Two days of hands-on training from the experts in Adobe Flex and ColdFusion.
ColdFusion — September 11, 2010
Flex — September 12, 2010
Bloomington, Indiana
A Lot Going On in Bloomington around BF/BF
Posted by Bob Flynn | Filed under Events, Updates
If you’ve been to BFusion/BFlex in the past you know that we keep you pretty busy, so you’ll think I’m nuts for suggesting more, but you’d throw things at me if you found out later that I kept this from you. So here we go:
- You already know about the great sessions at BFusion/BFlex, but stay tuned for information on Saturday night BOFs as well. If you have an idea for a BOF you’d be willing to lead, drop me a line bob@bflex.info.
- We are partnering this year with The Combine a tech conference in the days preceding BFusion/BFlex. It has a wonderful lineup of speakers and an eclectic schedule of events. If you would like to attend The Combine contact me (bob@bflex.info) and I’ll see if I can hook you up with a discount code.
- You don’t have to be a participant in The Combine to take part in Ignite Bloomington 3. If you’ve never been to an Ignite event you should plan on going. They are 5 minute presentations of 20 slides. Slides advance automatically every 15 seconds. The topics are all over the place. The first one I attended had presentations on learning to read gang tag graffiti, the history of scotch whiskey and a proposal for a city-wide developers challenge. I missed the second one, but there was a presentation by young boy (aged 8?) about the items he keeps in his utility belt (think superhero utility belt). Ignite 3 takes place at 8pm on Friday, September 10th, the night before BFusion. It will be in Alumni Hall in the Indiana Memorial Union on the IU campus. If it is like previous Ignites, tickets are free. BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE. If you act NOW there is still time to submit your own proposal to give an Ignite presentation. According to this post you can submit proposals to present through 11:59pm tonight (Sunday, August 22). Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. Just saw it on FB this morning.
- Maybe a five minute presentation is just a bit too little, too passive for you. Maybe you want to get in the trenches and flex your Flex muscles, fuse your ColdFusion skills or flash your … well, you get the idea. This year BFusion/BFlex, in partnership with The Combine, is hosting Dev Derby! Dev Derby is a day-long programming challenge where teams of developers representing different programming languages—PHP, C#, Ruby, ColdFusion, and Java—work to create an application serving a real-world need. It is a full day commitment but prizes, glory and bragging rights await the worthy winners. ColdFusion guru Adam Haskell will be leading the CF team. If you’d like to be a part of his squad or, heaven forbid, one of the other teams please submit your name soon. It doesn’t say on the site, but I think they plan on closing applications at the end of the week. NOTE: We are working on a deal to let all Dev Derby participants into BFlex for free on Sunday so this is a great way to be a part of the BFusion/BFlex/Combine/Ignite/BOF/Free Love scene without any cost.
- Lest you forget, this is a college town. There is a lot happening all the time, but of particular note is the opening festival for IU’s Themester. Live music, free food, crazed college students a week or two into the semester…what’s not to love about that? Themester is a cool concept. Check it out. This year’s theme is “sustain.ability”, something that is always important to the BF/BF staff.
Those of you who come to BFusion/BFlex know that I love to show off my town. Bloomington is a great town with a lot going for it. If none of the above tickles your fancy there is so much more. Check out the campus events calendar, the calendar of the world-renowned Jacob’s School of Music, the city events calendar (looks like you could catch David Bowie at the Movie in the Park) or the student news events calendar (Hmm, awesome local artist Krista Detor at the Buskirk Chumley Theater on Saturday). Yeah, we have too many calendars, but I want you to have too many options.
Obviously we’d love for you to come to BFusion/BFlex, but if you get here and there is just too much other stuff going on and you can’t make it by, we’ll understand. Just don’t forget to stop by the Chocolate Moose before you leave town. I’d be a terrible host if I didn’t insist on that!
Bob Flynn
Event Director, BFusion/BFlex
BFusion/BFlex Registration Now Open
Posted by Bob Flynn | Filed under BFlex, BFusion, Events, Updates
I am happy to report that we have opened registration for BFusion/BFlex 2010. Please go to https://www.confmanager.com/main.cfm?cid=2239 and register now. The first three registrations that come in after this post will receive an Adobe desk clock from me at the conference. I’ll announce the winners once I figure out the data from the IU Conferences Bureau. They are handling our registration this year. It’s a little funky, so go through it carefully, but it will get you there.
Please do not forget that the special rate for hotels ends this Wednesday, August 18. Do not delay on hotels any longer. See http://bflex.info/travel-information for details.
I will have more news in the coming days, including our BFlex Keynote speaker. He’s a newcomer to BFlex, but a very welcome addition. Stay tuned for that!
Bob Flynn
Event Director, BFusion/BFlex
Hotel extended, Call ended, Website appended
Posted by Bob Flynn | Filed under BFlex, BFusion, ColdFusion Sessions, Events, Flex Sessions, Sessions, Updates
The red tape tango continues, but we think we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Here’s the latest news:
- The schedules have been posted. See BFusion ‘10 and BFlex ‘10 in the navigation above. They are subject to change, but we are close to solid there.
- The registration form was waiting on the schedules. Now that we have those done we’ll get that out the door tomorrow (8/13), or Monday (8/16) at the latest.
- The hotel has been kind enough to extend our hotel discount block until Wednesday (8/18). See the Hotel & Travel page for details.
- Our Call for Proposals deadline has passed. I’m leaving the details up for a few more days because we are looking for just the right piece to finish our BFlex schedule. If you’ve got something to teach. Let’s talk…
- We’ve actually got a new website coming. Two of our instructors, Shashikant Penumarthy and Steve Withington are working hard to get us off of WordPress and onto ColdFusion-based Mura. When it’s ready we’ll redirect you. Don’t be too shocked with the new look.
That’s it for now. Stay tuned. We have much more to share once we are past all of this administrivia!
Bob Flynn
BFusion/BFlex Event Director
Last Day for Proposals
Posted by Bob Flynn | Filed under BFlex, BFusion, ColdFusion Sessions, Events, Flex Sessions, Sessions, Updates
Today is the last day for proposals to teach at BFusion/BFlex. If you have an Intermediate or Advanced-level topic in ColdFusion, Flex, Catalyst, AIR or related technology and you can deliver that in a 90-minute hands-on session (or two) send in your proposal today! Full details at http://bflex.info/call-for-proposals.
It’s a great event. We take good care of our instructors. Come be a part of BFusion/BFlex 2010!
Bob Flynn
BFusion/BFlex Event Director
Rates Set, Hotel Info Announced…BFusion/BFlex is on
Posted by Bob Flynn | Filed under BFlex, BFusion, ColdFusion Sessions, Events, Flex Sessions, Sessions
Cost
Yes, it really has taken this long for us to figure out how much we were going to have to charge and, quite honestly, whether we were even going to be able to pull off BFusion/BFlex this year. In the past 24 hours I went from being given a tentative OK to go ahead without the (senseless) extra university registration processing fee to being told that we must. So here’s the bottom line. BFusion/BFlex this year will be $30 if you attend one day and $45 if you attend both. We’ve been able to keep it so cheap for so long because we use university facilities for free. I guess I can’t really begrudge them a little bit of the fee. NOTE: If you are going to register for both, do so at one time. Otherwise you’ll get charged $30 for each individual day. Sorry, there is nothing I can do about that. We will no longer control the registration system.
Next Steps
If you have ever tried to put on an event like this you’ll know there are a crazy amount of dependencies. Throw into that mix an all-volunteer staff and a bunch of summer vacations and you’ll realize what a mad rush the next week will be. Here is where we are and where you need to be if you are coming to the event.
- Hotel information has been posted. The rate is $109+tax/night. We couldn’t finalize until we knew we’d be holding the event. The discount code is on our Hotel and Travel page. It’s only good till August 10 so do not delay!.
- The Call For Proposals is still open. It closes August 7. It is our goal to turn around confirmations to speakers in two days.
- Registration will open by the end of next week. We need to finalize the tracks so you can make your choices. Can’t do that until the Call for Proposals is over. Do not wait for the registration form to show up before you reserve your hotel room. If you don’t like our lineup of sessions you can always cancel the room. Of course you’ll love the sessions, but that’s for a later post.
- We are working to simplify the technology needs of the event. If you are new to BFusion/BFlex you should know that every attendee is required to bring his/her own laptop. The laptop must be up to the task to run the software used in the sessions. Since there are always a few time-consuming problems with installation and configuration of the software we are trying to find a way to deliver a virtual image with everything installed to make that easier. We’ll update progress in that area in a later post.
That’s it for now. This is the critical information that needed to get out today. So please plan on joining us. Please spread the word that the event is on. We have a very nice hotel. We will have great food. We have great list of instructors. We will open registration sometime next week.
If you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact me bob@bflex.info
Bob Flynn
BFusion/BFlex Event Director
BFusion/BFlex 2010 Dates and (some) Details
Posted by Bob Flynn | Filed under BFlex, BFusion, ColdFusion Sessions, Events, Flex Sessions, Sessions, Uncategorized, Updates
Sound the trumpets! Sound the alarms! BFusion is coming! BFlex is coming! Yes indeed, we are once again committed to the madness of offering two full days of hands-on training for little more than a song. As seems to the be the case each year, we have some minor complications, but first to the simple facts.
BFusion
- What: A full day of beginning, intermediate and advanced hands-on ColdFusion training
- When: Saturday, September 11, 2010
BFlex
- What: A full day of beginning, intermediate and advanced hands-on Flex, AIR, Catalyst training
- When: Sunday, September 12, 2010
- Where: Both events take place at the Kelley School of Business Godfrey Graduate and Executive Education Center on the campus of Indiana University Bloomington.
- Why: Because you will not find this kind of instructor-led, hands-on training cheaper anywhere.
How Much?
“So what’s it cost?” you might ask. Now to the complications. I always prefer transparency, so here’s where we stand. Last year we instituted a cost for the events because we had too many no-shows in previous years and there was too much wasted food, materials, time, etc. Last year the event cost a whopping $10. It turns out that did little to get some people to feel they had an investment in the event and we still had a lot of no-shows. See the following good posts about why that might be (1|2). So this year we’ve discussed upping the fee to maybe $20. Yes, I know that’s doubling, but it’s still not a lot compared with the training you receive. We also want to respond to calls for better food and “free” drinks. We intend to give you increased value for that increased investment and we also hope to get move of you here.
If only it were that simple… Here’s why it is not so simple and why I can’t say exactly what the cost is at this time. The university has a new policy that all events that charge a fee must use our university conference bureau to handle registrations. I won’t go into all of the whys and wherefores, but it’s the law of the land. Here’s why this matters to you. The conference bureau charges something like $15-20/person just to process the registration! That means you could be looking at $35 or $40 for one day, $55 or $60 for two days. (Presumably we only have to pay that overhead fee once per registration). We have a meeting with them next week to see if they will let us use our own payment collection system (already university and PCI DSS compliant) and thereby avoid this additional cost. Believe me, we’re as anxious to know as you are and will post as soon as we know.
What’s on the (Learning) Menu?
We try to make every single session, from beginning to advanced, hands-on. As the presenters/instructors get used to that we get better at it each year. While I’ve already reached out to many of the rock stars who have taught for us in previous years, I will only be posting the official call for proposals today. That means we won’t have a final slate of sessions until mid-August. Here’s what I can tell you know though.
- We have “Pure Beginner” and “Beginner” tracks on both ColdFusion (Saturday) and (Flex) Sunday. These are full-day intensives. The Pure Beginner is for attendees with no programming experience whatsoever. Never heard of a variable or a loop? No worries. Come and get a great introduction. We’ll have you building your first apps by the end of the day. Beginner is for those with programming experience who are just new to ColdFusion or Flex.
- On Saturday we will have an intermediate-level ColdFusion track on Mach-ii. This full-day session will move you from a procedural to an object-oriented ColdFusion programmer using one of the most popular ColdFusion frameworks. If you’ve never experienced the power and convenience of developing with a framework this is for you.
- Also on Saturday we will have a series of offerings to help you learn about setting up and developing with a completely open-source ColdFusion environment. These intermediate sessions can be consumed a la carte or as a full-day track.
- This event is not just for our programming sisters and brothers, but the designers as well. On Sunday we will have a full-day Flash Catalyst session so designers and developers can map their magical (to me) skills into functioning Rich Internet Applications. Very cool stuff!
- Sunday’s Flash Platform offerings will include a lot of Flex 4 as well as AIR 2 development. It doesn’t matter if you develop in ColdFusion, .NET, PHP, Java, Ruby, etc. You will love the speed, power and beauty of the user interfaces you can develop using Flex. We will have a range of Intermediate and Advanced topics. We’ll post the schedule as it gets built.
There is more to tell, but I’ll save those for future posts. If you are a speaker/instructor and would like to be on the giving end of all this techno-goodness, please see our Call For Proposals page. The deadline for proposals is August 7.
