Two days of hands-on training from the experts in Adobe Flex and ColdFusion.
ColdFusion — October 24, 2009
Flex — October 25, 2009
Bloomington, Indiana
Registration is OPEN!
Join us for the best value in training from the experts.
Win a CF Dude Camera @ BFusion/BFlex
Posted by Bob Flynn | Filed under BFlex, BFusion, Events, Updates
Ever see those nice Flip Video cameras? How about a limited edition “CF Dude” Flip Video camera? Well, have I got a deal for you! Simon Free, BFusion instructor extraordinaire and all-around CF dude, is holding a contest for attendees of BFusion/BFlex, CFinNC and RIA Unleashed.
Interested in winning? Follow these contest rules to enter to win a CF Dude Video Camera:
- Register to attend BFusion/BFlex (or one of those other ones…)
- Submit, in 100 words or less, why you love ColdFusion or why you are excited to learn ColdFusion!
- One submission per person per event you attend.
- Submissions need to be in a before the beginning of each event.
Full contest details, including the entry form, are on the Win A CF Dude Camera website.
So register for BFusion/BFlex and then enter the contest! What could be simpler?
BFusion/BFlex Registration is Open . . . Finally!
Posted by Bob Flynn | Filed under BFlex, BFusion, ColdFusion Sessions, Events, Flex Sessions, Sessions, Updates
So let’s say you had this great idea for a conference. Oh, I don’t know, top-tier training from some of the best in the industry on some of the coolest Web technologies out there. Yeah, I know, not very feasible, but bear with me. So you’ve got this great event with great speakers and radically nice facilities but something is missing… Wait, I’ve got it. Attendees! Sure, you could put up a website to tell them about the event, but how would they tell you they want to come? We’ve really racked our brains on this one and after serious consideration (and a serious amount of badgering from everyone from Adobe to the White House) we have decided to boldly go where every conference has gone before and open registration!
Yes, it’s true a stunning 11 days before the event we have relented to pressure are will allow people to attend the event we’ve all been working so hard on. Our crack Web team will get a big flashy Register NOW link or button or Web thingy up on the site but I wanted to start spreading the word as soon as possible. So go register. Now. What are you waiting for?
Bob Flynn
BFusion/BFlex Event Director
Registration & Event Updates
Posted by Bob Flynn | Filed under BFlex, BFusion, ColdFusion Sessions, Events, Flex Sessions, Sessions, Updates
We are officially two weeks from the start of BFusion and BFlex and we still don’t have registration open! Can you believe it? No, neither can I and it’s driving me batty! Now that we’ve got the necessary approvals from the university we are almost there. Good people (Thanks, Joe!) have been working hard but I can’t ask them to spend their weekend on it. Now that I’m back from Adobe MAX (great conference, but terrible timing) I’m going to see if I can bring it to the finish line. We still have to test the payment piece on Monday. If we don’t have it by EOB Monday we’ll bail out and go for something like EventBrite, even if it costs us twice as much to use. I really do apologize for the delay, confusion and frustration it has caused everyone.
The full schedules and their times (subject to change) have been posted on both the BFusion and BFlex pages. By the end of weekend, perhaps even by the time you read this, we’ll have the full detailed session descriptions posted as well. I encourage you to shop early because you’ll need to indicate the sessions you plan to attend when you register. We do this so we can figure out which sessions will go in what size room and how many assistants are needed for each. We won’t keep people from changing on the fly, but please choose wisely early for minimum disturbance of the Force. (Sorry, it’s late and I’ve got Star Wars on my mind after MAX. Luke Skywalker/Mark Hamill was there.)
Two schedule items to make you aware of:
- Make plans to come in time for BNight, a laptop configuration session and party at the swanky digs of local tech start up Sprout Box. It’s Friday evening (10/23) from 7:00-10:00pm
- We have tentative plans for a few Birds of a Feather sessions at local bars Saturday evening at 9:00pm. Possible topics are: Flash Platform, Developer/Designer workflow, Flex 4 and Data Visualization (with infrared imaging files example), and iPhone (mobile) Development. If you’d like to lead a BOF, just let us know.
Spread the word about BFusion/BFlex! Even though you can’t register as of this writing, there will be plenty of seats available once we do open registration. I can’t promise the same thing about the hotels though. If you are coming in from out of town, I suggest you secure one of the rooms we have set aside before they are all gone. In order to help spread the word we have created badges and banners for you to show that you are attending BFusion/BFlex 2009.
One final note: If you are looking to room share, car pool or just complain about how long it’s taken to get registration up (I may join in on that thread) please use our forum.
Better Hotel News
Posted by Bob Flynn | Filed under BFlex, BFusion, Events, Uncategorized, Updates
BFusion/BFlex staff star Keith Danielson went out today to track down a few hotel leads, including that sent in by Shannon Dillman. I’m happy to report that we secured some hotel rooms and a very good rate and much closer to town. Now these are basically Motel-6-quality hotels, but both are new (or newly managed) and trying to make a name. Whatever the case, my recommendation is to jump in now and get a place. See the details on the Hotel and Travel page.
No real news about registration to report since yesterday’s post. Believe me, the lack of a registration link frustrates every bit as much as you. But hey, we are plowing ahead with other things. We’ll soon have session descriptions and speaker bios up with configuration and exercise files to follow.
Stay tuned. We’ll be back with more soon.
Bob
Hotel Information Posted
Posted by Bob Flynn | Filed under BFlex, BFusion, Events, Updates
Greetings patient BF-enthusiasts!
Hotel Update:
We have posted the hotel information we have to date on our Hotel and Travel page. The hotel we have nailed down is the Fourwinds Resort & Marina. It is about 15 miles south of town, but due to the roads it is something like a 30 minute drive. It’s not ideal, but since you’ll be at the conference most of the day we hope it is something you’ll only have to deal with twice a day.
Shannon Dillman was doing some digging and found another possibility closer to home. We’ll post it tomorrow after we’ve had a chance to call them about availability and group pricing. With that in mind, I would hold off on calling the Fourwinds unless price is your main decision factor. I think it will be hard to beat the rates there.
Registration Update:
We got our final paperwork turned in to the university Treasurers Office today. They are fast tracking and we hope to get our e-commerce account tomorrow. Best case scenario is that we have registration open by the end of the week. I think early next week is more likely. In the past two years registration has opened and closed very quickly. We have upped our max capacity this year, so don’t worry about registration closing quickly if you are off at MAX next week or are getting the boss’s OK to spend $10/day on training that would normally cost at least $500/day. There will still be time for you to register.
Schedule/Session Update:
When you register we will ask you to choose what sessions you want to attend. We need to do this to determine room size and the number of assistants needed. We realize having the actual descriptions and times would make those choices easier, so we are working to get those up as well.
Exercise Files:
We will be asking each speaker to provide exercise files for each of the sessions. We’ll have those available for download in the week before the conference. We will also be putting on a laptop configuration party Friday, October 23. If you want help configuring your laptop for the weekend, please plan on downloading the files for the sessions you’ve chosen onto your machine ahead of time. It will just speed things up.
I think that’s all the news that’s fit to print right now. I’m actually on the organizing committees for two other conferences for my day job which take place tomorrow and the next day. (OK, it’s way past midnight, make that “today and tomorrow”.) After that I get a day of “normal” work before heading west for MAX. We will keep rolling the ball up the hill in the coming days. We appreciate you sticking with us through this transition process and hope to have smoother sailing next year.
Bob Flynn
BFusion/BFlex Event Director
BFusion/BFlex Schedules Posted
Posted by Bob Flynn | Filed under BFlex, BFusion, Events, Updates
The pieces continue to fall into place for BFusion/BFlex. We now have the (near-final) schedules posted. [BFlex|BFusion]. I urge you to come check them out to see the caliber of the speakers and topics. Based on feedback from last year’s participants we have 100% hands-on sessions this year. We are grateful to the speakers for going the extra mile for you. Some of these sessions are the same that are being given at Adobe MAX but at hundreds of dollars savings.
Over the next couple of weeks we will be posting the descriptions and laptop configuration instructions so you can be ready for the hands-on sessions.
NOTE: We will be hosting a laptop configuration party at the offices of SproutBox on Friday, October 23. Details to follow.
Bob Flynn
BFusion/BFlex Event Director
We have tire tracks on our backs…But we are coping
Posted by Bob Flynn | Filed under BFlex, BFusion, Events, Updates
I know it’s been a while since we posted an update, but please don’t think we have been asleep at the wheel. Since our last post we have worked out a schedule (mostly) and started digging through the red-tape of becoming an official university event. Let me spell out where things stand.
- Schedule: We’ve got most of the slots filled for both days. We’ve got some great sessions. We’ll get them posted this week.
- Registration: This year we’ve moved from being a completely grass-roots, by-the-seat-of-our-pants event to an official university, by-the-seat-of-our-pants event it has meant dealing with a whole new set of rules and regs. Combine this with our decision to change registration and it means a whole set of hoops to jump through before we can open registration. We’d REALLY like to open it by the end of September, but I can’t honestly say how long these things take. Everyone involved understands our time line and is being very helpful, but hoops are hoops and we must perform for our dinner.
- Hotels: This is the biggie. We thought ourselves very clever to have found a weekend where we could get the facility, not overlap with a home football game, and not conflict with Adobe MAX, or Halloween. We did not realize until we started finding all the hotels saying “no room at the inn” that it was the annual Hilly Hundred bike race. This has presented a huge challenge. We are working hard to deal with this and we have two options that may actually save you a little cash. First, we’ve found a hotel that has rooms, it’s well-priced but is a longer drive from where the event will take place. (We’ll post details once they are confirmed.) We are also going to turn to the local community of techies to see if any will take in house guests. We have not given up on some of the other hotels, but we may not know until first week of October. Suffice it to say that we are scrambling to do what we can and will keep you updated.
I just wanted to assure you that we are hard at work on pulling off the event. We’ve got some transition pains and just have to deal with our bone-headed oversight on the dates. Regardless of sleeping arrangements we will have a bigger and better event than ever.
I’ll leave you with one teaser. OK, maybe two. Some of our sessions are the same hands-ons being given at MAX this year, except ours in only $10 and we have less traffic than LA! Tell your designer friends to plan on coming. We’ll have a full-day Flash Catalyst hands-on for designers. Heck, they might be cranking out Rich Internet Apps before the developers!
OK, that’s all for now. I hope to be back in a few days with the schedule and hotel details. Stay tuned and thanks for your patience, encouragement and support!
Bob Flynn
BFusion/BFlex Event Director
Update on BFusion/BFlex Schedule, Hotels and Registration
Posted by Bob Flynn | Filed under BFlex, BFusion, Events, Updates
Friday, Sept 4 is the last day for submitting proposals to speak/instruct at BFusion/BFlex. Please get in your proposal if you are interested.
After going through the proposals we will try to get speakers notified by September 12. We’ll post the schedule as soon after as we can.
We are looking to get hotel blocks. As soon as we have that info. We’ll post it. It looks like there is another event in town that weekend and the hotels close to campus look full. We’re working on it.
We hope to open registration for the event by the end of September. Stay tuned.
Sorry this is so brief. I’m on the road and my battery is about to run out!
Bob Flynn
Event Director
BFusion/BFlex 09 Call For Proposals
Posted by Bob Flynn | Filed under BFlex, BFusion, Updates
BFusion/BFlex has been blessed with some great instructors and presenters during its brief existence. Just check out this stud-studded line-up from 2008! We will post many more details about the event in the coming weeks. For now we want to put out a call to all potential instructors. If you would like to come share your love of ColdFusion and Flex with others in the community, please consider submitting a proposal.
You Give
- Hands-on sessions for beginning, intermediate and/or advanced developers*
- Serve as assistant in other sessions when not teaching
* A limited number of traditional presentations will be accepted, probably only for the advanced tracks.
You Get
- State-of-the-art classroom facilities
- Enthusiastic throng of participants
- Teaching assistants
- Lodging
- Lunches & speakers dinner
- Honorarium (budget permitting)
- A whole lotta love from the community! What more could you ask for?
Details on the Call For Proposals page. If you’ll be at CFUnited this week, track me down and I can tell you all about it. Better yet, track down one of last year’s speakers and ask them. They are my best promoters!
NOTE: We will need assistants as well, but we will hold that call a little closer to the event, probably late September.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Bob Flynn
BFusion/BFlex Event Director
BFusion/BFlex ‘09 Dates & Important Announcement
Posted by Bob Flynn | Filed under BFlex, BFusion, Updates
It’s official, BFusion & BFlex 2009 is on the books. Please join us at Indiana University Bloomington the weekend of October 24 & 25 for our third annual event.
There is one major change this year and I want to explain the reasoning behind it. In past year BFusion/BFlex has been free. We have been able to secure world-class facilities and world-class instructors; provide lunch, give-aways and more, all based on sponsor dollars. We could probably do the same this year, even in this economy. The cost of the event to attendees has actually been a problem though. Being a free event, people rush to sign up. They even confirm at the appropriate point just before the event. We prepare for those numbers, turn away wait-listed attendees and then have a boatload of no shows. We also end up with a boatload of extra food. This is not fair to the sponsors or to those who get turned away.
So this year we will ask attendees to put a little skin in the game. We are very committed to keeping the cost of entry very low. We want to have an event that is accessible to all. We settled on $10 per person per day as a reasonable amount to ask. Of course that means we now have to come up with a system to collect money, but we’ll work through that. We hope you understand our motivation. We have listened to feedback from the previous two years and will do our best to continue to improve.
We hope you will attend. If you have come in previous years, we hope you’ll come again and that this year you’ll bring a friend!
Bob Flynn
BFusion/BFlex Event Director
