I kept the best for last.

Atlanta showed lots of love for CFUnited. It was a great experience from beginning to end.

Leif Wells was my host and he did an amazing job helping me with the event. It was the smoothest event ever run in my 8+ years with these types of events. Not only did he taxi me around but he went above and beyond what was expected. Its people like this that encourage us to bring great speakers and great attention to a deserving community.

The venue at RoundBox Global was awesome. A nicely renovated factory is how I can describe it. The attendees were great. They asked a ton of questions, they enjoyed all the food, and gave me wonderful feedback.

Atlanta, we will certainly be coming back. I enjoyed every minute. Thanks again!

This entry was posted on April 29, 2009 at 3:57 PM and has received 3600 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Just wanted to thank Ben Nadel, Peter Bell, Michael Dinowitz, Javier Julio, Andrew Schwabe and Simon Free. They put on a great show at Pace University Last Monday, April 20th.

Pace University was a different venue and we enjoyed working with them. We plan to look into other Universities in the future for Express events.

It was great to have my whole team present and even some of my advisory board members. What a great way to end the first string of Express events. We brought up more ideas for CFUnited and chatted with everyone about what to expect in August.

All Express attendees. Remember my deal if you register by April 30th and don't forget to take advantage of your special discount!

Thanks everyone and we will be sure to visit in NYC again soon.

This entry was posted on April 28, 2009 at 11:11 AM and has received 3144 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Hello NYC!

Officially the entire CFUnited Stellr team is coming to NYC. That's myself (Liz), Nafisa, and Elliott. Plus a regular helper of our Cara. We have more cool prizes and more goodies to hand out.

http://express.cfunited.com/go/newyork/2009/

Some important changes to note:

Jeff Tapper has needed to cancel. In his place is Javier Julio, an emerging Flex speaker. Javier's topic is temporarily titled "Digging Through the Flex Framework" and promises to be an amazing set of useful skills and real world case studies.

Sean Hanover had a family emergency and will unfortunately not be able to present. Michael Dinowitz a long time CFUnited presenter and always a crowd pleaser has agreed to give his presentation titled "Google Webmaster Tools, What You Don't Know Can't Hurt You"

-------------------------------------------

We have only 4 seats left. If you want to register at the door, you will need to contact us to see if we have space.

Date: Monday 4/20/2009

Location: Pace University - New York City Campus

One Pace Plaza

2nd Floor - Lecture Hall South

New York, NY 10038

Phone: 212-346-1200

Check in at security desk - Main Lobby on right side of One Pace Plaza building near William Street

---------------------------------------------------

Schedule:

9:00AM 9:15AM Elliott Sprehn Welcome to CFUnited Express

9:15AM 10:15AM Ben Nadel Advanced Custom Tags

10:25AM 11:25AM Peter Bell Practical Code Generation

11:25AM 12:25PM Lunch

12:30PM 1:30PM Simon Free Flex-a-sketch: Creating online drawing and image creation tools

1:40PM 2:40PM Andrew Schwabe Charting with ColdFusion and Flex

2:50PM 3:50PM Michael Dinowitz Google Webmaster Tools, What You Don't Know Can't Hurt You

4:00PM 5:00PM Javier Julio Digging through the Flex Framework

5:00PM 5:15PM Elliott Sprehn Raffle

This entry was posted on April 17, 2009 at 4:57 PM and has received 3977 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Hello Atlanta friends! We can wait to see you in a couple days! RoundBox Offices are generous enough to give us space for this event. Its a great facility and I have lots of free stuff and gifts in store for everyone.

Here is the parking information for everyone:

DAYTIME EVENT PARKING AT ROUNDBOX GLOBAL/KING PLOW ARTS CENTER

Due to business hour parking restrictions at the King Plow Arts Center, our normal evening event parking at Entrance 3 is restricted. Please use our free Daytime Event Parking Area at Entrance 9 (see map below). It is about a block?s walk away from our building. Please use the crosswalk at Joseph E Lowery to get to the West side of the street. Roundbox Global is not located in the main building complex at the King Plow Arts Center. The Roundbox Global offices are located in Suite 100 of the 981 Joseph E Lowery Building which is directly across Marietta Street from the main King Plow Arts Building. The entrance is on the Marietta Street side of the building.

PLEASE NOTE: DO NOT park in any spots that are reserved. If you park in a spot that has been marked by a sign that says restricted, you will be towed.

Here are some photos to help you

This entry was posted on April 13, 2009 at 5:37 PM and has received 4117 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Someone asked me on twitter how was Denver Express? (@chrishough)

I went to Denver with only a few expectations, to meet cool new people and too put on a great event. I'd say I accomplished both of those. The people in Denver are great. So nice and really easy going. Everyone showed up to the conference with a positive attitude and ready to learn. They asked great questions and really appreciated all the work involved. We had about 20 people attend, which is a good size for something like this. I met a few guys who said that this was their first time ever going to an event for CF ever. They were just really appreciative to meet other local developers and talk code.

I gave so much stuff away, seriously. From software to ThinkGeek toys, it was a good time for all. Someone even won the Annoy-a-Tron (which is a prize in every UG package and Express event), and couldn't resist testing it out. lol It really is annoying!

I've posted 4 out of the 6 presentations on the topics page. http://express.cfunited.com/go/denver/2009/topics

Rob Rusher was first with AIR development. Comments were "Good knowledge of info", "Very good info for getting started with AIR", and "I learned a couple of things. That is always good."

Mike Brunt was filling in for Patrick Quinn on Wholesum Performance. Comments were "Mike has a Killer Accent :-)", "Depth of knowledge", "Provided good tricks and tips about most common performance issues" and "lots of great info Wow!"

Nate Nelson talked about DB tips. Comments were "Professional and Knowledgeable", "Tons of great info", and "Detailed examples, relevant to my specific needs."

Mike Brunt talked about JVM. Comments were "Its good to know these techniques are available.", "Like the demo, Interesting overview", "Great in depth info on tuning the JVM and I'm really scared of the JVM - now I feel enabled to tune it!"

RJ Owen talked on Component LifeCycle in Flex 3. Comments were "Great info on how Flex 3 works informally", "Instructor's knowledge", "In depth and informative on an important topic that not many people seem to know a lot about"

Kevin Hoyt talked on CF/LCDS. Comments were "Kevin always makes it look easy", "Easy to follow", and "Overwhelmed!! Excellent".

Comments about the event itself: Wish we had longer sessions. More time for Q&A. More hands on. It was a solid one day. I got some good info. Good advanced content. This was great!! Thank you!! Come back to Denver.

This entry was posted on April 9, 2009 at 1:41 PM and has received 3229 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

We can't wait for Express Atlanta next week!

I'm excited to see Raymond Camden, John Mason, Charlie Arehart, Andre Powell, and Douglas Knudsen. Wow, What a line of speakers!

See a list of their topics here: http://express.cfunited.com/go/atlanta/2009/schedule

I'm giving a way a free copy of Flex, ColdFusion and a free ticket to CFUnited! Plus some gifts from ThinkGeek.

Register now! Only $149 until this friday (early bird was extended)

http://express.cfunited.com/go/atlanta/2009/

This entry was posted on April 8, 2009 at 4:52 PM and has received 2993 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Hi Folks, for all the Express events we've extended the Early Bird Price of $149.

Register for Denver 4/6, Atlanta 4/15, or New York 4/20 by April 10th to receive the discount.

http://express.cfunited.com/

This entry was posted on April 3, 2009 at 4:40 PM and has received 3406 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Hello Denver folks, just an FYI that we got discounted parking at $7 at the Denver Athletic Club. The session will take place in the Petroleum Room.

I will be there as early as 8am setting up. Rob Rusher will be the first speaker at 9am, so please arrive early.

After the event is over I will be hanging out at the nearby Crowne Plaza in the hotel bar. Suggests for an out-of-towner would be great!

Denver Express

April 6th

$149 price expires today (3/31/09)

http://express.cfunited.com/go/denver/2009/

This entry was posted on March 31, 2009 at 4:34 PM and has received 3192 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

I'm really excited about visiting Denver to hang out with some of my favorite people. We have great speakers and great topics.

http://express.cfunited.com/go/denver/2009/

Only $149 until March 31st!

Topics:

AIR: Building Desktop Applications with Flex 3
Presented By Rob Rusher, On3Solutions
This course is designed to equip experienced Adobe Flex developers with the skills needed to begin developing robust desktop applications using Adobe AIR.

CF/LCDS integration
Presented By Kevin Hoyt, Adobe
You already know you can build amazing Flex applications on top of the inherent extensibility in ColdFusion. Welcome to RIA! Now what? Did you account for maintaining data synchronization across clients? Conflict resolution? What happens to the data in your RIA if the server or network goes away? Remoting with AMF is fast, sure, but how does that relate to millions of records in your database? All these problems and more get solved in this session on integrating LiveCycle DS with ColdFusion.

Component Lifecycle in Flex 3
Presented By RJ Owen, EffectiveUI
In this session we will explore in depth exactly what happens every time a component is created and rendered in Flex. We'll dive straight into everything about components from the events that are dispatched to the methods that are called and explain in depth how the framework creates and manages your components. Armed with this knowledge you'll be able to take advantage of aspects of the component life cycle you never knew existed, helping you build components that respond faster and waste less memory.

Database Tips, Tricks, & Secrets
Presented By Nate Nelson
Have you ever wanted to know how those strange database experts are able to do their job without going insane? This session will cover some heavily used database tips, tricks, and secrets from multiple database platforms. These tips are have been used first hand and compiled for you in one presentation. Every developer that has any interaction with a database should find this session of value.

Tuning The Java Virtual Machine - (JVM)
Presented By Mike Brunt, Webapper
What Is The JVM? - Sun Microsystems created Java as a high-level programming language which should run on as many operating systems and hardware variations as possible. The goal of "write once run anywhere" meant that a predictable encapsulated operating system, no matter what the underlying hardware and software, was required. In this presentation we will explore techniques evolved over many years for optimally tuning the Sun JVM.

WholeSum Performance: Build the Fastest Web Applications On Earth
Presented By Patrick Quinn, Webapper
At Webapper, we've been tuning and troubleshooting ColdFusion systems as long as anyone, and our SeeFusion product is in use on thousands of production servers around the world. And recently, we've begun to codify all of this vast experience into a "big picture" of ColdFusion performance--literally a diagram of all the elements of performance and stability in a ColdFusion application. In short, when it comes to performance and stability, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts that make them up. And avoiding "red-herrings" is as important as diagnosing root causes. Come to this session to see our big picture, and to learn how all the parts fit together, how to prioritize your tuning and troubleshooting efforts, and more.

This entry was posted on March 26, 2009 at 2:51 PM and has received 2880 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Hello NYC! We are coming back to your home town.

Only $149

Register now! http://express.cfunited.com/go/newyork/2009/

It will be held at the Pace University on April 20th.

We will have coffee, snacks, lunch, and lots of free stuff. Including a CF8 tag poster for each person. Lots of prizes and software to give away. Even a free ticket to CFUnited.

REMEMBER, when you register at an express event you can use 100% of your registration as a discount towards CFUnited's main event in August.

Topics and Speakers:

Advanced Custom Tags Presented By Ben Nadel

Charting with ColdFusion and Flex Presented By Andrew Schwabe

Flex-a-sketch: Creating online drawing and image creation tools Presented By Simon Free

Practical Code Generation Presented By Peter Bell

Selling Selling CF Development to Small and Mid Size Businesses Presented By Sean Hanover

TBA topic Presented By Jeff Tapper

This entry was posted on March 17, 2009 at 6:14 PM and has received 3671 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.