Fenix is getting ready to add a round of workshops in May and June for teaching people who want to learn to blog how to get the most out of Wordpress.

If you’ve considered blogging, or if you’ve already dabbled a bit, this course is being designed for you. I’m setting it up to discuss both the philosophy of blogging and the mechanics of making it so. I’ll not only discuss how to set up your own free blogging space, but your other options as well.

I am also toying with the idea of inviting some guest bloggers from the Portland blogging scene to discuss some of their routines.

Right now I’m considering setting it up as a two session workshop that will discuss things like google-bating, blog aggregators, rss feeds, writing skills and strategies, selling ads, managing comments, using different templates, and other basic things everyone should know about when they start a blog. I am also considering adding an optional third session that discusses how to build your own Wordpress Templates, or at the very minimum how to tweak the ones you already have.

If this seems interesting to you or if you have any other ideas we should throw in as we develop the workshop, please let me know in the comments below. And, of course, you can always contact me directly if you don’t want to post your ideas in a public forum.

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We’ve taken a big step for our small Portland company today. We’ve started advertising on the radio!

You’ll now hear about us several times a day on KPOJ. I have to say the folks at KPOJ have been very easy to work with and I’m very pleased with the campaign they’ve helped me put together.

Carl Wolfson, one of the morning show folk, will be attending several classes over the next few months as well. So we’ll be getting personal testimonials instead of just canned speeches.

In addition to the on-air announcements, we’re featured on their website in a couple of places. We have a banner ad and we are on the contests page.

All in all, I’d have to say I’m pretty excited about the direction that Fenixworks is going.

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We’ve posted the calendar extending into the first week of February on the site now. This is a perfect opportunity for you if you have money for training in your budget but you are in danger of losing it at the end of the year. The simple solution? Pay for a workshop now.

We also have gift certificate and workshop vouchers that you can purchase now for future classes. Contact us directly at the office for more details. The phone number is 503-336-4712.

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We’re having the Grand Opening of our new space this Monday night (November 5). The party starts at 5 and runs until 8. And guess what, if you’re reading this, then you’re invited!

We’re bringing snack food in from Habibi, including meat, vegetarian and vegan options, and we’ll be discussing everything from the latest versions of Dreamweaver and InDesign to the Straw Poll they’re running on KPOJ.

We’re offering a special 10% discount on any workshop sign-ups that are done in person at the party (not to worry: if you’ve signed up for a workshop and paid full price this week, we’ll make good on the discount as long as you show up at the party).

The Grand Opening is at our new space located at 1007 SW Morrison (@ SW 10th Ave) in Downtown Portland. It’s right across the intersection from the 10th and Morrison Smart Park Garage, and has easy access from the Max (east bound stop is Library/SW Yamhill, westbound stop is Galleria/SW Morrison) and the Portland Street Car.

Come and introduce yourself. If you already know who we are, just drop in and say hi. We’ll see you there Monday night!

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Yesterday, we loaded up all of the desks and computers and moved across the river to our new digs!

I’ve updated the site everywhere so that it shows our new address, but in case you haven’t seen it anywhere else, here it is:

1007 SW Morrison
Portland, Oregon

It’s downtown, across from the Smart Park garage at SW 10th and SW Morrison. We’re about a block from the main library, across the street from many great restaurants (Maya Taqueria, Habibi Lebonese, & India House to name a few).

Easy access to both Max lines and the Portland Streetcar means we have a ton of options.

All workshops currently in session will continue at the new space from this point forward.

We’re excited to be in our new location (can you tell?). Come by and check us out. Watch this space, we’ll be announcing a grand opening within the next few weeks.

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Fenixworks has been negotiating a new space for our workshops for a couple of months now, and we finally have it all worked out. I’m not ready to disclose the address just yet, I’m going to wait until we are ready to actually start teaching in the new space before saying what it is.

But I will say this: It’s in Downtown Portland. It’s 1/2 block from a Max stop. It’s 1/2 block from a street car stop. It is right across the street from a Smart Park Garage. All that, plus it’s a store front with street level access!

When I drove by it this morning, the new landlord had placed this sign in the window!

I expect we’ll be teaching there within the next 30 days. I’ll change all of the address info on the website as soon as it applies. For the time being, keep coming to our workshops at the same place on the east side of the river at 119 SE Main Street.

This is a huge opportunity for us and we’re very excited about it. Watch this space for an open house announcement soon.

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We’re getting ready to start distributing round 2 of our postcard all over Portland. Here’s what it looks like.

and yes, that’s no mistake, we’re finally gearing up to teach Flash… Stay tuned.

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Today we are happy to announce the addition of Susan Bein to our talented group of instructors at Fenixworks. Susan has taught Photoshop and Illustrator for over a dozen years, and InDesign since version 1.0. She has worked as a graphic designer, webmaster and photographer, and has taught design full-time since 1998.

Susan’s experience includes thousands of classroom hours with a hugely diverse student population, from middle schoolers to a couple in their nineties. In one of her classes there were even twelve different native languages. She has facilitated over 5,000 corporate training workshops. Her teaching style is characterized by clarity, warmth and humor.

At Fenixworks, Susan will begin by teaching both Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign workshops. Today we have added the first round of each of those to the schedule for the second half of July.

Susan is a wonderful addition to Fenixworks and enables us to bring a much wider collection of workshops to the general public. Please join us in welcoming her aboard.

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The Schedule pages have a new look. I finally had time to change them from the long-hand-paragraph-esque look to a more concise grid format. I think it shows at a glance what workshops are available. It feels more user friendly to me. What do you think? Let me know.

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I don’t want to say too much right here, right now, but Fenixworks is gearing up to add instruction for Adobe InDesign and Adobe Illustrator to our roster. Look for workshops to be available for both of those products (and possibly more!) towards the second half of July. I expect they will be posted on the schedule by Monday, June 18 and will begin sometime during the week of July 15.

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