Due to the recent changes in the conference dates and location we have updated our blog bling. Please visit the spread the word page to update your blogs and websites with the new banners.
CFUnited Blog
This year we are excited to announce that our 10th Anniversary event will occur at the DC Convention Center located in Downtown Washington DC. This decision was tough and we thought long and hard before jumping in because we wanted to ensure an exciting event for our attendees.
The other news is the entire DC metro area is in a "Black Out" the last week in June, which means there is another event that is taking up almost all the hotel rooms and space in the entire area. This means that CFUnited conference dates had to be moved to June 18th - 21st.
The main hotel for conference attendees is the Grand Hyatt, located a couple blocks from the convention center. http://grandwashington.hyatt.com/ The hotel discount code will be available Friday on the travel page of our website. The price per single room is $229. We will list the other rooms rates as well.
We hope this news continues to work with your plans to attend CFUnited. The registration and website in general will be updated by February 1st with the news and changes.
Thank you for your attention to this important update. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact Liz Frederick 301.424.3903 x107 or email liz(at)cfunited.com
Quotes from our sponsors and speakers:
"You have my full whole hearted support. All problems have been anticipated and you are a seasoned planner in this community." - Bob Flynn
"A lot of benefits for having the event at the Convention Center. Very accessible and it makes it easy to go do something. No need to rent a car either. The Whitehouse is in walking distance. And those dates actually work better for me." - Sean Corfield
"A new venue, a new date ... with TeraTech's track history, I'm certain these factors will not change the fact that CFUnited 2008 will be the best ever." - Jeff Backhus, Dynaportal.com
"Works for me! I don't have any issues. Having a speaker room at the convention center helps." - Ray Camden
"Should be really fun" - Joe Rinehart
"Those dates are fine for me." - Ben Forta
"There is so much to do. This will be lots of fun." - Simon Horwith
"Finally I can attend the event and come home with memories of visiting DC instead of the bar at the Marriott" - Mark Drew
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CFUnited Podcast: Interview with Kevin Roche - Fusebox framework
Christian Ready sits down with Kevin Roche to talk about his work with the Fusebox framework and his work on the upcoming CFUnited Europe.
Check out the podcast here
Hello everyone in the CF community. We have exciting information about CFUnited to be announced on Wednesday. My conference advisers have been notified of the news and everyone seems very excited. I have one more detail to decide before blogging. But I wanted to create a reminder to visit our website again this week for the announcement. Thank you for your patience.
We have a new speaker added to CFUnited Europe conference.
Enrique Duvos is a Senior Platform Evangelist for Adobe in Europe. His role is to help customers, partners and developers across Europe understand and adopt the benefits and characteristics of some of the Adobe core platform technologies, such as Adobe" Flash, PDF, AIR, Flex and LiveCycle ES. Prior to the Adobe merger he was part of the Macromedia technical sales team specialized in the company's enterprise portfolio of technologies.
Enrique Duvos will be speaking on the following topics:
Taking Web Applications to the Desktop: Intro to Adobe AIR 1.0
Adobe Flex 3 Overview: Latest features
Enterprise RIAs: LiveCycle Data Services / BlazeDS
CF Meetup: Building ColdFusion based Flex applications using ZoomFlex, with Grant Straker
Thursday, Jan 24, 12:00pm EST
Meeting URL: http://experts.acrobat.com/cfmeetup/
We'll have two speakers on Jan 24. First up will be Grant Straker on "Building ColdFusion based Flex applications using ZoomFlex". I'll have more on the 6pm speaker later in a separate entry.
Attend this meetup to get a quick intro into ZoomFlex, a ColdFusion based rapid development tool for building Cairngorm based Flex applications. You will learn why the Cairngorm framework is so important in Flex development and get a clear understanding of it's main features and concepts. The session will also take you through some of the best practices with regards to buildling data driven CF / Flex application and how to leverage CF and as a server side engine for Flex applications.
Learn more here: http://coldfusion.meetup.com/17/calendar/7165145/
CFUnited Podcast: Simon Horwith: Success From The Trenches - Building Better Applications
Hosted by Christian Ready
What is it that makes some applications successful while others fail? What causes server performance and stability issues and how do you avoid and troubleshoot them? Can ColdFusion applications really scale? In this session, Simon will explain the traits that make some applications a success and others fail. He will explore the things that developers can do to ensure that their applications will scale. He will walk you through the thought process when architecting and/or code reviewing a ColdFusion application. Simon's 11+ years of experience developing, designing, reviewing, and troubleshooting ColdFusion applications has exposed him to some of the largest enterprise CF applications and most rigorous demands on the planet, and he has seen first-hand what does and doesn't work in the real world. In this session, Simon will divulge many of the tricks of the trade that will lead to success for attendees.
Podcast link: http://podcast.cfunited.com/index.php?post_id=298561
The following is an interview conducted by Brian Rinaldi, Adobe Community Expert, and User Group manager of Boston CFUG, regarding Matt Woodward's presentation topics for CFUnited 2008.
Matt Woodward is Principal IT Specialist for the Office of the Sergeant at Arms at the United States Senate. Matt is a long-time ColdFusion developer, an Adobe Community Expert for ColdFusion, the manager of the Capitol Hill User Group, and co-host of the ColdFusion Weekly Podcast.
Brian:
So what sessions are you doing this year at CFUnited?
Matt:
This year at CFUnited I'm presenting sessions entitled "ColdFusion 8 and AJAX: Easy For You, Better For Users," "Real World Flex and ColdFusion," and "Head First Mach-II."
Brian:
Ok, well, let's start with the CF8 Ajax session...can you tell me more about it?
Matt:
Sure--one of the big new features in ColdFusion 8 is built-in AJAX functionality, and as with everything in ColdFusion, it's extremely simple to use and requires very little coding to get some very cool things happening in your applications. So that's the "easy for you part." The "better for users" part refers to the fact that when used judiciously, AJAX does make for a much better, more immediate user experience, so I'll talk about when you might want to use AJAX to give your users a better experience than with traditional HTML.
Brian:
Right, I have used some of the features. In fact, to me the Ajax feature I will likely use most is the CFAjaxProxy.
Matt:
Definitely--it's a very slick and easy way to get at your CFCs via javascript.
Brian:
Is the Flex and ColdFusion presentation the one you did for us at Flex Camp Boston?
Matt:
Actually it will be similar, but I'll modify and update it a bit based on the feedback I got after Flex Camp. The goal of this presentation is to get ColdFusion developers excited about Flex and show them some very simple things they can do right away to get started with Flex. A lot of ColdFusion developers are excited about Flex but don't know where to start and might not be aware of some of the key things that will make them successful right out of the gate with Flex development.
Brian:
For those people who didn't see it, your presentation was very well received at our Flex Camp. We had a lot of very advanced topics and you really filled a need for our attendees.
Matt:
I made the joke that while I didn't design my own color matching algorithms (referring to the very cool stuff done by the folks who worked on anthropologie.com), I think there are lots of basic techniques CF developers can use to get started so they can not be so scared of Flex.
Brian:
Absolutely.
As for Head First Mach-II, I assume this will be along the lines of Peter's presentation of the same name?
Matt:
Yes, this is actually a tradition we started at the Frameworks Conference back in 2005 if I remember correctly, and Peter and I originally did a joint presentation at that conference. This is a presentation I give a lot online to various groups so it's been fine-tuned over the past few years, but it's a great way for people to dive into Mach-II and some basic OO concepts in ColdFusion.
Brian:
Well, I have seen it before, but with all the new features in 1.5, I am sure to learn something new.
So, you can probably expect to see me in the audience. (and I promise not to heckle too much)
Matt:
Excellent--we'll also probably reveal some 1.6 and 2.0 features.
Brian:
I was just going to ask that.
Matt:
We've publicized a lot of the Mach-II 1.6 features, and we'll probably be ready for a release at CFUnited, so expect to hear a lot about 1.6. The features for 2.0 haven't been released publicly yet but rest assured we have some big plans for 2.0.
Brian:
Excellent.
So, will the ColdFusion Weekly make an appearance at this CFUnited?
Any plans for doing a show from the conference?
Matt:
Yes, we'll definitely be doing some interviews and daily wrap-ups from the conference. We're starting off a bit slow in 2008 since we're going through some retooling of the podcast, but we should be in full-force by CFUnited!
Brian:
I remember being on a panel for the Weekly two years ago at CFUnited. It was fun...and there was quite a funny moment with Michael Dinowitz.
Matt:
Yes, it's always fun to record people when they're relaxed and having fun with fellow CF lovers.
Brian:
Anything else you are looking forward to at the conference you want to discuss?
A new MachBlog release perhaps? ;)
Matt:
Funny you should mention that! I just moved MachBlog over to Google Code about 15 minutes ago and am starting on a revamped version. I'll definitely have more to say about that by CFUnited.
As always the thing I'm most looking forward to about CFUnited is the networking and just seeing everyone I don't get to see that often. That's always the best part of the conference for me.
Brian:
Agreed. Well, I will be looking forward to grabbing a beer or two with you there! Thanks for taking the time to speak with me.
Matt:
Glad to do it! I'll see everyone at CFUnited!
What do you want to see in the next version of CF? Here is a great opportunity to let Adobe know what you think would make CF even better.
Check out Damon Coopers blog and take the Adobe ColdFusion Features Survey and Adobe ColdFusion Platform and Vendor Support Survey.
CF Meetup: CFUnited Europe Preview, "Practical Code Generation", with Peter Bell
Thursday, Jan 17, 6:00pm EST
Meeting URL: http://experts.acrobat.com/cfmeetup/
Peter Bell, presenting another preview session for the upcoming CFUnited Europe event (http://europe.cfunited.com/) being held March 12-13th in London. These preview talks will be about half the duration of the full hour-long sessions, giving a taste of what the full session would cover. He will be speaking on "Practical Code Generation".
A 20-30 minute preview session of my full session where we'd learn how to generate your applications in a fraction of the time by using the latest techniques proven to reduce application development times - from Software Product Lines to Domain Specific Languages.
Learn more here: http://coldfusion.meetup.com/17/calendar/7117727/
