Just a side note for when you finish your reading. VASST (www.vasst.com) has some nice training materials on the Canon A1. It is usually a bit dry, but Douglas Spotted Eagle is a friend of mine and you can take what he says to the bank. IMHO

I was thinking that you were doing this last week. Sorry. That gives you time if you have any other questions.

One tip with interviews for event video. You only have to worry about getting short pieces of the interview that look good, as long as the audio is good. with one camera, it is not uncommon to shoot the interview from one spot, but to use a closeup for one statement and then zoom out for a med shot for another etc. In the final edit you are going to rearrange what they say and take snips from it. You will stay on the interview for only very short (3-5 second) places and then let the audio run under b-roll from the event. (The exception is if you get them crying, then you stay with it)

Shooting with HDV has a real advantage for event video that will be delivered in SD. You can shoot wider and then use the pan and crop in Vegas to re frame to a tighter shot or even a slow zoom in. In film, this was called an "optical." HDV has extra resolution beyond SD to allow you to do this up to as much as 200%. In Vegas, set your project properties to progressive before doing this. This will deinterlace the footage before zooming which is important for a good look.