Re: Best conference?
And here's the interview we did with Sid Maestre and Luke Kilpatrick, who organized that San Francisco CFDevcamp. http://www.fusionauthority.com/community/4786-unleashing-the-developer-at-coldfusion-devcamp.htm Judith What do conferences and real estate have in common? Location, location, location. :-) I really want to encourage everyone to look into hosting your own ColdFusion DevCamp in your local area. Last year the UG in San Fran put on a wonderful one-day event that attracted existing and first-time developers. Adobe has budget to support these local one-day free-form events if you are interested in organizing one. You can read more about the one in SF here: http://www.cfdevcamp.org/page.cfm/about-cfdevcamp ~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:335402 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
Re: Best conference?
What do conferences and real estate have in common? Location, location, location. :-) I really want to encourage everyone to look into hosting your own ColdFusion DevCamp in your local area. Last year the UG in San Fran put on a wonderful one-day event that attracted existing and first-time developers. Adobe has budget to support these local one-day free-form events if you are interested in organizing one. You can read more about the one in SF here: http://www.cfdevcamp.org/page.cfm/about-cfdevcamp -Adam On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 1:06 AM, Mike Chabot mcha...@gmail.com wrote: The best conference I have been to is Microsoft Tech-Ed North America. It is widely considered to be one of the best technology conferences in the world. For many people it is the one conference they go to in a year. I often ask people what they think the best technology conferences are and the two most common answers I hear are #1 Microsoft Tech-Ed North America and #2 Microsoft PDC. In addition to CF and Flex, I work heavily with Microsoft products, like SQL Server, SSIS, ASP.NET, Reporting Services, etc, so the Microsoft conferences have a lot of appeal to me. If you don't work with any MS products, then the MS conferences would be mostly irrelevant to you. Some other notable MS-related conferences are Mix, SQL Pass, VSLive, DevTeach, and DevConnections. DevConnections is great for SQL Server since the database track is run by the SQLSkills team, who are arguably the best SQL Server trainers in the industry. I've personally learned a lot from the sessions taught by Kimberly Tripp and Paul Randall. To give you a sense of scale, a large conference like NAB or CES can involve over 100,000 attendees and staff, Tech-Ed has around 10,000 attendees, MAX has around 5,000 attendees, and CFUnited has around 500 attendees. I am going to CFUnited in a couple weeks, although for me it is a relatively short drive from where I live. If one of your main goals is to learn the new CF 9 features, I think the best sources are the manual, the developers guide, and the various white papers, articles and blog posts, all of which are free. Check out this list of conferences. http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/10/21/web-conferences-roundup-events-from-around-the-globe/ Have fun! -Mike Chabot http://www.linkedin.com/in/chabot ~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:335401 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
RE: Best conference?
Scotch on the Rocks. There was free beer this year. Free beer is always good. -Original Message- From: Andrew Clarke [mailto:s...@clarke.ca] Sent: 13 July 2010 21:57 To: cf-talk Subject: Re: Best conference? Thanks, I hadn't really considered that one. My big concern right now is CFUnited. I would have liked to go but since there are other options and it's a very inconvenient time for me I think I'll check out one of the others later on in the year or next year. I'm not knocking NCDevCon but most of the emphasis seemed to be on other than CF, and most of the CF topics didn't really grab my attention. - Andrew. On 2010-07-13, at 16:36, Charlie Griefer wrote: They've all got their pros and cons. I think CFUnited has the widest variety of content (from beginner to somewhat advanced), and it's certainly one of the biggest CF-based conferences (probably second only to MAX). Lots of networking and good times with friends. Based on what you've said, I'd look at cf.Objective(). It's a smaller conference with more advanced topics, and probably more that you'd find relevant. While conferences like NCDevCon may feature Flash/Flex etc, you shouldn't let that dissuade you. As long as there are enough sessions specific to what you want to learn, doesn't really matter how many other sessions there might be, or how off-topic they are. And as far as NCDevCon goes, you can't beat the price. IMO, regardless of which one you may choose to attend, it'll be worthwhile. Of the conferences that I've been fortunate enough to get to (CFUnited, cf.Objective(), and MAX), it's evident that the folks behind them make every effort to ensure that it's both a valuable and fun experience. - Charlie Griefer http://charlie.griefer.com/ ~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:335340 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
Re: Best conference?
cf.Objective(ANZ) ;o) It's in Australia. What more do you want? ;o) Mark On Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 6:34 PM, Will Swain w...@hothorse.com wrote: Scotch on the Rocks. There was free beer this year. Free beer is always good. -Original Message- From: Andrew Clarke [mailto:s...@clarke.ca] Sent: 13 July 2010 21:57 To: cf-talk Subject: Re: Best conference? Thanks, I hadn't really considered that one. My big concern right now is CFUnited. I would have liked to go but since there are other options and it's a very inconvenient time for me I think I'll check out one of the others later on in the year or next year. I'm not knocking NCDevCon but most of the emphasis seemed to be on other than CF, and most of the CF topics didn't really grab my attention. - Andrew. On 2010-07-13, at 16:36, Charlie Griefer wrote: They've all got their pros and cons. I think CFUnited has the widest variety of content (from beginner to somewhat advanced), and it's certainly one of the biggest CF-based conferences (probably second only to MAX). Lots of networking and good times with friends. Based on what you've said, I'd look at cf.Objective(). It's a smaller conference with more advanced topics, and probably more that you'd find relevant. While conferences like NCDevCon may feature Flash/Flex etc, you shouldn't let that dissuade you. As long as there are enough sessions specific to what you want to learn, doesn't really matter how many other sessions there might be, or how off-topic they are. And as far as NCDevCon goes, you can't beat the price. IMO, regardless of which one you may choose to attend, it'll be worthwhile. Of the conferences that I've been fortunate enough to get to (CFUnited, cf.Objective(), and MAX), it's evident that the folks behind them make every effort to ensure that it's both a valuable and fun experience. - Charlie Griefer http://charlie.griefer.com/ ~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:335341 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
Re: Best conference?
Always nice to see someone give us a vote. Having been to CFUnited (twice), MAX (3 times), FOWD and of course SotR, they all have their own nuances that makes them all unique. Ultimately you need to decide on; cost, location, content. Andy On 14 July 2010 09:34, Will Swain w...@hothorse.com wrote: Scotch on the Rocks. There was free beer this year. Free beer is always good. -Original Message- From: Andrew Clarke [mailto:s...@clarke.ca] Sent: 13 July 2010 21:57 To: cf-talk Subject: Re: Best conference? Thanks, I hadn't really considered that one. My big concern right now is CFUnited. I would have liked to go but since there are other options and it's a very inconvenient time for me I think I'll check out one of the others later on in the year or next year. I'm not knocking NCDevCon but most of the emphasis seemed to be on other than CF, and most of the CF topics didn't really grab my attention. - Andrew. On 2010-07-13, at 16:36, Charlie Griefer wrote: They've all got their pros and cons. I think CFUnited has the widest variety of content (from beginner to somewhat advanced), and it's certainly one of the biggest CF-based conferences (probably second only to MAX). Lots of networking and good times with friends. Based on what you've said, I'd look at cf.Objective(). It's a smaller conference with more advanced topics, and probably more that you'd find relevant. While conferences like NCDevCon may feature Flash/Flex etc, you shouldn't let that dissuade you. As long as there are enough sessions specific to what you want to learn, doesn't really matter how many other sessions there might be, or how off-topic they are. And as far as NCDevCon goes, you can't beat the price. IMO, regardless of which one you may choose to attend, it'll be worthwhile. Of the conferences that I've been fortunate enough to get to (CFUnited, cf.Objective(), and MAX), it's evident that the folks behind them make every effort to ensure that it's both a valuable and fun experience. - Charlie Griefer http://charlie.griefer.com/ ~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:335342 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
RE: Best conference?
:) It was the free beer that did it Andy. -Original Message- From: Andy Allan [mailto:andy.al...@gmail.com] Sent: 14 July 2010 10:18 To: cf-talk Subject: Re: Best conference? Always nice to see someone give us a vote. Having been to CFUnited (twice), MAX (3 times), FOWD and of course SotR, they all have their own nuances that makes them all unique. Ultimately you need to decide on; cost, location, content. Andy On 14 July 2010 09:34, Will Swain w...@hothorse.com wrote: Scotch on the Rocks. There was free beer this year. Free beer is always good. -Original Message- From: Andrew Clarke [mailto:s...@clarke.ca] Sent: 13 July 2010 21:57 To: cf-talk Subject: Re: Best conference? Thanks, I hadn't really considered that one. My big concern right now is CFUnited. I would have liked to go but since there are other options and it's a very inconvenient time for me I think I'll check out one of the others later on in the year or next year. I'm not knocking NCDevCon but most of the emphasis seemed to be on other than CF, and most of the CF topics didn't really grab my attention. - Andrew. On 2010-07-13, at 16:36, Charlie Griefer wrote: They've all got their pros and cons. I think CFUnited has the widest variety of content (from beginner to somewhat advanced), and it's certainly one of the biggest CF-based conferences (probably second only to MAX). Lots of networking and good times with friends. Based on what you've said, I'd look at cf.Objective(). It's a smaller conference with more advanced topics, and probably more that you'd find relevant. While conferences like NCDevCon may feature Flash/Flex etc, you shouldn't let that dissuade you. As long as there are enough sessions specific to what you want to learn, doesn't really matter how many other sessions there might be, or how off-topic they are. And as far as NCDevCon goes, you can't beat the price. IMO, regardless of which one you may choose to attend, it'll be worthwhile. Of the conferences that I've been fortunate enough to get to (CFUnited, cf.Objective(), and MAX), it's evident that the folks behind them make every effort to ensure that it's both a valuable and fun experience. - Charlie Griefer http://charlie.griefer.com/ ~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:335343 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
RE: Best conference?
So... Did anyone else get the email stating that this year would be the LAST CFUnited conference? Steve ~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:335352 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
Re: Best conference?
So... Did anyone else get the email stating that this year would be the LAST CFUnited conference? Yes. That is correct. Dave Watts, CTO, Fig Leaf Software http://www.figleaf.com/ http://training.figleaf.com/ Fig Leaf Software is a Veteran-Owned Small Business (VOSB) on GSA Schedule, and provides the highest caliber vendor-authorized instruction at our training centers, online, or onsite. ~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:335353 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
Re: Best conference?
On Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 6:32 AM, DURETTE, STEVEN J (ATTASIAIT) sd1...@att.com wrote: So... Did anyone else get the email stating that this year would be the LAST CFUnited conference? Yup, and the blog posts and the flood of tweets :) Michael (Smith, TeraTech) explained that the reason is financial. They lost a lot of money last year and can't afford to do it any more. Big conferences cost a LOT of money to put on and it's almost impossible to break even let alone make money on them. Most big conferences are run by corporations as loss-leaders for marketing purposes. The pure developer conferences need lots of sponsorship dollars and the recession's made that difficult - and the recession has meant fewer attendees as well which means less revenue for the conference (and they have to commit to a venue well in advance so it's not like they can suddenly say Oh, we have half as many attendees this year, let's find a smaller, cheaper venue!). -- Sean A Corfield -- (904) 302-SEAN Railo Technologies, Inc. -- http://getrailo.com/ An Architect's View -- http://corfield.org/ If you're not annoying somebody, you're not really alive. -- Margaret Atwood ~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:335379 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
RE: Best conference?
Not to mention many folks act like you are robbing them when you charge anything close to the real cost :) Mark A. Kruger, MCSE, CFG (402) 408-3733 ext 105 Skype: markakruger www.cfwebtools.com www.coldfusionmuse.com www.necfug.com -Original Message- From: Sean Corfield [mailto:seancorfi...@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2010 12:16 PM To: cf-talk Subject: Re: Best conference? On Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 6:32 AM, DURETTE, STEVEN J (ATTASIAIT) sd1...@att.com wrote: So... Did anyone else get the email stating that this year would be the LAST CFUnited conference? Yup, and the blog posts and the flood of tweets :) Michael (Smith, TeraTech) explained that the reason is financial. They lost a lot of money last year and can't afford to do it any more. Big conferences cost a LOT of money to put on and it's almost impossible to break even let alone make money on them. Most big conferences are run by corporations as loss-leaders for marketing purposes. The pure developer conferences need lots of sponsorship dollars and the recession's made that difficult - and the recession has meant fewer attendees as well which means less revenue for the conference (and they have to commit to a venue well in advance so it's not like they can suddenly say Oh, we have half as many attendees this year, let's find a smaller, cheaper venue!). -- Sean A Corfield -- (904) 302-SEAN Railo Technologies, Inc. -- http://getrailo.com/ An Architect's View -- http://corfield.org/ If you're not annoying somebody, you're not really alive. -- Margaret Atwood ~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:335381 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
RE: Best conference?
Would it help if they moved the conference around? I think having it in the same location really limits it as many folk who can't afford to travel would probably jump at the chance to go if it was local(assuming it was affordable...I have seen conferences that were very high priced to the point that if your employed didn't pay for it, I could see why attendance would be low). I wonder if something like that would help increase it's profitability. That might also encourage local sponsors. Let's say it was in Chicago, I think that Chicago area businesses would be more likely to be sponsors than if the conference was in LA. -Original Message- From: Sean Corfield [mailto:seancorfi...@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2010 12:16 PM To: cf-talk Subject: Re: Best conference? On Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 6:32 AM, DURETTE, STEVEN J (ATTASIAIT) sd1...@att.com wrote: So... Did anyone else get the email stating that this year would be the LAST CFUnited conference? Yup, and the blog posts and the flood of tweets :) Michael (Smith, TeraTech) explained that the reason is financial. They lost a lot of money last year and can't afford to do it any more. Big conferences cost a LOT of money to put on and it's almost impossible to break even let alone make money on them. Most big conferences are run by corporations as loss-leaders for marketing purposes. The pure developer conferences need lots of sponsorship dollars and the recession's made that difficult - and the recession has meant fewer attendees as well which means less revenue for the conference (and they have to commit to a venue well in advance so it's not like they can suddenly say Oh, we have half as many attendees this year, let's find a smaller, cheaper venue!). -- Sean A Corfield -- (904) 302-SEAN Railo Technologies, Inc. -- http://getrailo.com/ An Architect's View -- http://corfield.org/ If you're not annoying somebody, you're not really alive. -- Margaret Atwood ~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:335382 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
Re: Best conference?
On Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 2:18 PM, Mark A. Kruger mkru...@cfwebtools.com wrote: Not to mention many folks act like you are robbing them when you charge anything close to the real cost :) At times that appears to be true for both conferences and software on this list. -Cameron ... ~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:335383 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
Re: Best conference?
On Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 2:46 PM, Cameron Childress camer...@gmail.comwrote: On Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 2:18 PM, Mark A. Kruger mkru...@cfwebtools.com wrote: Not to mention many folks act like you are robbing them when you charge anything close to the real cost :) At times that appears to be true for both conferences and software on this list. -Cameron Lol. I hear that! -Adam ~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:335384 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
Re: Best conference?
Thanks again for the conference ideas. For those who missed the link off the HoF home page, http://www.fusionauthority.com/news/4812-the-inside-scoop-on-cfunited.htm does a good job of explaining why CFUnited was cancelled. - Andrew. On 2010-07-14, at 13:24, Eric Roberts wrote: Would it help if they moved the conference around? I think having it in the same location really limits it as many folk who can't afford to travel would probably jump at the chance to go if it was local(assuming it was affordable...I have seen conferences that were very high priced to the point that if your employed didn't pay for it, I could see why attendance would be low). I wonder if something like that would help increase it's profitability. That might also encourage local sponsors. Let's say it was in Chicago, I think that Chicago area businesses would be more likely to be sponsors than if the conference was in LA. ~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:335385 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
Re: Best conference?
When the shit hit the fan in 2008, it was right after our biggest SotR to date. But we made a 5 year plan: 2009: we would take the conference on tour across the UK and Europe as a series of one day events to keep delegate and sponsor costs low. 2010: do a 2 day conference at a real low cost venue and spend the budget on a couple of big name speakers and some good quality swag 2011-2013: head back to Edinburgh, at a great venue and keep ticket and sponsorship pricing the same as 2010. Tickets are priced between £50 and £199. because of tying in for 3 years we've managed to get an amazing deal from the hotel and we've also committed to covering all speaker hotel costs. We've sold 50% of the tickets since they went on sale two weeks ago. I love CFU. Been twice. But with conferences you need to adapt to what's going on around you and I think that's where CFU went wrong. There's no shame in scaling back, taking stock, and making plans to recover or indeed refocus slightly what with the emergence of the smaller, regional based events. But CFU will definitely be missed. Sent from my iPhone On 14 Jul 2010, at 18:15, Sean Corfield seancorfi...@gmail.com wrote: On Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 6:32 AM, DURETTE, STEVEN J (ATTASIAIT) sd1...@att.com wrote: So... Did anyone else get the email stating that this year would be the LAST CFUnited conference? Yup, and the blog posts and the flood of tweets :) Michael (Smith, TeraTech) explained that the reason is financial. They lost a lot of money last year and can't afford to do it any more. Big conferences cost a LOT of money to put on and it's almost impossible to break even let alone make money on them. Most big conferences are run by corporations as loss-leaders for marketing purposes. The pure developer conferences need lots of sponsorship dollars and the recession's made that difficult - and the recession has meant fewer attendees as well which means less revenue for the conference (and they have to commit to a venue well in advance so it's not like they can suddenly say Oh, we have half as many attendees this year, let's find a smaller, cheaper venue!). -- Sean A Corfield -- (904) 302-SEAN Railo Technologies, Inc. -- http://getrailo.com/ An Architect's View -- http://corfield.org/ If you're not annoying somebody, you're not really alive. -- Margaret Atwood ~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:335386 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
Re: Best conference?
On Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 10:24 AM, Eric Roberts ow...@threeravensconsulting.com wrote: Would it help if they moved the conference around? I think having it in the same location really limits it as many folk who can't afford to travel would probably jump at the chance to go if it was local It's a tricky issue... Wherever it is, it's local for some folks and an expensive trip for others. I expect CFUnited picked up a lot of 'local' developers due to there being a lot of CF work in the DC area. cf.Objective() gets quite a few local developers too (more than I would have expected). Move either conference and those locals may not attend and you may or may not get enough new locals in the target city to make up for that. Because CFUnited was East Coast, it was usually a more expensive conference for West Coast folks (like me) - but see below. Locking into one location for multiple years can save a conference a bunch of money because the venue likes guaranteed revenues for the future. in Chicago, I think that Chicago area businesses would be more likely to be sponsors than if the conference was in LA. Finding somewhere in Chicago that can host a 400+ attendee conference is likely to be as expensive as any other major city - and not actually a cheaper airfare from the West Coast (for example - right now IAD, ORD and MSP are all about $400 from SFO). San Francisco is a very expensive location for a conference: CFUnited brought their 'Express' event there once and it was a bit of a financial disaster for them. Costs for the venue were so high they had to budget a much higher ticket price than other 'Express' events and then they only got 40 attendees (it was about $500 for a single day and I think they needed about 100 attendees to make the event worthwhile). There's also the issue that the organizers of a conference often want it local to them because it makes their life much easier (they can visit venues in person, as often as needed, and they generally have better access to local businesses for sponsorship / deals etc). Organizing conferences is hard work - my hat's off to anyone who does it! -- Sean A Corfield -- (904) 302-SEAN Railo Technologies, Inc. -- http://getrailo.com/ An Architect's View -- http://corfield.org/ If you're not annoying somebody, you're not really alive. -- Margaret Atwoo ~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:335388 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
Re: Best conference?
The best conference I have been to is Microsoft Tech-Ed North America. It is widely considered to be one of the best technology conferences in the world. For many people it is the one conference they go to in a year. I often ask people what they think the best technology conferences are and the two most common answers I hear are #1 Microsoft Tech-Ed North America and #2 Microsoft PDC. In addition to CF and Flex, I work heavily with Microsoft products, like SQL Server, SSIS, ASP.NET, Reporting Services, etc, so the Microsoft conferences have a lot of appeal to me. If you don't work with any MS products, then the MS conferences would be mostly irrelevant to you. Some other notable MS-related conferences are Mix, SQL Pass, VSLive, DevTeach, and DevConnections. DevConnections is great for SQL Server since the database track is run by the SQLSkills team, who are arguably the best SQL Server trainers in the industry. I've personally learned a lot from the sessions taught by Kimberly Tripp and Paul Randall. To give you a sense of scale, a large conference like NAB or CES can involve over 100,000 attendees and staff, Tech-Ed has around 10,000 attendees, MAX has around 5,000 attendees, and CFUnited has around 500 attendees. I am going to CFUnited in a couple weeks, although for me it is a relatively short drive from where I live. If one of your main goals is to learn the new CF 9 features, I think the best sources are the manual, the developers guide, and the various white papers, articles and blog posts, all of which are free. Check out this list of conferences. http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/10/21/web-conferences-roundup-events-from-around-the-globe/ Have fun! -Mike Chabot http://www.linkedin.com/in/chabot On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 4:25 PM, Andrew Clarke s...@clarke.ca wrote: I posted a similar question on cf-community a week or two ago, but it sort of got buried and only got one response (thanks ** Private ** for your response). I understand this is probably a loaded question, but what are peoples' opinions on the best conference to attend? I've been developing ColdFusion apps for about 13 years now and have most of the features that have been around for a while down pretty well. However, I have only one client using CF8, and am just in the process of installing CF9 for my first client right now. I'd love to especially learn how people are using some of the new features in CF9, as well as Railo. I've never gone to a CF conference as I've always found conferences to be a waste of time and money. However, looking over Adobe Max, it looks like there might be some interesting talks. CFUnited looks cool too, but I'm heading out of the country for 5 weeks starting early August, so I can't really take off for a conference at the end of this month. I'd only be able to swing CFUnited, maybe, maayyybe, if the clear consensus is that it's far far better than anything else. It would be a huge push though to get down there this month, and pre-registered by July 15. If you were a fairly advanced developer, looking to pick up some good esoteric skills, discuss security, and meet the greater community, which conference would you pick? The one that was suggested to me was NCDevCon. It seems a bit too Flash/UI-based whereas I'm more of a backend person. Thanks, ~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:335390 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
Re: Best conference?
On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 1:25 PM, Andrew Clarke s...@clarke.ca wrote: I posted a similar question on cf-community a week or two ago, but it sort of got buried and only got one response (thanks ** Private ** for your response). I understand this is probably a loaded question, but what are peoples' opinions on the best conference to attend? I've been developing ColdFusion apps for about 13 years now and have most of the features that have been around for a while down pretty well. However, I have only one client using CF8, and am just in the process of installing CF9 for my first client right now. I'd love to especially learn how people are using some of the new features in CF9, as well as Railo. They've all got their pros and cons. I think CFUnited has the widest variety of content (from beginner to somewhat advanced), and it's certainly one of the biggest CF-based conferences (probably second only to MAX). Lots of networking and good times with friends. Based on what you've said, I'd look at cf.Objective(). It's a smaller conference with more advanced topics, and probably more that you'd find relevant. While conferences like NCDevCon may feature Flash/Flex etc, you shouldn't let that dissuade you. As long as there are enough sessions specific to what you want to learn, doesn't really matter how many other sessions there might be, or how off-topic they are. And as far as NCDevCon goes, you can't beat the price. IMO, regardless of which one you may choose to attend, it'll be worthwhile. Of the conferences that I've been fortunate enough to get to (CFUnited, cf.Objective(), and MAX), it's evident that the folks behind them make every effort to ensure that it's both a valuable and fun experience. - Charlie Griefer http://charlie.griefer.com/ I have failed as much as I have succeeded. But I love my life. I love my wife. And I wish you my kind of success. ~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:335319 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
Re: Best conference?
Thanks, I hadn't really considered that one. My big concern right now is CFUnited. I would have liked to go but since there are other options and it's a very inconvenient time for me I think I'll check out one of the others later on in the year or next year. I'm not knocking NCDevCon but most of the emphasis seemed to be on other than CF, and most of the CF topics didn't really grab my attention. - Andrew. On 2010-07-13, at 16:36, Charlie Griefer wrote: They've all got their pros and cons. I think CFUnited has the widest variety of content (from beginner to somewhat advanced), and it's certainly one of the biggest CF-based conferences (probably second only to MAX). Lots of networking and good times with friends. Based on what you've said, I'd look at cf.Objective(). It's a smaller conference with more advanced topics, and probably more that you'd find relevant. While conferences like NCDevCon may feature Flash/Flex etc, you shouldn't let that dissuade you. As long as there are enough sessions specific to what you want to learn, doesn't really matter how many other sessions there might be, or how off-topic they are. And as far as NCDevCon goes, you can't beat the price. IMO, regardless of which one you may choose to attend, it'll be worthwhile. Of the conferences that I've been fortunate enough to get to (CFUnited, cf.Objective(), and MAX), it's evident that the folks behind them make every effort to ensure that it's both a valuable and fun experience. - Charlie Griefer http://charlie.griefer.com/ ~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:335320 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
