee!

Support our MCA-I ProTrack Sponsors:

• Adobe
• Avid
• ProductionHUB
• Caption & Subtitle Services Ltd
• FirstCom Music,
• Bogen Imaging
• International  Film and Digital Video Workshops

MCA-I ProTrack Business Track Means Business!

Sharpen your skills, gather new tips, and learn what it takes to run a successful business. This track features four skill clusters — Run Smart, Marketing Inside and Out, Working with People, and New Frontier — and there are ten seminars from which to choose. Complete all three seminars in the Run Smart cluster – Basics Overview, Legally Sound, and Inside QuickBooks; plus one additional seminar from any other cluster in the Business Success track, and receive an MCA-I ProTrack Business Skills Certificate.

Whether you�re starting a new business or have been running one for years, it�s never the wrong time to learn the principles of business management. The online 3D world continues to evolve. Learn what the latest advances might hold for your business. And look for a variety of sessions on working with people – face-to-face or virtually. Phil Stella, Effective Training & Communication, presents Gotta Serve Somebody: an engaging session that will explore best practices for dealing with the people, even the difficult ones who provide your bread and butter.

New this year, MCA-I has teamed with CMMA to offer two of their highly aclaimed CMMA Management Institute Seminars.

Marketing Your Services In-House
Designed for managers of internal communications media departments, this seminar explores the rationale for internal marketing and key principles for effective implementation. Take away a template and high-level outline for developing your own marketing plan.

Motivating Your Creative Team
This seminar will explore the theory of motivation and provide practical examples of what works when dealing with creative people. Immediately apply what you’ve learned by working in teams on case studies.

So register for ProTrack today!

Special Deal for Students and Educators!

Students and teachers can hobnob with celebrated industry leaders for almost nothing! The National Board has decided to open the conference workshops to Students and Educators for an unbeatable price of only $20 for students and $30 for Educators. This is a $400 Value! To access this special rate, use this link.

MCA-I ProTrack – Special Pricing if you register Online by September 12

We have some good news for those of you sitting on the fence about
MCA-I ProTrack™ – if you register Online by September 12 you will
save more than 20%. Even without the discount for Registering Online,
ProTrack is a bargain that you won’t find anywhere else.
Please check the MCA-I website for the latest information. www.mca-
i.org.

ProTrack 2007: the conference that will make Milwaukee famous?

Hardly! ProTrack planners have lined up the brightest experts to offer you a wide variety of need-to-know information spanning from social marketing to HD, from Blu-ray to asset management to how to successfully run a business. All in one place. Can’t beat that. But there’s a bonus! It all is happening in a great place on a great lake in the city of festivals, Milwaukee, the new meeting destination of choice.

Milwaukee in September is simply gorgeous. Average temperatures hover around a comfortable 63 degrees. Getting in and out couldn’t be easier. The newly renovated General Mitchell International Airport has been rated one of the nation’s top airports in user-friendliness and is located an easy 8 miles from downtown.

You’ll quickly realize that MCA-I ProTrack 2007 is one of the best career-boost values around. A true creative kick in the pants. Not only is ProTrack bringing it on with a smorgasbord of incomparable media pro expertise, it’s being hosted in one of the hippest, most affordable, most accessible destinations in the country.

ProTrack planners have lined up the brightest experts to offer you a wide variety of need-to-know information spanning from social marketing to HD, from Blu-ray to asset management to how to successfully run a business. All in one place. Can’t beat that. But there’s a bonus! It all is happening in a great place on a great lake in the city of festivals, Milwaukee, the new meeting destination of choice.

ProTrack’s official conference hotel, The Hilton Milwaukee City Center is an elegant, refined hotel, extensively renovated to reflect its original 1920′s grandeur. It’s known for its impeccable service and provides a luxurious experience at a great value.

Milwaukee is known for its passion for the arts. The Milwaukee International Film Festival starts during ProTrack on September 20th! Learn more about Milwaukee.

So register for ProTrack today!

The Art and the Science of Media Production

Creating media is an art as well as a science. In the MCA-I ProTrack 2007 MEDIA CRAFT TRACK, you’ll learn how to use new techniques to keep your projects fresh and compelling and how to harness the latest cost-effective tools and formats.

In addition to several popular presenters returning with fresh new sessions (Dick Reizner and Mike Brueggemeyer to name two!) we have many other experienced and respected presenters and facilitators.

HD for Filmmakers presented by Jacob Rosenberg, Formika Films,you will learn how to deliver the richness of film on a limited budget. High Definition (HD) and Digital Intermediate (DI) workflows can result in huge cost savings without sacrificing quality or color accuracy. Discover how HD formats and new cross platform Adobe� Production Premium software will help you produce cost-efficient, future-proofed projects. A breakdown of the latest HDV formats and cameras will be included.

What if you are tasked with writing a script and you really don’t like to write? Let Barry Hampe, scriptwriter and author help you move from the initial project request to a finished script that your client will happily approve! This one hour session will show you how to �cover the important stuff� in your first draft treatment and quickly script from the approved results.

Brand new this year – explore an artistic approach to digital graphics and achieve emotional impact, beauty and energy by mastering the tools of the trade. Anthony Kashinn, professional watercolorist and master digital artist will show you the Art of Painting with Light using Photoshop as the core application, plus numerous plug-ins and filters incorporating elements from Bryce 3D, Illustrator�, and the ArtMatic modular graphic synthesizer.

Visit the ProTrack website to see the details on all three Tracks – Business Success, Evolving Delivery Systems and Media Craft.

So register for ProTrack today! Oh, and did we mention, there’ll be plenty of expertise, networking, fun and beer?

Special pricing is available if you sign up online before September 12th, 2007. Be sure to select the MCA-I Media Festival and Awards Celebration as part of your registration and if you are a golfer, don’t miss the Sunday Golf Outing to raise money for the G. Warren Scholarship fund.

For more information about the organization and conference registration visit www.mca-i.org. Join now and save 20% on ProTrack before September 12th, 2007.

ProTrack Session Hightlight: Brainslam

Look for a new event this year at ProTrack -”Brainslam™” featuring wiki-type problem solving in an unfettered atmosphere. Pre-submit problems in any of three categories for group brainstorming: business management, people management, and marketing. Way cool way to stay on the leading edge of emerging technology, social media, and business success!

ProTrack conference Early Bird registration extended to August 17

It was August 3, now it’s August 17!

No matter the date, Register Now for the only conference where media technique for any media: video, audio, streaming, HD, podcasting, social media; come together. Meet great people in a great setting for “networking”: Milwaukee. (If we can’t find a beer we’re all in trouble!)

Stay tuned for interviews with some of the great speakers at ProTrack!

Subscribe to the RSS Feed or Subscribe via Email to keep up to date with ProTrack 2007!

Savvy Media Pros Discover Real Business Advantages at ProTrack 2007

Virtual communities and social media open new opportunities for visual communicators and will take a prominent role in this year’s ProTrack conference.

ProTrack sessions will bring a fresh perspective and keener insight into how convergence of various media disciplines and the evolving media landscape impacts today’s producers.

“Social media and emerging delivery systems can create real business advantages for the savvy media pro. ProTrack is an opportunity to find out how.” Mike Brown, president of MCA-I.

Conference headliners include:

• Social media expert Julie Gomoll, general manager of Halsoft.com, who will explain the current state of affairs with the social mediasphere and how it can be used in both large and small enterprises.
• Jan Ozer, consultant, on-line community guru and author of Publishing Digital Video and PC Magazine Guide to Digital Video will bring real-world examples and checklists for encoding into Flash® and Windows Media® formats.
• Eric Miller, an Apple Genius and video producer for Aquent/RA Studios; Clint Chilcott, digital artist and podcast trainer for Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin; and Pete Walchli, manager of eMedia Services for GE Healthcare Performance Solutions will team up to cover podcasting and mobile delivery.

Save up to 20% before August 3rd with special registration pricing.

The Media Communications Association – International, founded in 1968 and once known as ITVA, supports professional communicators who work in film and video, the Internet, and other electronic media, and who communicate through broadcast and non-broadcast delivery channels. It has chapters in 26 U.S. cities and several international affiliates.

For more information about the organization and conference registration visit www.mca-i.org.

Welcome to the ProTrack 2007 blog

This is the place to find out more about the ProTrack 2007 conference: session updates, new events, interviews with the speakers. We’ll keep it going during the conference too. And after the conference, well, we’ll see…

What is ProTrack 2007?

It’s the only conference to cover ALL the information you need to be professional media communicator: video production techniques; HD HDV video; DVD authoring; streaming media production; podcasting; graphics; documentary film production; writing; as well as the business information you need to make a living.

You can go to a video conference or a podcasting conference or a small business seminar. But ProTrack has all of that under one roof . So save your time and save your money and check out ProTrack 2007.

The ProTrack 2007 conference is MCA-I’s big event. (They’ve been doing a conference for nearly all of their 40 years.) The price ($395 for members before August 3) is competitive (actually cheap) compared to the other conferences out there. ProTrack has the same high level national speakers and a well organized program with logical tracks. So why the best kept secret routine?

ProTrack, and all of MCA-I’s conferences, are for MCA-I members. Not to be exclusive or anything, but part of what MCA-I does is help its members get better at what they do. If you’re a video producer how do you get better? If you’re a cameraman where can you see, live, great techniques that will set you apart? That’s where ProTrack comes in. Check out joining MCA-I at their official website: mca-i.org.

It IS who you know

ProTrack tradition is that you tend to socialize — a lot. Call it F2F, call it BOF, call it networking, call it schmoozing, whatever. At ProTrack you hang out with a couple of hundred of your new best friends and make new contacts. People that bring you business, that you use on a new project, that you stay in touch with throughout the year. They like to have fun, shoot the bull, uh, pucky and blow off steam. Sometimes the first morning sessions have a few people a bit bleary eyed. But hey! We’re all professionals here! There are informal mixers, formal mixers, heck there’s even a golf outing (to benefit the G. Warren Scholarship Fund).

Did I mention the media festival?

ProTrack is capped off by 39th Annual MCA-I Media Festival Awards. That’s “39th” as in years. The Awards recognize the best in , you guessed it, corporate video. This is the place to see the best stuff in video, DVD and online production. A GREAT place to steal ideas, uh, stimulate your creativity, for your next project. The best productions produced by students in any category are eligible for scholarship awards too

Who is this MCA-I you blog of?

MCA-I is the Media Communications Association-International. MCA-I has been around for almost 40 years as a professional association for media people from the corporate, non-profit and educational areas. Yuh, OK, so we’re the industrial video guys. MCA-I has members who work inside big companies and members who have big companies as clients. There are independent producers doing their own thing and paying the bills with a corporate gig. Writers creating scripts while they work away at their screenplay. Media people, like you, doing business and making a living everyday.