Keynote Day 1:
CF8 well received overall. Cool demos, very inspiring. Loud music and it got the audience really pumped. I saw AIR applications like snipage, anthropology, pownce, AOL top 100 and more. It was so cool to see what people have done. I want an AIR application for CFUnited so badly. If anyone wants to help me out, I'll make you popular beyond your dreams. lol. I love buzzword, that was cool, an online processor is great. Ok, so the keynote went a little over, but who cares, this was great stuff! (honestly I could have attended just the keynote and networking event and I would have been happy)
Sessions on Day 1:
I hardly remember what I saw because my feet hurt so much from walking. The conference center was HUGE. I just wanted to go back to my room and relax, but no, I have to stick around for the sponsor reception. Ugh... no break. I promise you, I will work on providing CFUnited attendees time to relax.
Sponsor Expo:
Very nicely spread out. Lots to do and interact. Community pit was cool. I saw they had massage people, which we did one year at CFUnited and it was a great idea that I'll try to have them back again in 2008. There was ok food and an ok band. Lots of people attended. So it was to be expected and my feet still hurt. Once again I made my way to the speaker hotel, actually I had a meeting with some folks as a follow up from an earlier conversation. Went really well.
Keynote Day 2:
Yikes, yesterday was nothing compared to today. As a designer, I almost fainted! Thermo was the highlight of my day. http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Thermo
Best way to put it (correct me if I'm wrong) is that it is tool for designers to create a design in photoshop/illustrator, import into Thermo and indicated in a simple way, what the website should do. Meanwhile, it writes code for the developer to work with using Flex. Saves time, money, headaches, and is perfect for any type of designer/developer environment. Amongst the other cool things to note, Share, Scene7, Pacifica, Cocomo. I love MTV's contest for new AIR apps. Very cool.
Day 2 and 3:
All just a big blur, I'm tired and I miss my family. The evening event was fun with an 80's, 90's, etc. approach. Kind of a fun carnival. I really would have enjoyed being out on the town more instead, but I guess I can't expect Adobe to move over 4,000+ people to another location.
Thank you Adobe for a great event. I appreciate everything that was offered to attendees and thanks for having it in Chicago, great idea. I hear its in San Francisco next year. Sweet.
Hopefully everyone understands that I feel for you when I say conference going is such a huge commitment and really takes a chunk of your time, money, and energy. I hope from my experience at MAX I can improve CFUnited and make it as smooth as possible for everyone to gain knowledge, inspiration, connections, and lots of fun.
The biggest question on people's mind is when is CFUnited 2008? I'm 80% sure it is the same hotel and same week in June. However, there will be more sessions and repeats, more to do, awesome special events, and more show casing/demos. We are improving our Audio Visual (if you have suggestions, RFP goes out now). And... CFUnited is bringing a special gift to attendees upon registering, more details soon.
Don't forget CFUnited Express Bay Area and CFUnited Europe in UK! See you soon! Thanks friends and fans!
