Here is just a sampling from some of the evaluations this past year...

The training session with Bob last week was excellent. He was able to give us a relevant practical overview of the InCopy workflow that will allow us to set up and work with our first round of test projects as well as some topics to consider as we migrate toward full time use of InCopy.

We will definitely consider having him back in the future for follow up InCopy and InDesign training.

My thanks to you and Bob for your help!

Matt/Questar

People told me that Matt did a great job, answered questions well and was flexible in terms of handling questions or going over different topics. I'm going to follow up on the version differences here.

Thanks again and hope to work with you again in the future!

Gary/Bayer

The staff at Sackler School of Medicine was very happy with Mat’s training.  Roy and I both thought he did very well.  We all thought that the staff had previously reviewed the application form.  Unfortunately, this was not the case.  As Mat began to take them through the form, they had many questions and suggested edits.  Mat was a pro and was very patient and understanding.  Yes, it interrupted the training session, but he was respectful and offered good suggestions.  He also was able to respond to their queries regarding the best technical way to set up their office system to share the applicants’ files.

In the end, the training session evolved into more of an overview of the capabilities of Adobe X Pro, specifically for their use.  His walkthroughs were clear and comprehensive within this context.  Now, the staff is not intimidated by the software and is more than willing to work with it. 

Terry/Sackler School of Medicine

We love Alison! She has taught extensively for us and is everything you’d hope a trainer would be: engaging, knowledgeable, dependable, and very clear with her explanations. She always gets rave reviews from our clients, and our staff is always delighted to work with her. I truly can’t say enough good things

Steve/Accelebrate

I have used Alison for corporate training with several clients.

First, and most importantly, she really knows her stuff.
She is a genuine "expert" on a number of applications. 
But I think it's the way she teaches that has impressed me and the students she has taught through my company. She's not pretentious. I have dealt with a lot of instructors and too often ego plays a major role. They know their stuff and you'd better realize that THEY KNOW THEIR STUFF!

Secondly, there is a fair amount of interaction or back and forth when Alison teaches.
The feedback from a number of students seems to indicate that she doesn't teach from the book. I do think that's important in short-burst training (2, 3 days). Retention levels are higher when there is less generic and more customization.

Finally, she's likable. Students warm to her personality and her style of teaching. 

That's my experience with Alison training for my organization. Obviously I would recommend Alison without hesitation.

Rob/Animus

As a Manager of Cablevision's training department and being an Instructor myself, I have seen many different techniques and styles of training. Alison's technique and hands on style allowed us to not only grasp the concept but also allowed us to apply what we were learning. Her testing for understanding was great!  It made us really think and do it ourselves rather than relying on her to show us everything. I also know the importance of the Instructor 'walking the walk'. Alison definitely knows her stuff.  Her knowledge of the software was evident however she was not showing off. She was using her skills to teach us exactly what we needed to know.  

The patience that she displayed was very helpful in our learning. There weren't any questions that she couldn't answer nor, at any time, did we feel like we were asking a stupid question [even though I'm sure she was laughing on the inside, lol]. Alison is a great Instructor. I wouldn't change 1 thing about the training at all. I am actually looking into the ability to continue the session at a later date after we have had some time to use the software.I would love to come back for a part 2 to learn even more!

Cristen/Cablevision - InDesign - Off-site class

Having attended several other technical trainings in the past, it is always a crap shoot as to what you’re going to get for an instructor. Alison hit it out of the park with her pleasant personality, good read on students comprehension, adaptability, and sense of humor. We are a fairly fun-loving, rambunctious group, which Alison took completely in stride. Even with the customized nature of the training, Alison brought things together seamlessly and logically. Her in-depth understanding of so many other applications, especially those complimentary to Captivate, was impressive, helping the group understand best practices as it relates to Captivate interacting with other applications. She provided us with dozens of techniques that I was never aware of before, which will make eLearning development so much easier and faster. She was a rockstar, and we’re thrilled that with this roll of the dice, we had the privilege of having her for our training.

Aaron/CHG Healthcare - Captivate - On Site Class

We completed our InDesign training with you, and I wanted you to know how much I appreciated your knowledge, experience, and cheerfulness in teaching such an intricate subject.

Besides the basics of the program’s usage, you helped us identify managerial issues—the rasterization of type, the proper pdf settings, the use of preflight features, the utilization of the book feature—that will not only increase our efficiency, but will save our company much money in prevented errors.

In short, your teaching was well worthwhile and a positive contribution to our daily efforts. I would recommend you for any future training, and will look forward to the next time we meet with you.

Mark/Pearson - InDesign - OnLine Class

Instructor Allison Cattelona was well prepared, timed the lessons well, explained the material extremely well, answered all questions, created exercises with instructions for us to follow, and helped me and others individually.

Kathy/Pearson - InDesign - OnLine Class

I took this class this morning and thought it was really good and
informative and I got a kick out of Matt. He was a really good instructor.
Just wanted to pass that on! Have a great weekend!

Renata/Pearson - MS Word with plug-in WordRap- OnLine Class

Alison Cattelona covered topics that I was not intimately familiar with, so the presentation was perfect. (She) has a WONDERFUL  PERKY UPBEAT VOICE. Her happiness for her job shines, she is perfect for this type of training..Kudos!

Karen/Pearson Education - MS Word - OnLine Class

I will say this... I have already been approached by a number of Art Directors and have been deeply thanked and am told they can't wait till the next session.

Patti/O&M Redworks - Flash - On Site Class

What a great and helpful team. Thanks for sending all the support. Nothing but good feedback heard around the plant.
 
Where were they when I was learning Excel?

Nick/NY Times- Outlook

Thanks for coming to teach the class. I literally had students raving about it. Some lady yelled that you were THE BEST!!! as she left the office. haha. Thanks again and I look forward to have you back in the near future.

Tara/Future Media Concepts - InDesign

Matthew, you were one of the best instructors I have ever had at one of the university-sponsored classes.  You were well-prepared, knew your material, had a great delivery, and made sure everyone was keeping up.  There was little wasted time and TONS of valuable material.  Thanks very much

Lina/Princeton University - Acrobat

The designers were able to plug into what their needs were with Mat which was wonderful.

Lorri/Really Good Stuff - InDesign Class

Working with Mat was great, even if he does spell his name with one "t." He knew his stuff, was patient, knew when we hit the overload point, had material to leave, didn't waste time, etc. I look forward to playing around with the program a bit.

Eileen One-On-One - InDesign Class

I just wanted to give you some quick feedback on yesterday's Illustrator class with Alison.

It was a delight to listen and watch her.

She very clearly explained everything she did and it was very easy to follow her. She knew exactly where to go, explained why and also repeated important steps. She mentioned keyboard shortcuts (and I learned a very good new one) and also different ways of getting to the same result (that often helps when one is stuck). It was also clear that she enjoyed giving the class and she also added some personal experiences.

She was just as good as she used to be in her (on site) training classes at Pearson and there really was no difference – it was a great learning experience.

Susan/Pearson Education- On Line Illustrator Class

Excellent job! I am starting on my first layout recreating something originally put together in QX and I was able to set everything up with only a moderate amount of frustration. I have only one question that I have not found a satisfactory answer to in the written material we possess so I will be calling SOON! Thanks Alison! 

Mary InDesign Class

I'm only hearing rave reviews on the training Mat did. We're not fully up and running on the new equipment, so it may take another week or so before those phone calls/e-mails start coming into your office. Something for you to look forward to.

Many thanks for a great job,
Deborah InDesign Class

Your to-the-point, pressed-for-time Flash presentation was phenomenal!! When it comes to timelines, I'm used to LiveMotion2, Premiere/AfterEffects. I took notes
galore (also see some of the advantages of the 'adding frames' feature in Flash) and really feel comfortable to dive into Flash at some point and got some food for thought in some grey areas with my current programs. Thanks! Loved it-

Claude, IDUG Presentation

Your Power Point workshop was a great success!  The attendees seemed very happy and excited about experimenting with PowerPoint. You were a  great instructor - imparting information in an organized, logical and interesting manner.  Your high energy was inspiring and we appreciated your being so accessible (and nice) about our questions.  There may be opportunities to offer this course again in the future.   Any other ideas are welcome.

Kathy PowerPoint seminar

Just wanted you to know that we presented the final website to the HR group that we’ve been working with and they are just thrilled with the final product.  Thanks for all you and Mat did to make it happen.  

Marsha Website Production

The training was terrific and the instructor was an excellent teacher.  It was an enormous amount of information to absorb, we really appreciated his patience.  Thanks, we'll be using your services again I'm sure! 

Cynthia InDesign, Illustrator & Photoshop

Wanted to let you know both Chris and Alison were a resounding success.
Thanks so much for sending them over to us for our PhotoShop and Illustrator/In-Design CS3 classes.

Their expertise and knowledge, as well as highly friendly teaching styles, made the training classes exciting and pleasurable experiences.

Doug Photoshop & InDesign

Mat, Just a note to say thank you. You have taught me quicker and easier ways to accomplish what could easily take forever in Photo editing. I experience you as an excellent and patient trainer and I am very grateful.

Fran Photoshop

The instructor was extremely helpful!  He showed me I was using the wrong
application for my ads and I've now found that it's much easier to use
InDesign for the ads I'm creating now.  I've come up with two other ads, as
well as uploaded the new ad.  He showed me a way to create my huge "clocks"
ad in such a way where it's reduced in size from 200MB to 29MB!

Also, he was very instrumental in showing me other techniques in Photoshop I
was having problems with.

Thank you very much for your help!  I will definitely be in contact with you
in the future if we ever need further assistance.

Jennifer Workflow with InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat

Alison, I wanted to take the time to thank you for coming to teach me web design basics yesterday. You are an excellent communicator, and because of that I understood the lesson much better. You created a relaxed environment that didn't seem like a "class", but more like a conversation between two friends. Overall, my understanding of web design is far better now than I even thought it would be after just one afternoon.

Thanks again for your time and expertise.

Rob HTML

I was talking with a coworker of mine about the online class for Quark efficiency tricks. I know you record the classes and my coworkers said it was a very informative and well taught class. I was able to get a link to your class that was yesterday and have found it very helpful as well!

Carissa On Line and On Demand Class

The class was great!!! My co workers seemed very interested in the class and the instructor was very knowledgeable about the InDesign program.

Nicole InDesign

I …thought that I should let you know that your Q&A session the other day was very helpful. Additionally, I found your presentation very understandable and you to be very approachable.

I have been using Illustrator since 1996 (Version 4). YIKES!!! There will
always be something to learn about these products. Thanks for all the great
information you passed on.

Pierina Illustrator

The training was terrific. We all feel that we came away knowing more about
how the new operating system works and how to make our jobs easier.

Sandy OSX

Your classes are wonderful. I always learn so much and I’d rarely take the time to figure it out myself so I appreciate being able to attend your virtual telecourses whenever you offer them!

The tips and tricks are SO helpful. Plus I love how you are able to jump from topic to topic and your enthusiasm about all the programs is contagious :)

Susanne Illustrator On-Line

Thank you so much for giving us an excellent acrobat training session yesterday. Your presentation was well organized, and you presented the information clearly at an appropriate pace. I really appreciate your efforts and will absolutely turn to you for our future training needs.

Linda Acrobat

I was unable to make it to the second User Group Photoshop class because I was out sick yesterday.  Would it be possible to view the recording?

I will probably miss the last 2 classes as well because of meeting conflicts and I would be grateful if I could review the recordings for those as well.  I'm very disappointed about this because I've learned so much from your classes (I also took the cool tips/tricks Part I).  I will be attending the cool tips/tricks Part II...looking forward to it.

Much thanks,

Heijung Photoshop On Line/On Demand

(Note: because her company had opted for On Demand, she was able to view the recordings at her leisure)