Erica Gamet

About Erica Gamet

Erica — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:57:20 +0000

I am a speaker, trainer, and fan of Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, and Apple Keynote (to name a few). An Adobe Certified Expert, I conduct training for corporations onsite, as well as hold open training classes for anyone that wants to learn. Based between Denver and Boulder, Colorado, I am available for training and speaking throughout the Rocky Mountain West, and beyond.

In the near future, I will be expanding my class offerings to include, among other titles, What’s New: InDesign CS4, InDesign for Non-Designers, and The Delicate Art of Working with a Print Provider.

In the meantime, check out my Current Training, and feel free to e-mail me (using the Contact Me link to the right) to be added to the class mailing list, get info, or just say, “Hi!” Thanks for stopping by and come back soon!

Wordpress – It’s Not Just for Blogs, Anymore!

Erica — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:43:24 +0000

This week, I’ll be talking about one of my newest obsessions: Wordpress. I’ve found this open source software to be quite fun and more than a little bit addicting. Sometimes working with WP can be a bit daunting, but I just see that as part of the challenge. I’m not a coder, by any means, but I’ve found digging into WP’s code to tweak functions and fonts and colors to be intriguing.

Lots of sites (like ericagamet.com) are using Wordpress at their core. You’d be surprised that many of them don’t look like blogs…because they’re not! With a little bit of tweaking and re-arranging, a Wordpress site can be used as a Content Management System (CMS) to look just like a “regular” website.

Come to my free hour-long seminar to find out what Wordpress is, how people are using it beyond blogging, and ways to customize a Wordpress site to your liking. I won’t be getting all technical at this seminar…don’t want to scare anyone away. I hope you’ll join me for my casual chat about Wordpress.

Location: Buzz Coffee – Longmont
Date: 11-18-2009
Time: 7:00 pm

That Time of Year, Again

Erica — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:00:39 +0000

Back to School. Those three little words used to make me just a little sad. It wasn’t that I hated school (quite the opposite, really), I just really enjoyed the flexibility and freedom of summer vacation. I could get up when I wanted, play whatever games I wanted, hang out with whatever friends I wanted. School, on the other hand, meant getting back to structure and routine. What 10 year old wants that?

Well, I’m not 10 anymore, and I thrive on structure. I still enjoy the more laid-back atmosphere summer brings, but I look forward to getting “back in the groove” when September rolls around. I take this time to re-focus on goals that I may have been neglecting or pushing aside. I also re-assess ideas conceived or implemented at the beginning of the year. Autumn puts me in a whole new frame of mind and prepares me for the sometimes uncertain nature of the cold weather months. I guess it’s the modern-day equivalent of stocking up for the long, cold winter!

This summer, my class schedule went on hiatus, but now I have launched a new schedule of current training. If you’ve been thinking about getting some training to add to your skill set, now is the time. Get in that new frame of mind that focuses on preparing for the months ahead. I will be adding additional classes soon…including my beginning Illustrator class and more! I look forward to meeting you at an upcoming training event and if you have any questions, please use the Contact Me link in the sidebar.

Enjoy your autumn!

Corporate Training in InDesign

Erica — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:16:07 +0000

All of my InDesign classes, as well as other pre-press and graphics topics, are available for your corporate and in-house training needs. Customized InDesign training is also available. I provide corporate and in-house training in the Denver and Boulder metro area, as well as throughout Colorado, the Rocky Mountain West, and nationally.

If you would like more information on my corporate and in-house training, please feel free to contact me using the link in the right sidebar. I would be happy to help you decide which class would be right for your organization, or help you design a custom class to fit your needs.

Not Another Evaluation Form!

Erica — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 04:04:55 +0000

When you go to a class, seminar, training, or speaking event, you’re often asked to fill out an evaluation form. Sometimes it doubles as a raffle entry (anyone else miss the Adobe Roadshows with prizes galore?). I think that’s a great idea, but I don’t give prizes away for filling out forms in my training classes. The “prize” is a better training experience and the chance to tell me what you think.

For me, evaluation forms are the best way for you, as a class participant, to make sure I’m providing a valuable service. They are your one big chance to say what’s on your mind after attending one of my events. What do you want to see in a training class? What topics interest you? What didn’t you find helpful in the class? These are all valuable questions for me to ask. Problem is: many people don’t fill the evals out completely…if at all. An eval form with only your name and email filled out doesn’t really help anyone (I already have that info).

I read everyone of those evaluation forms and take the feedback and advice to heart. Does that mean I try to accommodate every suggestion that comes through? Not at all. Some of the feedback is merely griping about the software, bosses that won’t upgrade the application, or wanting a different format for the class than that stated in the class description. Keep it relevant. If you think I didn’t explain things clearly, let me know in what way and how I might improve. The last thing I want is for you to leave my class thinking, “She was really nice, but I didn’t GET a thing she was talking about.” If you didn’t enjoy a particular topic in the class, let me know why. Maybe it wasn’t relevant to your job. If I see a trend of comments like that, I might re-evaluate whether or not to cover that topic in future classes.

Evaluations are not just “busy work” at the end of a class. They’re not just something I do to show a boss or for my own ego. They are so I know how I’m doing, what I’m doing right, and what I can improve on. If you take more classes from me, my goal is to exceed your expectations every time, which means constantly improving and giving you a better learning experience than the time before. If you’re not taking the time to fill out evaluation forms in their entirety, you’re missing out on a great opportunity. If you’re a trainer or speaker and you’re not getting evaluations from your audience, you really ought to be. How else will you know what your audience wants? Evaluations are a vital resource and give attendees an avenue to voice their opinions to shape future events and classes.

Some helpful eval feedback:
Did I speak in a way that was clear and understandable?
Did I leave you with unanswered questions?
Was there a topic in the class that wasn’t relevant to what you do?
What did you like and dislike and WHY?
What improvements to the subject matter can I make?
What other topics interest you and WHY?
Anything else you think I can do to improve the overall learning experience?

Not so helpful feedback:
Weather was terrible and made traveling here difficult (Yes, I’ve gotten that before).
Telling me I spoke too quickly: I ask frequently during my classes if my pace is working for everyone…that’s the time to speak up.
Telling me you can’t hear me.
Telling me the room was too warm.
Basically, anything about the environment that could have been addressed during the class (too hot, too cold, too noisy, too dark, etc.)…on the eval is too late for me to make the situation better.