Sam Farmer, did an awesome review on his blog about CFUnited new venue. It talks about the DC Convention center and its surrounding restaurants, bars and other attractions.

This entry was posted on February 12, 2008 at 5:45 PM and has received 3323 views. There are currently 2 comments. Print this entry.

With CFUnited Europe conference only four weeks away, I wanted to remind all those who have yet to register to do so soon. There will be on site registration for walk-ins, but to avoid any delays we encourage you to register in advance.

We are very excited about bringing CFUnited to our European attendees! Looking forward to meeting everyone at the conference soon.

This entry was posted on February 12, 2008 at 2:37 PM and has received 4120 views. There are currently 3 comments. Print this entry.

We have moved the evening event to begin at 5:30pm and it will be at the Novotel London West with open bar and hors d'oeuvres. We will end the night at 7:30pm. Our sponsors are excited to mingle with you. Experience one-on-one time with several of our speakers and ColdFusion experts from Adobe!

We look forward to our London experience and having lots of ColdFusion fun!

This entry was posted on February 8, 2008 at 2:03 PM and has received 3865 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

We are excited to reveal Josh Adams as a new member of Adobe Systems, Inc. Josh Adams will be speaking at CFUnited USA in 2008. Welcome back, again!

Here is the message from Josh's new blog:

I am pleased to announce that I have accepted a Systems Engineer position in the role of ColdFusion Specialist with Adobe Systems, Inc.

http://www.joshuaadams.com/blog/index.cfm/2008/2/6/And-the-new-Adobe-ColdFusion-Specialist-is-me

This entry was posted on February 6, 2008 at 6:31 PM and has received 3149 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

All the left over rooms for the night of March 11th and 12th that have not been picked up will be released Monday, February 11th.

If you would like to reserve rooms, please go to http://europe.cfunited.com for more information.

This entry was posted on February 6, 2008 at 4:06 PM and has received 2848 views. There are currently 1 comments. Print this entry.

We are excited to announce that Charlie Arehart is speaking at CFUnited Europe in March. His topic is "Continuous Server Analysis: Keeping ColdFusion Servers Healthy!"

He will be replacing Russ Michaels, who is unable to attend.

To read more about this topic, go to: http://europe.cfunited.com/go/topics#topic-1718

This entry was posted on February 6, 2008 at 3:10 PM and has received 1980 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

We are sorry that Sandra Clark is unable to join us this year at CFUnited. In her place, Sean Corfield will cover her topic "Driving Fusebox 5.5"

For more information about this topic, go to: http://cfunited.com/go/topics/2008#topic-1528

This entry was posted on February 5, 2008 at 5:45 PM and has received 2504 views. There are currently 1 comments. Print this entry.

We are sorry to hear that Rob Gonda will not be able to make it to CFUnited 2008. In his place, Brian Rinaldi will be presenting on "Wrinting an RIA? Secure your data!" For more details about this topic, go to http://cfunited.com/go/topics/2008#topic-1593

Brian Rinaldi is a programmer, Adobe Community Expert, manager of the Boston ColdFusion User Group and organizer of Flex Camp Boston. Brian is an Advanced Certified ColdFusion MX Developer, as well as a Microsoft Certified Professional. Brian is most well known for his efforts promoting open-source projects in ColdFusion, especially for maintaining the ColdFusion open-source list as well as the weekly updates, both of which you can find via his web site at http://www.remotesynthesis.com.

This entry was posted on February 5, 2008 at 5:40 PM and has received 2635 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Nick Watson (Adobe, Inc.)

As a Technical Account Manager for ColdFusion, Flex and Livecyle Data Services ES, he is responsible for managing, driving and maintaining technical relationships with major customers in Europe that use these Adobe Enterprise technologies. He previously held the position of Senior Support Engineer and Senior Consultant for ColdFusion, JRun and Spectra during the Macromedia and Allaire days. His daily contact with customers and developers give Nick an excellent view and knowledge of how Adobe technology is deployed and used.

Topic: Enterprise RIAs: LiveCycle Data Services / BlazeDS

To see full description, go to: http://europe.cfunited.com/go/topics#topic-1715

This entry was posted on February 5, 2008 at 5:38 PM and has received 2245 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

The following is an interview conducted by Brian Rinaldi, Author of RemoteSynthesis, Adobe Community Expert, and User Group manager of Boston CFUG, regarding Ray Camden's presentation topics for CFUnited 2008.

Ray Camden is next in my series of interviews of speakers at this year's CFUnited conference. As ColdFusion's resident "Jedi Master", Ray probably needs no introduction, but he's getting one anyway. Ray has been among ColdFusion's most recognized and widely read, via his blog and books, people in ColdFusion. He is also ColdFusion's most prolific open-source developer, with an ever-growing array of projects and his work maintaining RIAForge. Raymond runs his own consulting company, Camden Media.

Brian:
What sessions are you doing this year at CFUnited?

Ray:
A session on Ajax and ColdFusion.

Brian:
Can you tell me a little more about the session and what you plan to cover?

Ray:
I'll be talking about new Ajax features in ColdFusion 8, which is quite big and I'll have a lot to cover. I think people will be surprised by the level of support.

Brian:
Right, I know I have been impressed. I particularly love the cfajaxproxy tag which you have covered recently on your blog. I don't think everyone realizes how powerful that tag can be. Can you expand on what features perhaps in the new Ajax support have impressed you most?

Ray:
Ajaxproxy without a doubt, and outside of that - the built in support for returning cfc data in JSON is very nice.

Brian:
I know you were doing a lot of Ajax work with Spry before ColdFusion 8. Have the new features affected how you approach a new project that would use Ajax?

Ray:
Well yes, I definitely feel like my tool set is quite a bit bigger. Does that mean I don't use Spry? Not necessarily. I really like how Spry works especially on the display side. Right now you can say I'm playing the field. If a new project came along, I'm not sure which one I'd use, and you can, of course, mix things up, and use both. Again, I think the point to bear in mind is that you have all these new options at your disposal in CF8. That's really cool.

Brian:
Do you have a particular favorite feature in CF8? Would it be the Ajax support?

Ray:
I spoke about this to... someone recently. I forget who. And what I told him was - right now I'm really digging the small stuff. Like I love being able to do fileRead() as a function. I love being able to do ++, etc. There were a lot of small things in CF8 that are really nice and that I actually use more often.

Brian:
Right, and those are the kind of productivity enhancing features that don't make headlines on any feature release but make a difference day-to-day.

Ray:
Absolutely.

Brian:
So, changing topics. I noticed you added some really nice features to RIAForge today. Maybe you can talk briefly about the growth that site has seen over the past year. Also, are you planning any releases of your own projects for the conference?

Ray:
Sure, from a code perspective, not really as much as I'd like. Mainly just small updates here and there. The SVN update recently was the biggest one. Traffic wise it's got pretty good traffic, and usage in general continues to climb. I was a bit concerned how folks would take to it with other similar sites out there - but it's really been a success so far I believe.

And no - not really. The only project in active development now is BlogCFC 6, and that's going very slowly. I'm not rushing it because I want it done right. It may be ready for CFUNITED, but I'd be surprised. I'd like it to be at least be in Alpha stage.

Brian:
Well, I understand you are making a lot of major changes in BlogCFC 6, correct?

Ray:
It's a complete rewrite. BlogCFC is quite old, so I'm starting from scratch, although I'm sure some bits will carry over.

Brian:
I am acutely aware of its age since I haven't updated mine in years. Might be about time!

So, switching gears to wrap things up. What are your thoughts on the recent announcement of the new venue and dates for CFUnited?

Ray:
None at all really. This new location looks pretty nice, but honestly, it's the conference itself that is the important thing. So long as the facilities don't get in the way, then I'm fine. Then again, I'd rather not have something like the last MAX where each session involved a 30 minute walk. ;)

Brian:
Yes, I do remember the walks at MAX. Many a session got missed for not wanting to walk it.

Last item, given your status as the ColdFusion Jedi, when are you going to officially designate me as a ColdFusion Padawon?

Ray:
Heh, school starts tomorrow morning. See you at 5! ;)

Brian:
Well, thanks for chatting Ray and I look forward to seeing you at CFunited.

Ray:
Same here!

This entry was posted on February 5, 2008 at 3:52 PM and has received 2115 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.