Macstock 2019 Link Roundup

Macstock was especially awesome this year. Each time I return home I try to dedicate time to reflect on my time on the event. And I always come away with a better understanding of the Mac community, deepened friendships, new friendships, and way more tools to play with than I should ever download.

But in the midst of my time reflecting I noticed that there are a lot of links shared about Macstock. I was doing my best to read as many as I could and discovered it was kind of difficult to find them all. So I've done the research and compiled as many as I could find. Those are below. But if I've missed any, just let me know in the comments below and I'll get them added.

Pre-Conference

Before we jump into the links, I want to point out once set of videos that has become an annual tradition leading up to the conference. Chuck Joiner of MacVoices did his annual Road to Macstock series, which is a bank of videos with the speakers and event organizers. It's a great way to learn about everyone involved before the event kicks off. It's a great way to learn more about who you'll meet at Macstock. So if you're on the fence about whether or not to go, you need to check these out prior to commitment.

The Speaker Roundup

Ok, let's jump in. First off, here are the links I've found from the speakers themselves. Over the last two years I've found myself hanging out with and catching up with more and more of the speakers. So I personally enjoy reading their viewpoint of how the conference went.

Allison was the first speaker of the event and began things by telling us the story of how she came to realize she was creative. It's quite a story and one that had many different outcomes that seemed crazy and implausible.

Dave gave a talk on using Apple Notes to be creative. I'm far from an Apple Notes user but there were quite a few tips here that I could see being useful.

EDIT: Dave also did a recap with friends: In Touch with iOS: 063 Macstock 2019 Recap with Friends and guests of the show

Kirschen doesn't have a dedicated article but I found her tweets revolving around the event fun. She did a talk on sketch noting that inspired others to give it a go throughout the remainder of the event.

Rose gave a great talk covering, what else, automation. Rule of thumb: if it will save you time, automate it. Don't worry about how many times you'll do the task. Just automate it.

There are a lot of grievances created when people pull together presentations. Chuck showed us what we shouldn't do by sharing some of the worst he's seen.

I spent some time hanging out with David again this year and always enjoy his company. His talk was about his process of becoming self-employed and how his daily work schedule has been impacted. He gave a lot of great tips on how control and schedule time for creativity into your day.

My good friend and Bookworm co-host, Mike Schmitz, gave a talk on Ulysses where he actually convinced me to download it again for another try. I have to admit that Mike is pretty good at selling new tools. Well done, sir.

Brett gave a talk on discovering your writing workflow. It was during his talk that I realized Brett and I have very similar struggles with focus and work in many of the same ways and with the same tools. So I found myself looking into every tool he mentioned and was pleased to see that a large portion of those were already in my tool belt. The two big ones were Marked and Multimarkdown Composer. I was aware of them, but they're now in active use.

Josh and I rode down to Macstock together so I had the great honor of hearing this fast-paced, high-energy talk a few times. It was well worth it. Definitely a great talk. He even got me to consider Paprika. But let's be honest, the kitchen is my wife's. I'll stick to the grill.

Rick has been creating videos from his iPad for a couple years now and spent some time taking us through his process. I'll stick to my Mac, though.

Attendee Roundup

The speakers aren't the only ones that share the experience afterwards. Here are some follow-up articles and podcasts from attendees.

Mac Power Users 500!

MPU is now up to 500 episodes! I remember listening to the first few episodes way back in the day. So to see them hit 500 is a special moment and it was a treat to be there for the recording. I even had a chance to geek out over sound gear with Stephen right before they went on stage. Definitely a great show.

Stephen Hacket Reverts

He can't help himself. When there's a Mac that needs torn apart and put back together, the vortex draws him in.

Yours Truly

I had a chance to be interviewed about my analog tendencies on MacVoices while at the conference. Always a pleasure, Chuck.

Inspiration

And with all the creativity talk, Mike decided to start blogging again.

Next Year?

Finally, I think Michael speaks for all of us when he says:

See you there next year!