Over the past couple of months I've presented this talk 3 times.

•  Linux Users of Victoria - http://www.luv.asn.au/
•  Ballarat Linux Users Group - http://www.blug.asn.au/
•  Melbourne Novell Users Group - http://www.mnug.org.au/

It's gradually improved with each rendition.

Download the ODP [3.8 mb] or PDF [2.16 mb] of the slides.

When I first presented this at LUV it was rushed and sketchy. I didn't explain or demonstrate the techniques referred to and feedback from a couple of the attendees suggested going into more detail would be an improvement. I'm still not sure how to strike the right balance between interesting and boring when doing this. I guess it pays to remember you can't please all of the people all of the time.

Aiming to develop this talk into a full tutorial but as there are so many great tutorials out there, I've been pondering how best to make a positive contribution. The challenge will be to create a great hands-on experience for all participants. Perhaps invite those with more developed inkscape skills and experience to assist those who are just beginning. Everyone brings a little knowledge into the room, the intention is that everyone leaves with a whole lot more.

Finally - here are the references at the end of the slides for easy access:

Basic Info (+ download and examples) 

http://inkscape.org/ - Official website

Wikipedia on Inkscape
Art and Examples from wikimedia commons
Inkscape Favourites from Deviant Art

Download Inkscape
- For Windows, MacOS Leopard, & Tiger, and the latest dev ubuntu .deb and there are packages for various fedora and suse versions, and you should be able to just apt-get, yum or yast as required.

Techniques, Tips, Tricks & Tutorials

Text Tricks
Range of Tutorials at Wordpress
Path Operations
Illustration Tutorial from Red Hat High
Screencasts from Heathen X

Tiled Clones

Inkscape in Six Steps (or Less)

Bezier curves

Raikar Designs blog on Bezier Curves
Wikipedia Entry on Bezier Curve

Network Diagrams

http://openclipart.org/people/skadge/skadge_SVG_widgets_for_diagrams.svg

Pretty network diagrams and flow charts with Open Source software
10 tips for creating good looking diagrams using inkscape