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CFUnited 2009 - What an Amazing Event This Year

Oh my. This has to have been the best CFUnited I've been to - Bar None. Liz, Nafisa, Cara, and the rest of the Stellr team did a phenomenal job. The sessions completely blew my mind. And the speakers, awe-inspiring. Every attendee and speaker I conversed with were not only friendly and talkative, but they were all just as happy about the overall event as I was.

And the location... one word, unparalleled. I mean, this place was a gem waiting to be discovered. I'm going to reserve the majority of this blog post just to talk about the conference center / hotel. Not that the sessions don't deserve more attention (they were beyond my expectations), but after all the previous CFUnited conferences I've been to (which were great), I never realized how much better an event can be just with subtle improvements at an event location.

What can I say? The amazing staff, delicious foods, the atmosphere... look, Ive been to many conferences over the past few years. This has to have been the best experience I've had so far (very good choice Stellr team!).

Let's roll back the clock to day 1 of the conference. I was about to give a session and they were still working out a few kinks. I was having a couple audio issues and within seconds staff members were on-hand hooking me up to the P.A. system and making sure my audio and internet connection were all set. They really knew their stuff and were extremely friendly. They made sure I was up-and-rolling in time before my session began. In my head I was giving them their first rating star (1 out of 5), so far so good.

Now we move a bit later in the evening to 11:30pm. Okay, this wasn't exactly "event-related", but bare with me. Many of us were outside at the fit pit. We were celebrating a great first day and having a few drinks (okay more than a few) and we were being quite boisterous. There had to have been more than 30 people outside (probably 50+, I wasn't counting). Everyone was having a good time and rehashing the knowledge gain from day 1. Around 11:30-ish these two burly security-looking guys come out from the back of the hotel and made a B-Line for our group. Uh oh, party's over. I gave one of the guys a sheepish look and said, "Are we being too loud?" (implying, "Time to pack it up?"). The guy smiled and said "Nope, we just wanted to see if guys were having a good time. Is there anything you need?" I couldn't believe it. Really? Aren't we being too loud? Liz talked to some of the staff and mentioned that the bar had closed. Can you believe this, they hooked her up with more beer and smores for the fire pit. *bing* (now 2 out of 5 stars).

The food.... where do I begin on the food? Let's start with the hallways outside the sessions. The hotel staff made sure that we were always stocked with plenty of drinks and snacks... from soda pop, to coffee, juice (orange, apple, grapefruit, etc), milk, coffee, bottled water, and on and on. And LOTS of it. This is not something we've been accustomed to in the past. Heck, even in the mornings I could come down and grab a bowl of cereal, bagel, yogurt, or fresh pastry. Other snacks included granola bars, healthier snack bars, cookies, brownies (keep in mind that this was throughout the entire day, not just designated 15 minute breaks). The list goes on, but the point is they made sure we were always fully stocked. *bing* (3 out of 5 stars).

At previous conferences it was a challenge to grab a quick snack or drink between sessions before the quantity ran out or the timer ran out (and the staff would pull the items as you were reaching for them (this actually happened last year)). However, this year we were always stocked. You never saw people hovering around food/snack stations trying to get "something" before it was gone. Instead you'd find attendees with vendors or socializing with each other between sessions. *bing* (4 out of 5 stars)

One last thing I'll comment here regarding the snack areas: I'm not much of a soda drinker, but I know a lot of people who have this "thing" for diet soda (it's like a religion :)). On the first day I was in one of that halls where they stocked snacks (there were several snack areas throughout) and saw a few attendees standing nearby (who apparently wanted diet soda). A staff member asked one of them "Is everything okay?" One attendee politely said, "Oh, this place is great. I was just hoping for a diet soda". The staff member didn't flinch. His response was simply, "You bet" and 60 seconds later he had an employee wheeling in a large cart of diet sodas. For the remainder of the conference I noticed that all snack areas were fully stocked with diet sodas. This is not the type of service I've had in the past at conferences. Top notch! *bing* (5 out of 5 stars)

The food, part 2... The meals (lunch). Wow. Simply, wow. I'm not sure words can really describe the succulent meals we had each day and the wonderful wait staff (although Eric took some really cool pics. I'll post a link to them here once I get it form him). We were treated so well I was wondering if they thought we were someone really important (like heads-of-state or famous rich people or something). Even on the repeat-sessions day (Sat) I was surprised. I knew ahead of time we'd only be having a sandwich buffet that day (rather than the wonderful meals we'd been having all week), so I went in expecting something bland and figured I'd just go somewhere else for lunch. Boy was I in for a surprise. Let's just say I had no problem going back for seconds. Yum. The staff made sure each day that we were all taken care of. They would clear our finished plates as soon as we were done to allow us time to enjoy a social interaction with our peers. I had expected the buffet lines to be very long and time consuming (like in past conferences). They seemed to be one step ahead there too. We'd all get out of session and to lunch at the same time (imagine several hundred people all going for the food lines at once). The lines would start off extremely long. But unexpectedly we were through the lines within a couple minutes with our food. Again, not what I expected at all. *bing* (6 out of 5 stars).

Wait, what?! 6 out of 5 stars? Sorry, looking back I just can't pick any one item to take a star away from. We'll just have to go unbalanced and give it a 120% success rating :)

Overall, a great week. I know this blog post concentrated mostly on the location. Believe me when I say the conference sessions, materials, speakers, attendees, and Stellr staff members were all amazing. They truly were. Even the vendor locations were great (I felt that by putting them in the hallways like that right outside the session rooms made sure they got really good exposure). I think I'm just so happy about this place because in the past we've had mediocre service when compared to this place. I'm not complaining about the past locations (I think they were all great). I just didn't know what I was missing until now. I *so* hope the Stellr team considers the Lansdowne Resort again for next year.

Great job Stellr team. And thanks everyone (speakers, attendees, vendors, and hotel/conference staff) for a wonderful event. I'm going to have to take a few days off just to digest all the knowledge from the full week.

From a Gary Larson cartoon I saw many years ago: [Jeff] raises his hand in class and says to the teacher, "Mr. Osborne, may I be excused? My brain is full."


CFUnited 2009 Presentation: PDF Documents and Forms in ColdFusion 9

I just finished my PDF presentation and CFUnited 2009 (titled: PDF Documents and Forms in ColdFusion 9) and thought I'd share it on my blog for anyone before I forget (see the download link associated with this blog post or refer to the enclosure file (for you RSS readers out there :) ).

In the zip file is the presentation itself (saved as a PDF) and the example test files.

A special thanks to Josh Adams for an earlier version of this preso from last year. Although I've changed most of it since then, it was his earlier preso that helped guide me in the right direction early on.


Ready for CFUnited 2006

This year's CFUntied looks to be even better than the last. There is a lot to learn and I'm very ready to jump into Flex 2.0 head first.

So I'm packed and ready to go (I'm leaving Tuesday morning). After arriving at Reagan National Airport I'll be meeting Charlie Griefer and Ray Camden to catch a cab to the hotel. Andy Allen should arrive sometime later that evening (he and I are sharing a room). CJ is rooming with Scott Stroz (the man with the cooler) and we plan to have adjoining rooms (will we even get sleep... who knows). Scott's bringing the beer and Andy's bringing scotch direct from Scotland. So I guess that leaves CJ and me to stay sober ;).

I'll likely be unwinding in the evenings at the hotel's local pub, so if you see me be sure to say hi and grab a beer.


Model-Glue Equals More-Gooder

Its been a long day and I've had very little sleep (if any) over the past four days.

So I'll sum up the latest pictures I've posted with the following:

  • Apparently Ben Forta likes Southern Comfort (I would have pegged him for a red wine person)
  • "Model-Glue equals more-gooder" (You'll have to see the video I posted, then go to boyzoid.com and ask for more details there :).
  • CF developers appear to be good social drinkers (seriously. I can't count how many drinks were purchased for me. To be honest, I don't think I bought one for myself this evening. So "thank you" Simeon Bateman (again) and Scott Stroz... I owe you both a beer)
  • and finally Barney Boisvert (all I can say about that pose was that the bar just closed and we were all kicked out).

Also, make sure to take a look at the latest videos.


Macromedia announces new Coldfusion Codename "Scorpio"

Nearing the end of the opening keynote at CFUnited Ben Forta announced the codename for the next version of ColdFusion. Current plans for Scorpio are to work from the stable CFMX engine and enhance more features like functionality.

On a side note, Ben also spoke briefly about the upcoming CF7 updater. I forgot to write down some of the features, but Doug Hughes who was sitting near me seemed to get excited when Ben mentioned something about Java being able to talk to CFCs (or something to that effect). So I'm guessing thats a good thing :).


CFunited - End of Day Zero

Well, this was an eventful day. No official events and yet I've met quite a few people. It was great to take a break, have a beer, and be able to chat with people before all the formal events begin tomorrow.

As I sit here typing this I look around the room and see Joe and Scott typing on their laptops as well. Scott was smart enough to bring in a wireless access point for our room. Oh yeah, Joe Rinhart needed a place to crash tonight because his roommate will not be in until tomorrow. So Scott and I stuck him on the floor :).

At the end of the night many of us were found chatting in the local hotel pub (Sean Corfield, Michael Dinowitz, Jared Rypka-Hauer, and several others).

So here are some more pictures that I managed to get in before the day ended. I also attended MiniMax2 and placed a couple photos of that in there as well.


Pictures From CFUnited

So here we are at pre-day 1 (or is it day zero). I arrived at the hotel this morning at around 10:00am and found my way around. The place was pretty quiet so I decided to take a few photos. They’re not that exciting so far (there’s just not that much happening yet). But if you’re curious, take a look. I made sure to get in a couple quick shots of the hotel (before its walls a brimming with people). I poked my head into the MMUG’s meeting and took a quick photo. I got a few looks and raised eyebrows so I reluctantly stopped at one picture :). Shortly after 1:00pm the CFUnited booth starting setting up and that was the first sign of any CF life (other than a couple small signs on some class & meeting doors).

I walked around town a little and grabbed some lunch. On my way back in I ran into Jeff Houser and the Dinowitz’s. Originally I was going to drive down here with Jeff, but I found round-trip tickets online for $80 bucks and couldn’t pass it up.

So I’ll post more later on if I get a chance. This week looks to be pretty busy but I’m sure I can find a few moments to upload some more.


New Breezo Presentation by Steve Rittler and Michael Dinowitz

Steve Rittler gave a good presentation on Farcry (a little taste of what he will be presenting at CFUNITED).

Michael Dinowitz talked briefly about consuming web services and how he'll show examples about using web services with CFMX.

Both Steve's and Michael's full presentation can be seen at the upcoming CFUNITED conference next month.

To view today's recorded Breezo go to http://macromedia.breezecentral.com/p26908922/.


Good Breezo Presentation by Geoff Snowman and Robi Sen

Geoff Snowman gave a good overview of the upcoming MSSQL 2005 and some of its new features.

Robi gave a presentation about "Tuning the Java Virtual Machines" with regards to CFMX.

Both Geoff's and Robi's full presentation can be seen at the upcoming CFUNITED conference next month.

To view today's recorded Breezo go to http://macromedia.breezecentral.com/p51394892/.


Great Breezo Presentation by Tim Buntel and Simon Horwith

Simon gave a great overview of his presentation on "Design Patterns and CFML" and Tim spoke quickly about his favorite new features introduced in Coldfusion MX 7.

Simon's full presentation can be seen at the upcoming CFUNITED conference next month.

To view today's recorded Breezo go to http://macromedia.breezecentral.com/p14693917/.

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