CFUnited Blog

Do you have your CFUnited blog bling? We are picking May winner today!

We are giving away $200 at the end of each month to one lucky winner who has CFUnited Blog Bling on their blog/ website!

To enter the contest pick from the CFUnited Blog Bling, then fill out this form to submit your URL. At the end of each month between now and July 2009 we will pick a random winner from the URL's entered into the contest. Anyone can enter the contest and you can submit as many URL's as you like to enhance your chances of winning.

We are picking May's winner today after 6pm, so go get your CFUnited Blog Bling now!

How to Teach ColdFusion by Terry Ryan, Adobe

Come to CFUnited if you want to know the best way to Teach ColdFusion to others. Teachers, Training Managers, and Intern Managers... this is session you can't miss.

http://cfunited.com/2009/topics#topic-349

Lansdowne Resort 65% full

Just want to shoot a message to everyone that we have the number of rooms already booked as of last week. We are about 65% full at this point. If you plan on coming, book your hotel room before they go out. I'm not holding any extras this year so if you don't get a room you'll have to go to the overflow hotel about 3 miles down.

http://cfunited.com/2009/travel

Concert at CFUnited

We booked a band for CFUnited: BoxCar Collision

Alumni from 2005 probably remember this band. They are still in DC and really popular around the clubs. We'll have this band playing for a couple hours during one of our evening open bar events. Be ready to party!

About:
Formed in 2003, Boxcar Collision started when 4 friends started meeting weekly to jam. They were invited to play an open mic, and somewhere in-between the PJ Harvey and Gillian Welch covers, they realized they were a band.

Since then theyĆ½ve played Iota, The Velvet Lounge, DC9, and have written 15 original songs. Though not easily categorized, their sound has been compared to Rilo Kiley, The Pretenders, and The Smiths. Their debut CD was released in 2007.

Sample of their music: http://www.myspace.com/boxcarcollision

More photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14878769@N02/

Liz's inside info: I hear they have a new album coming out around the time of CFUnited, maybe we'll be the first to hear some of their new stuff. ;-)

Saturday Repeats

Attention CFUnited Saturday Attendees

We will be picking the Saturday Topics Mid-June. We will be looking at the most popular sessions once more attendees pick their agenda for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday on the scheduler. This will help us determine the most popular topics to repeat on Saturday.

If you have a suggestion for a must have topic on Saturday as repeat, please email it to liz (at) cfunited.com

We will work with the community to pick those sessions. Thanks!

Speaker spotlight: Lawrence Cramer

Lawrence Cramer - Over 25 years of experience in marketing, advertising, and design. For the last decade he has focused on the web, his key interests being dynamic web design, development, and e-commerce. He has written numerous articles on these subjects for regional business publications and for the Adobe Developer Center. He speaks at web development conferences and teaches college courses on several Adobe products, and is a trainer for Lynda.com. Lawrence is an Adobe Community Expert, the CEO of Application Dynamics Inc., and the founder of Cartweaver.com. When he's not in front of a computer screen, you'll find him and his wife of 30-plus years behind the handlebars of a sport touring motorcycle seeing the sights of the Pacific Northwest.

CFUnited session: Real world ecommerce with ColdFusion

1. Have you spoken at CFUnited in the past?

No. I'm very excited to be speaking this year!

CFUnited is THE ColdFusion conference. It's the "must attend" best-of-breed conference because of the caliber of speakers and the no sales hype but real information focus of the event.

2. Why should people attend your session(s)?

Even in this down economy, one business sector is still experiencing growth... eCommerce. More and more developers are getting asked by their clients to develop eCommerce sites and they are finding it to be a more complex, specialized skill set than they expect. They are expected to not only develop sound eCommerce applications but know about many other things such as payment gateways, PCI compliance, security, merchant accounts and so on. My session will cover all these facets of eCommerce development.

3. Do you have any projects in the works that you will be revealing at CFUnited?

Yes. Can't say much more than that right now.

4. Besides your topic, what other sessions are you looking forward to?

I'll be like a kid in a candy store! Having difficulty narrowing down my choices so far!

5. What are some of the hot topics you'd like to see at RoundTable discussions?

Anything Bolt. (the new dedicated ColdFusion Development Application)

6. Where can people find you at CFUnited?

At my session, and on Twitter... I'll be tweeting a lot and will tweet meet-up plans: http://twitter.com/LawrenceCramer

7. What's the latest news with you? Has anything changed since last CFUnited?

A lot! The economy has presented not only challenges but huge opportunities! Whenever you shake things up, new openings emerge.

8. What is unique about CFUnited?

It's focus! It's an opportunity to learn, not be "sold". It an opportunity to learn about ColdFusion and related technologies and to meet and network with the best in the field.

9. What do you like to do in your free time?

Go sport touring around the west with my wife and friends on my 2008 Kawasaki Concourse 1400, and do a little wine tasting. I'm a bit of a wine buff and Washington has a lot of great wine!

10. Besides the sessions, what makes CFUnited worth the cost of going?

The networking! If you go DON'T be a wallflower! Get out there, meet and greet and make new friends and contacts.

Scheduler Announced

If you are registered, please fill out your personal schedule starting now.

Click on the "Register/Login" link on http://cfunited.com

Instructions on how to do this are at: http://www.screencast.com/users/lizign/folders/Jing/media/55044ced-5620-40ff-873c-90839f9d5447

You must be registered to reserve seats.

See you in August!

Speaker spotlight: Sean Woods

Sean Woods - Has been developing Oracle applications for over ten years and has been integrating ColdFusion with Oracle since the first day he laid eyes on it in 2002. He has since then developed an obsession with ColdFusion and often lies awake at night wondering why anyone would want to develop their applications with anything else. In his spare time, Sean can be found chasing his two young daughters around the lovely seaside town of Pacifica, California.

CFUnited session: Advanced SQL for ColdFusion

1. Have you spoken at CFUnited in the past?

No, I've never spoken at or been to CFUnited but I am totally stoked to be attending and speaking this year. I've been to a lot of ColdFusion conferences and met a lot of great people. It?s an privilege to be speaking at this one and I hope that I can add some value to the experience of those attending.

2. Why should people attend your session(s)?

You should attend my session because I will give you the tools necessary to turn your knowledge of SQL into entertaining cocktail conversation. You will be the life of the party - people will be lining up to hear you wax on about the virtues of query parametrization, database transactions, indexing strategies and more. I used to entertain people this way all the time but for some reason nobody comes to my house anymore.

3. Besides your topic, what other sessions are you looking forward to?

Any session by Ray Camden, Sean Corfield or Ben Forta.

4. Where can people find you at CFUnited?

You will definitely find me at the bar. And, if you say nice things in public about my session I will buy you a beer.

5. What do you like to do in your free time?

I live in Pacifica, CA with my wife and two girls. Most of my free time is spent chasing my kids around but when I get a few hours to myself I usually spend it on my bike. During the summer weekends you can usually find me at a local bike race or triathlon ? I?ve been competing in both for about 10 years. I hope to one day convince my daughters that jumping in a cold lake at 8am is a good idea.

Adobe Community Achievement Awards

Nominate the Best in the Industry for the Adobe Community Achievement Awards. Formerly known as the CFEmmys, Todd Sharp has reintroduced to CFUnited a chance to recognize those who display excellence.

Please enter your nominations by June 8th

Everyone is eligible and feel free to nominate yourself. Todd will narrow down the results and CFUnited will provide the list to the public before the vote on winners begins.

http://cfunited.com/go/survey/172

Speaker spotlight: Jake Munson

Jake Munson - Jake has been developing ColdFusion based applications since ColdFusion 4. He is well known for building CFQuickDocs (http://cfquickdocs.com). He has given numerous presentations to various user groups, including the popular CF Meetup group. He also presented at CFUnited 2008. Jake is very passionate about the Internet, particularly about web standards and surrounding technologies.

CFUnited session: Spam, Bacon, Sausage and Spam

1. Have you spoken at CFUnited in the past?

Yes, I spoke at CFUnited Last year. This will be my 5th CFUnited though, and every year I really enjoy it. My biggest advice would be to take advantage of the networking opportunities. There are always a lot of top notch community memebers around, both "celebrity" types as well as lesser known (but equally important) people you can network with.

2. Why should people attend your session(s)?

If you ever put user fillable forms on your sites, you should attend my session. Spammers attack all online forms these days (even when it doesn't make sense), so preventing spam is very important for us developers. If you think Spam prevention just means slapping a CAPTCHA on the form, then you have a lot to learn. I hope to see you at my session.

3. Besides your topic, what other sessions are you looking forward to?

Railo Open Source

Geolocation with ColdFusion

Thinking Outside of the CF Box

Better Development Through Open Source

4. Where can people find you at CFUnited?

At my session, of course! :) I am planning on attending as many sessions as possible (I always do), but outside of that I will be at all of the breakfasts/lunches, and hanging out in the common areas between sessions. In the evening I will attend the planned events, but besides that I might be hanging out in my room. I'm thinking about bringing some games with me and inviting some friends to play games one night (board games, card games, etc.)

5. What do you like to do in your free time?

I am a computer geek at heart, so in my free time I spend a lot of time on computers. I read a LOT of news/blogs. I also play some online games. When not on the computer, I like to spend time with my wife, and I like watching the Cubs as well as the Discovery Channel. I am also very religious and spend a lot of time doing church related stuff.

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