Welcome, GIMP tutorial attendees! Here's some basic information about the tutorial so you can come prepared.
No prior knowledge of GIMP is required. But if the audience is all comfortable with the basics and wants to jump ahead to more advanced topics, I'm happy to oblige!
If possible, bring a laptop with GIMP installed. (GIMP 2.4 is ideal, but you can get by with 2.2 or even 2.0.) If you have images of your own you want to work on, bring 'em! If not, I'll have some sample images here or you can download them all as a tarball: gimp-tut-pix.tar.gz.
I strongly recommend having both GIMP and some images (mine or your own) already on your laptop before the tutorial; since it'll be the morning of the first day of the conference, it's best not to count on having internet access.
3.5 hours is a long time to sit and listen to somebody talk, so I'm hoping everyone will want to get some hands-on time with GIMP trying the techniques as well as watching what I do.
If you have any specific techniques you're hoping I'll cover, drop me some mail beforehand, and I'll make sure to come prepared with appropriate sample images, plug-ins or whatever is needed.
Anyone registered for the tutorial will get a handout (PDF) of GIMP tips, hints and shortcuts summarizing a lot of what we'll do in the tutorial. I hope it will continue to be useful to you as a "quick reference" guide long after you go home. Apress may give me some handouts too.
If there's interest, I might talk about how to make gradient maps and show examples from the fun Focus Blur plug-in.
Thanks, and I hope you enjoy the tutorial!
...Akkana