Help make 360Flex Great(er): Join our Board

John and I are constantly bouncing ideas off of each other. However, sometimes we need a bit more feedback. Lately, we've taken to asking you via blog posts and/or in the comments of blog posts. While this works, it's not quite conversational as we always start the questions. Therefore, we're resurrecting our old Yahoo! group at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/360flex/.

Here we will ping you all with questions about the conference, what we're thinking and what would work best. Topics will range from huge questions: Which city next? to small questions: White or Black polo shirts? You will be able to voice your answers to the world for all to see or just respond to us personally if you like.

The best thing though is that you can start topics on your own. Just attend a conference and see something you like? Tell us about it. Find something you hated at another conference? Drop us a note so we won't repeat the mistake. We don't want to tell you what you'll like, we want you to tell us. We don't want to be announcing what's best for community, we want to be discussing what's best with you.

A corporation has a Board of Directors to guide them. These are smart people that know how to guide a corporation to better serve its customer base. We feel that no one knows our customers better than...well, our customers themselves. We want a Board of Community, for lack of a better term. LOL Therefore, we hope you take the time to join our board over at the Yahoo group. We look forward to working together with you to make 360Flex the best conference ever!

360|Flex Keynotes and Flex Community

As you know by checking out the schedule, there will be two keynotes. We wanted to give you an update on what we were planning.

One keynote will be given by Adobe. With so much goodness released into the wild lately, it will be good for them to catch us up on things. Ted Patrick will deliver another, without a doubt, killer update on Flex 3. Plus, there's the Flex Component Kit for Flash and, of course, AIR. We're going to try to do a live from the Bus Tour with Chambers and friends, but that maybe too technical for us. LOL

The other keynote will be a gallery of what's new in the Flex community. A lot of 360|Flex San Jose was, "Look what's technically possible with Flex." It amazes me how much the community has grown and how much stuff the community has launched since then. This keynote is where the best of the "Built on Flex" apps will have a chance to demonstrate some of their goodness and motivate the rest of us. Nothing excites me to do better work than seeing something cool built by my peers.

Lastly, we're going to try to highlight some of the activities being taken on by the Flex community itself. We're still nailing down the details, but if you're involved with the community and would like to be considered, drop us a line at info@360flex.com

360Flex twice the Flex book love

If you were at San Jose, you know O'Reilly is 360|Flex's best friend. We <3 O'Reilly. They will be back in Seattle, with some more great books for us to use as raffle prizes.

Here's a list of the titles they're bringing:

Programming Flex 2
ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook
Essential ActionScript 3.0
JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, 5E
Ajax Design Patterns
CSS: The Definitive Guide
HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide, 6E

In addition to O'Reilly, Wiley will also be joining us in Seattle. They're bringing some great books written by one of our own speakers, Renaun Erickson. If you win the raffle, maybe he'll autograph one for you. =)

We're very excited to have both O'Reilly and Wiley with us. What better way to help grow the community and expand our knowledge than with books?

Make sure you don't wander off during lunch and the after parties, we've got lots of things to raffle off, and "you must be present to win".

360Flex schwag

We posted earlier asking you, the community, what you'd like in the way of official conference schwag. While the comments are still coming in, it's looking like shirts are the clear winner. Bags are great, and as I said, I love bags. However, good bags aren't cheap and a common reply was "if the bags are good..."

So here's what we're thinking; and this is still not locked in so things could change, and if they do, you'll know about it first. The official shirt will be a nice, high quality polo shirt, no other advertising on it, beyond '360|Flex Seattle', the logo, and maybe the date, Tom and I argue about including dates on things. It may come down to another vote by you all.

A polo isn't what most conference give away so we thought (as with most things) we'd be different, knowing that 'business casual' includes polos, and usually not T-shirts.

However, the t-shirt and bag voters voters need not despair. In keeping with our community vibe, we're going to upload the official logo to a Cafe Press store. Since we're not in this to get rich, we don't intend to charge a lot. Whatever it costs to sell, plus a buck or two. You'll be able to get any 360|Flex branded thing you want, even a thong (does anyone buy those from Cafe Press besides me?).

But wait, there's more. On top of not charging an arm and a leg for schwag (lest, would anyone buy it?) we're going to extend a special offer to those of you staying at the Red Lion. A $20 dollar Cafe Press gift certificate in your welcome package. If you're sensing a theme of us really wanting everyone to stay at the Red Lion, you'd be right on the money. We do want everyone to stay there, for many reasons.

So keep an eye out, there's going to be a new tab shortly where you'll have the opportunity to get some hip threadz!

At 360Flex, Saffron is the Spice of Life

Saffron, the upcoming Apollo... ur AIR UML tool, is incredible to say the least. One look and I realized that this was a tool that the enterprise world has been waiting for all its life. Samuel has kindly agreed to discuss the tool in detail at 360|Flex Seattle. He will give the scoop on how he built it and show off screens and functionality never seen before.

Like I said, if you're in the corporate enterprise world, you know you want this tool. If your serious about OOP (not OPP), then you know you need this tool. If you're just cutting your chops on Object-Oriented Programming, believe me, this tool will help you. Two important things about OOP are seeing all the pieces of the object quickly and seeing how objects relate. Saffron is looking to do that and so much more.

I know a lot of people (myself included) are drooling over this tool and looking to get on the beta. Hmm...what was that post about the hotel room welcome box?

360Flex Poll: Shirts? Bags? Both?

Tom and I are facing a conundrum: provide a conference bag and/or providing a conference shirt?

I'm a fan of bags. I didn't much like last years MAX bag, since my 15.4" MBP wouldn't fit in it. I've still got an old Dev Con (yeah, I said old) messenger bag and a CFUnited bag; I like 'em.

Same with shirts. They're fun. They provide a nice concrete link to the memories, even if your wife wears it to bed or you change your oil in it.

Tom is the opposite on bags. He still sports his MAX Anaheim bag when there's a need and has no interest in another. He likes shirts though. Actually, his wife likes them (see PJ note above).

We figured what better way to be community focused than be asking you (the community) to chime in.

In the comments, indicate if you'd want a conference bag, a conference shirt, or both. While you're at it, how about some feedback? What kind of bags/shirts do you like?

This is your chance to not walk away saying, "That's the lamest bag ever. I can't believe that's what they gave us."

Speak now or forever hold your peace.

360Flex is the Most Bang for Your (Company's) Bucks

Chuck raises some good points in this post. One of the reasons that we started 360|Flex was to keep it cheap and keep it focused primarily on those using Flex in the trenches.

We know that Flex is fairly easy to pickup, but then some developers hit a wall going from beginner to mid-level. Others are mid-level, but need a quick jolt in thinking to push them to the advanced level.

Take a look at our session titles. (We'll be posting fuller descriptions soon.) If you or your company are serious about Flex, you need to get to Seattle in August. Otherwise, you won't be able to participate in this kind of knowledge transfer until 2008! Which in internet time is the equivalent to 3 human years! =)

Tickets are starting to move at a rate of 4 to 8 a day and the hotel is starting to fill up as well. Book your ticket and your room now. Like Chuck says, "You see, management likes seeing sessions like these. It means that you’ll come back with better process and efficiency on the brain; a better developer."

360|Flex and the AIR Bus Tour

If you haven't heard, get out from under your rock. The AIR bus tour is starting up soon. Check out the map, see when they'll be in or near your home town and go check out the bus and events.

If you can, I'd hit up an early stop. See those little curtained thingies there? That's where Ted, Ryan, Mike (both of them), Christian, Danny, et al will be sleeping. By Chicago, Ted might have a twitch and there might just be only one Mike left.

Tom and I won't be on the bus, but we are pretending to be, we've each bought a new refrigerator, and will be webcasting it :) Stay tuned. There should also be some cool 360|Flex postcards available on these early stops.

In all seriousness, check out the site and make sure to register for your city. Ted mentioned that most cities are already 20% full, that's not bad for under a week. I know where I'll be July 20th.

360|Flex sorry for the post overflow

Sorry, folks. Yesterday morning, I accidentally put the wrong rss file in the root directory of the site. It was supposed to be the latest 360|Flex post but ended up being every post we've made to the 360Conferences company blog. While we want people to read that blog, that wasn't how we wanted to accomplish it.

360|Flex hotel walk through in July, come say 'what up'

Seattle here we come!

We'll be in Seattle July 6th, doing a walk through of the conference venue, checking things out, meeting with people, hob nobbing, doing things cool kids do while they type on crackberries, nodding absentmindedly.

We'll be meeting with some locals too, letting them get a peek at the place, talk about sponsorship, expo halls, Community involvement, all sorts of good stuff. If any one in the area wants to say hi, drop a comment, we love meeting with people in the community.

We're big fans of transparency, so the primary reasons we'll be in Seattle are:

• See the facility, plan where tracks will be so we can update the schedule with room names.
• Scope out the Presidential Suite and picture how we're going to convert it into the 24/7 chill out room
  
• Meet with all the staff and map out what they need to do
  
• See the expo hall area and lock down layout
  
• Have an all day face to face (Tom and I are in different Time zones remember) to bang out as many details as we can.
• Meet some of the local community, get some pictures taken, eat some Ivar's =)
  

We usually do one of these face to face meetings before an event. It helps us really nail things down and mark things off our planing checklist.

360|Flex Seattle has your Beta invites!

We won't ruin the surprise by mentioning names, but we're sure you're all aware of some pretty nice apps made with Flex/Apollo in (or going into) Beta. They're generating a lot of buzz, spicing up the web, mixing things up and bringing the web to the desktop. Wouldn't it be great if there was a way you knew you could "get in on the action?" But how would you differentiate yourself from the masses? How do you get to be on the A-list? How can you prove to these hot companies that you're serious about Flex and helping them with your Beta Feedback?

We told you that staying at the official conference hotel would have its privileges. Let's just say that those staying at the Red Lion are going to have some nice invitations waiting for them inside their Welcome Baskets. Just don't get too wrapped up in Beta Testing, there are sessions you still need to attend. =)

Haven't registered yet? Hurry up.

Haven't booked your room at the Red Lion either? Now's the time.

Don't come crying to me with "Do you have any extras?" after the fact. You've been warned.

What's the Schedule for 360|Flex Seattle?

We know how important it is for people to see what's being offered. Therefore, we're offereing this PDF of the working schedule.

The blue boxes are where the duplicates of the more popular sessions will go. We'll be releasing a survey closer to the conference to gauge popularity of the sessions. Of course, FlexTV will also be broadcasting the sessions throughout the night, so don't worry if we don't duplicate a session you want to attend.

We'll be making an online scheduler available so you can pick and print out your schedule. We will likely put that out in mid-July, after we do lock down the duplicates and finishing mapping sessions to rooms.

We have a stellar list of sponsors talking about relevant topics to any Flex developer. The excitement level is starting to rise. This is going to be the best 360|Flex yet.

In case you're wondering what the numbers mean, we took a College like approach with the sessions, 101, 201, 301, rising in complexity level. the 101s are more intro type topics, the 301s are more advanced, assuming a little deeper knowledge of AS, and or Flex.

download here

360|Flex: What we're about

Looking for 360Flex Europe, head over here.

Some people new to the Flex scene don't know what we're about, so let us explain.

360|Flex was the first all Flex/Apollo themed conference. Our inaugural conference in San Jose was a sell-out success. No doubt due to Adobe's Flex Evangelist, Ted Patrick, helping to rally the community. This conference takes you into the nitty-gritty of Flex development. If you're serious about Flex, then you need to attend this conference.

360|Flex is a community driven event. The sole purpose of the show is to bring the best of the Flex community together in one place to share war stories from the trenches and to allow the experts to share their deep technical knowledge to a large group. Another benefit is finally being able to put a face, voice and personality onto the bloggers, flexcoders and article writers that you've come to depend on.

What do people say about 360|Flex? Find out.

Dave of Buzzword fame
Sam Agesilas
Doug McCune
Our boy PolyGeek
Dave? Named his blog after us?
MyoT (1, 2, 3)
Chuckstar!
JonnyMac
D. Andrew Lafoon


Adobe is a strong supporter of the community and therefore, a strong supporter of 360|Flex. They make sure that the Flex Team is available to speak, Ted Patrick comes to deliver a killer keynote, and there's a networking dinner "party" as a way for them to thank you for supporting them.

360|Flex is a production of 360|Conferences, a company devoted to putting on low-cost, high-content and fun conferences.

Hotel and Travel

Conference Location and Official Hotel
The Red Lion
1415 Fifth Avenue
Seattle, WA 98101
Yahoo Maps

Use group code: 0707360CON_002 for the $186 (+ tax) group rate

Hotel Registration
Online: http://redlion.com/5thave
Phone: 800-733-5466

Closest Airport:
SeaTac Airport

Cheapest Way to get from Airport to Hotel:
Grayline Seattle Downtown Airporter

You can rent a car, but you won't need one during the conference or to see the "sites". Public transportation in Downtown Seattle is awesome. Plus, many of the "sites" are within walking distance.

The Hands-On Sessions + .NET BOF

Did you attend any of the hands-on sessions in San Jose? Did you want to? Did you hear about them, and wish you had?

We received great feedback from the San Jose attendees and learned from it. That's why the feedback is so important to us. If you don't tell us things, we can't improve. Three days of 101 training didn't work, so we've dropped that.

Here's the new game plan as it stands.

Day 1: Half day 101 class on Building Components with Jeff Houser (of The Flex Show fame). He'll be going over the fundamentals of building custom components and walking you through it all.

Day 2: Back by popular demand is Ben Lucyk doing an entire day, yeah you heard right, a WHOLE DAY, on Apollo. Ben will be covering everything you need to know to get up to speed with Apollo, including walking you through your first Apollo application

Day 3: Another half day session is still open. What would you like? Flex 101? Flex 202? Flex and Flash? You tell us and we'll find a way to make it happen.

Lastly, but certainly not least. Mark Piller will be hosting .NET Birds of a Feather. This is going to an an after hour hands-on Birds of a Feather session. Look to Mark's blog for more details on what you can expect at this session in the heart of .NET-land.

Brightcoves and WebORBs

Now, we're not chatting about our latest D&D adventure, but rather about our latest additions to our speaker list.

Brian Deitte will be talking about Brightcove's Aftermix and Building in Flex with Java Developers. Aftermix looks very cool. Also, if you're coming to Flex from Java you'll be interesting in hearing how the experience went for his team.

Mark Piller and Harris Reynolds will be back. Mark will have a session exploring his company's WebORB product and how to use it with Flex. Harris will talk about all the ways Flex can communicate with your .Net backends.

We also have something special planned since the Emerald City probably leans to the .Net side more so than any other city. Stay tuned for details.