Mediabistro Circus is a two-day event that will help you understand what’s happening at the crossroads of digital media and traditional media, why it matters to you, and how it affects the work that you do. You’ll be able to go back to your office and say, “Let’s get started on this project - and here’s how we can do it.” Some of the most impressive people in media and technology will be speaking at Mediabistro Circus (we’re talking Jim Roberts, Chris Anderson, Regine Debatty, Robert Scoble, etc…). It’s a powerful mix of media luminaries, innovators and experts sharing knowledge and ideas over two jam-packed days in New York. The Mediabistro Circus is an experience that could quite possibly change your professional life. No matter what facet of media you’re in, it’s one event you can’t afford to miss.

Plan to attend this two-day summit about the digital platforms and trends that are changing media on May 20-21. Mediabistro Circus will be held at Skylight Studio in the west Soho neighborhood of Manhattan, bordering on Tribeca. Visit the site to learn more.

This class was created for Mac-based designers ready to learn Adobe Photoshop. In this weekend class, students will work on individual Mac computers in a lab setting. Students will learn Photoshop basics, including simple color correction and photo retouching tips and tricks. You’ll learn cover color adjustment, layers, color correction, image retouching, filters, and special effects. Learn the difference between low resolution and high resolution, and which is the ideal resolution for your job.

This class is taught by Mara Sachs (shown above), who began her career in 1984 as a typesetter at Ziff Davis. A few years later she began learning the basics of digital production as manager of the brand-new Macintosh department in a large Philadelphia prepress company. Since 1990 she has been running her own business, providing page layout and retouching services, as well as training, to the graphic arts community. Mara is an avid meditator and brings her joyful energy, clarity and good humor into her classes.

Students should be comfortable working on a Mac. Please submit a letter of interest and work history. Class starts 31 May. Visit the site to learn more.

These workshops are perfect for writers and journalists, but office managers and artists who are weak in Web development can join in as well (not intended for graphic professionals). In one weekend, learn how to use Macromedia Flash to create interactive widgets — slideshows, maps, quizzes, and more — without having to learn too much of the geeky technical stuff. On the first day, you’ll get an introduction to Flash basics. You’ll learn how to use the timeline, the tools bar, and the stage. You’ll create simple animations and slideshows. On the second day, we’ll cover more complex interactives using the drawing tools in Flash, as well as images created in Photoshop. You’ll do yourself very proud.

The workshops are taught by Duy Linh Tu, co-founder and creative director of Resolution Seven, a video and DVD production studio, and shown in the photo above. He is a writer, videographer, motion graphics designer, and photographer. Prior to forming Resolution Seven, Duy founded and was the chief operations officer of Missing Pixel, an award-winning interactive production company.

Students must have basic knowledge of Photoshop (if you can resize an image, you’re golden). Students also should be comfortable with working on a Mac. Class starts May 17. Visit the site to learn more.

The Army Ten-miler (ATM) has just announced the dates for its annual Official Race T-Shirt Design contest. Submissions for the contest will be taken from May 6 to June 6, 2008. The first place winner will receive $1,000 and the winning design will be printed on over 26,000 runner and volunteer t-shirts. The second and third place designs will win $500 and $250 respectively.

The top five entries as selected by a Blue Ribbon Panel will be posted on the Army Ten-Miler web site. Registered runners only will be eligible to vote for the top design from June 17 - 24. Last year over 6,840 runners voted for the winning designs. Winners will be determined by the greatest number of online votes. Winners will be announced on the ATM web site on June 26.

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Social Design Network announced today that John McArthur, new CEO of Millennium Promise, will serve on the final judging panel for the DESIGN 21 Millennium Promise Competition. The competition tasks designers to join the fight against extreme poverty by creating a web-based campaign to advocate for the eight Millennium Development Goals.

McArthur has been centrally involved with Millennium Promise since its inception in 2000 and has worked to promote Millennium Development Goals throughout rural Africa. He also served as the Policy Director at the Earth Institute at Columbia University and co-director of the Millennium Villages Project, a partnership between the Earth Institute, Millennium Promise, and the UN Development Program. Prior to this, he worked as the Deputy Director and Manager of the UN Millennium Project. There, he coordinated a global network of nearly 300 experts who served on 10 thematic Task Forces and was the lead editor of the Project’s final report to the Secretary-General, “Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals.” McArthur’s professional experiences and global expertise make him an ideal choice to evaluate submissions for DESIGN 21’s Millennium Promise Competition.

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It is coming to Boston’s Hynes Convention Center May 18-21. HOW is the annual creativity, business and technology conference for graphic designers. Expect more than 60 speakers, 60+ sessions and 10 three-hour workshops.

According to HOW magazine editor Bryn Mooth, “The HOW Conference is a wonderful opportunity for designers to develop their design careers, hone their business skills, get their creative juices flowing and network with thousands of fellow designers.”

Many industry experts and well-known designers will present at this year’s Conference, including Allan Haley of Monotype Imaging, design entrepreneur Charles S. Anderson, Adobe’s Russell Brown and Julieanne Kost, plus Robynne Raye and Michael Strassburger of Modern Dog Design Co. Many speakers plan to use Boston as inspiration for their presentations, notably House Industries’ Ken Barber who will use Boston’s rich typographic history as the backdrop for his workshop on creating type.

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The purpose of this competition is to create an online campaign design for Millennium Promise, a non-profit organization with the mission to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals – eight globally endorsed objectives that address the many aspects of extreme poverty – in Africa by 2015. Millennium Promise works with impoverished communities, national and local governments and partner organizations to implement high-impact programs aimed at transforming lives on the African continent and engaging donor nations, corporations and the general public in the effort.

This competition calls for the design of a new media campaign that promotes public awareness of the Millennium Development Goals (”MDGs,” provided at the competition site). The aim of the campaign is to prompt the general public to do what they can to support the cause and urge their leaders to stick to their commitment to the MDGs. The campaign needs to be web-based. It should be designed to reach as wide and global an audience as possible on the Internet, and as such anything of a “viral” nature is encouraged – but the campaign can only be represented using the Entry Provisions stated at the site and in the Entry Rules.

Early entry deadline is Tuesday June 17 2008 at 6:00pm UTC (Universal Coordinated Time).

Students, instructors and administrators: Submit your students’ latest design, advrtising and photography work to Graphis New Talent. Get the recognition you deserve, and share your work with peers and hiring industory professionals. Every student included earns a Graphis Gold Award, and standout instructors earn the Platinum Award.

Register online with this link, and click on the Call For Entry link on that page. Complete instructions, forms, art specifications, shipping and payment procedures may be obtained online at the entry Web site. All entrants and subscribers are eligible for a 40% discount on the annual. Deadline is 26 May 2008.

Photographs that focus on all things horses, from Appaloosas to Zebras, country roaming to carousel rotating, are welcome to this call for entry. Images of working horses, wild horses, dressage, tack, anything related to the life of our equine friends is welcome.

The Center for Fine Art Photography, located in Fort Collins, Colorado, invites photographers working in all mediums and styles to participate in its exhibitions. Traditional, contemporary, avant-garde, creative and experimental works, including new processes, mixed techniques are welcome.

The exhibition, which will be held at The Center for Fine Art Photography’s gallery from September 5 through September 27, 2008, is open to all domestic and international, professional and amateur photographers working with digital or traditional photography or combinations of both.

Deadline is 18 June 2008. Visit the site to learn more about hte judge, the exhibition, and the prize awards.

The Center for Fine Art Photography in cooperation with Beet Street* will host a show of photographs created by Peace Corps Volunteers during its long history. The 2008 Peace Corps Exhibition will take place in Fort Collins, Colorado during the International Peace Corps Reunion. Selected images will be exhibited in the Center’s gallery during the reunion, August 20 – August 30, 2008 and on the Center’s website for two additional years. There are also plans for a traveling exhibition.

• Eligibility: Pictures created by current and former Peace Corps Volunteers will be accepted.
• The photos must be of events and everyday life during a Peace Corps Volunteer’s tour.
• Juror: Dr. Anthony Bannon, Director of the George Eastman House in Rochester New York.
• No entry fee, as the show is underwritten by Beet Street, an independent cultural and economic development entity of the Ft. Collins Downtown Develop Authority and sponsor for the Peace Corps Reunion.

Deadline is 29 May 2008. Visit the site to learn more.

Photo above: Alema Rose, Aler IDP Camp, Uganda, 2006, by Heather McClintock.