Looking Forward, Looking Back
It’s been an interesting year. More so than normal years. It’s also the end of a decade, so I’ve got some thoughts on that too. Fair warning. This is a longy.
Decade first:
in 2000 I worked for a company that was basically an IT Staffing firm that decided to get into software. I worked internally on a web app that would (in their terms) revolutionize staffing. I bailed, they failed, it was 2000, that happened a lot to a lot of people and companies.
I spent most of the 2000’s as a programmer, first doing ColdFusion, then moving to Flex. It never occurred to me to try out M$ tools, or any other. I liked Macromedia (Now Adobe) offerings and stuck with them.
Events, fun and why i do them
360|MAX
Adobe MAX is the annual “geek out” for those of us doing anything with Adobe technologies. It’s a huge event, costs a metric buttload, and is usually pretty over the top. It’s also hugely fun, and a great way to see folks who don’t come out for other events typically. It’s also nice to attend an event that I’m not organizing, or at least not organizing much of.
360|Conferences does an unconference at MAX, to bring some community to the event. It’s always a good time, we get some great speakers to give us some time and share what they know. It was really cool this time that we had some more interesting topics; Arduino/Flex interaction, How a rock band uses Flex/AIR and even iPhone in their performances, etc.
It was a good time.
Next time, we’ll limit talks to 30 minutes. It’s about double the sessions, but I think 30 minutes is a good time slot, we can get more great topics going.
The funnest part of my job (If I can call it that) is doing different types of events. They’re not just always the same event over and over. Even 360|Flex and 360|iDev, while super similar, and based on the same ideals, are vastly different. Then throw in Ignite, 360|FlexPress, and hopefully a Festival of Books, and it’s just a great time bringing people together!
360Flex Indy, done
It was nice for Tom and I to share that InsideRIA, InsideMobile, and 360|iDev are in full force effort mode, coming in rapid succession this summer, starting in July. We’ve partnered with O’Reilly for the first two, and that’s crazy exciting. Tom and I have been working with our Pal Steve at O’Reilly on this idea since mmm well it probably started on the Ebay Town hall patio at the first 360|Flex, yeah it’s been a while in the making. The partnership should really open some door’s for O’Reilly and 360|Conferences.
I build community, organize events, and rock!
It wasn’t a bad break up at all, or anything like that. Anthony and I had several conversations about my role at the company and how best I fit with the company’s needs and goals.
Ignite Denver Wrap, up WXMW Party
I always get so wrapped up in blogging elsewhere that johnwilker.com get’s a bit neglected :(
I just finished Ignite Denver a week ago (3/11), and it was a huge success, better than the first for sure (organization wise! Sessions have kicked ass each time). It kinda sucks that people compare it to Ignite Boulder. Well [...]
360Coldfusion, very interesting
Tom and I thought about doing a CF conference, after I think 360|Flex Seattle. The reason we never went forward with the ideas was CFUnited and CF.Objective().
I’ve thougt CFUnited was over priced and didn’t really offer enough to be worth the price, since I attended in 2005. I’ve never attended CF.Objective(), since by the time it got started up, I was moving into Flex development, but since it bills itself as the Enterprise CF Conference, I found it odd that it was dribbling extra technologies, moving away from CF.
You’re authentic voice, it’s important
Chris brogan has a good post, with his thoughts captured on video
I agree completely! I hate self censorship for the sake of simply not offending the thin skinned, Sure I don’t think it’s cool to curse like a drunken sailor for particular reason, but I’m not opposed to the “colorful metaphor” when it applies.
At 360|Flex [...]
I need help with the 360|Flex schedule
I’ve loaded all the session titles and descriptions into User Voice (They’re awesome!). Go and take a look, do it now or over the weekend, but take a look. There’s 124 submissions, and early next week Tom and I are going to select the schedule.
The Cloud isn’t all that
I gotta say I agree. I love Google Docs, I use buzzword for 360|Flex and The Flex Show, but there’s something to be said for being able to work when there’s no WiFi. Like aboard planes, trains and automobiles, in the backwoods, at the ski resort, etc. There’s still a lot of the country, let alone world that are offline, so sometimes it’s nice to not have all your tools rely on the cloud. I use MobileMe to keep my macs in sync, I also make use of my iDisk a lot! I sync the entire thing locally, because I’ve wanted to work and guess what, not online, no iDisk. Thankfully iDisk syncing doesn’t completely suck, so it’s a pretty good experience.
From 360|Flex Atlanta to Startup, check out NoteFlight
Tom and I really enjoy talking to and hanging out with Joe Berkovitz. Tom met him online while working on a tough Flex problem, and we both met him in person at 360|Flex Seattle. Joe is an awesome guy, easy to talk to, scary smart, and creative.
For those that don’t know, we usually dedicate some [...]
Tags
