News & Events
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… the home of all Macintosh User Groups in the UK and Ireland.
Special Dsicount offers for MUG members
Members of Mac User Groups in the UK & Ireland are elligible for special discounts for many items of software and hardware click here to see the latest. All you need to do is fill in the form and your MUG will approve your request. If you MUG is not listed please ask them to contact us about joining the programme. We hope you like this additional benefit from Mac Users UK & Ireland in these hard economic times. For more information please contact your MUG.
MacLive Expo 2008
Well, MacLiveExpo has come and gone, and was not so live as we’d have liked.
The idea of adding Linux to the show seemed to take much of the buzz away that had been such a feature of earlier Mac Expos. There was more gangway space than stand space too – more so it must be said on the Linux side of the hall, but for the most part the exhibitors on the Mac side were hardly mainstream. All the big resellers were conspicuous either by their absence or by the very small stands that they had taken. One of the features of the show had always been the sight of people happily lugging great boxes of Mac product out of the hall, and that was sadly missed.
On our own stand, kindly donated by the Organisers, and this year of absolutely huge dimensions, we certainly noticed the downturn in visitor numbers – we have had less than half the lowest previous number, and it was fortunate indeed that we had been so late in getting our stand, otherwise we could well have had our normal quota of volunteers on the stand, and they would have had very little to do.
We can only hope that the show will continue and that some formula for exhibitors will be found that makes it the attraction that it was before Apple pulled out. Apple may keep to their word and never show again, and if you do the arithmetic it is easy to see why. The costs of a stand of the size that Apple must have as the main attraction, including the expense of bringing staff to the show from all over Europe, and maybe some from the States, putting them up and feeding them and losing their work for the week they are otherwise occupied must come into the region of £200–250 ,000. For that sum it should be possible to go a very long way to fitting out a new Apple Store – and the latter take money whereas stands don’t!.
On the bright side we have had a magnificent response from Adobe this year as a donor of prizes for the annual Photo Competition (you can check it out HERE), and the categories promise some fun when we come to judge the entries. To make things easier, and to allow you to get Christmas well out of the way the deadline has been extended to March 20th. We look forward to a bumper entry this year and the categories are designed to test your imagination, so get those cameras working!.
Some new MUGs have formed this last year – Southampton University and a specialised MUG for deaf people, and two new ones trying to set up at Wrexham and the Isle of Wight. But the big news, as you will see elsewhere on the site, is the launch of our Special Offers page. Available only to MUG members, we already have a very good range from a wide variety of manufacturers, software houses and resellers, and the indications are that this will continue. To take advantage of an offer you need only enter your name and User group. When your membership has been verified you;ll receive the code to allow access to the offer.
We continue in our work of publicising and promoting Mac User groups and welcome ideas and suggestions on new ways of doing this. Let us know!
Time again for our Annual Photo Competition.
All details of the Competition categories, and how to enter, plus the ever-necessary rules and regs will go up on this site when the competition is officially launched at MacLiveExpo next month. All comers are welcome – membership of a Mac user Group isn't necessary nor (and here we whisper) do you need to have a Mac. But you DO need to contact a Mac User Group to get an entry form. And this year we are not restricting the number of entries that you can make – though you will need a separate entry number for each.
Our Groups continue to flourish, providing many thousands of UK & Irish Mac Users with help, advice and friendship – the full list is HERE, from which you may see that Cambridge has set out well on the way to regaining its’ former glory!