360Flex Hotel News - We warned ya

We warned ya, we really did, and now it might be too late... To stay at the Red Lion that is. They're not full yet, but the cheap rate they allocated for the conference has expired. Booking now, you'll need to pay/negotiate whatever the going rate is, which from what we're hearing is close to two-fitty a night. (If it was tree-fitty, I'd have used my South Park Chef sound, but it's not, so I won't, Damnit Loch Ness Munstah!)

There are some other hotels in the area, which look equally as nice as the Red Lion and are within walking distance. However, "as nice as", and "walking distance" means not much if any, cheaper. It's down town Seattle in the summer, just about as close to Shan Gri La as is possible. It's gonna be costly, I'm afraid.

When Tom and I visited for the walk thru, I stayed about a mile and a half away on Cap Hill. It wasn't much cheaper, and certainly wasn't a fun uphill walk from the Red Lion.

If you haven't booked, your best bet is to bite the bullet and book the Red Lion at the going rate. If that $40 to $50 difference per night is too much (as it can be for independent devs) hotels.com or travelocity (and their funny british gnome) might be your new best friend.

Here's four numbers you can call for rates. If Red Lion is near the same rate as the neighboring hotels, I'd suggest you still book the Red Lion for all the reasons we've listed before. We still benefit if you stay at the Red Lion, so pick the Red Lion if you can.

Also, we literally just got word that all four hotels are getting close to sold out, with it being high season. If you don't have a room...book it now!

Red Lion - 800-733-5466
Sheraton - 206-621-9000
Hilton - 206-624-0500
W Hotel - 206-264-6000

360Flex is almost here, join 250+ of the best

We'd like to take a minute to thank every attendee who's registered, you folks are in for a great conference. We're attracting people from some seriously big name companies. We'd rattle off a few, but 1. It kinda goes against our privacy policy, and 2. You're just gonna have to come and look at name tags.

Once again we're attracting people from all over the globe; the UK, Sweden, Canada, our pals from south of the border, and others. This is the conference to attend for Flex developers around the globe.

If you want to see what Doug McCune has been up to, find out what the Flex Team has in store for us in Flex 3, find out more about integrating your Flex app with PHP, Ruby, .NET, and of course ColdFusion, 360|Flex Seattle is where you should be in August.

If your manager is having trouble signing off, maybe this helps:

250+ Fellow Flex Developers
39 Sessions on nitty gritty Flex dev
9 Yummy free meals
3 Days of hands on (2 on Flex, 1 on AIR)
3 Networking events
2 Keynotes (1 from Adobe, 1 from the Community)
1 Flex/.Net Birds of a Feather
1 Harass the Flex PM (Bring your hard hitting questions and get answers)
1 Charity Code Jam (Learn how to code a project alongside the pros and earn Karma)

If your team is hiring bring business cards, job reqs, and good vibes. The Monday night HR event, and the conference as a whole, are great places to find experienced as well as up-and-coming Flex superstars.

If you're looking to get into some Flex projects, come to the conference. You'll be working before September.

And don't forget the beer!

Not registered? Are you waiting for something in particular? Let us know what by dropping a line to info@360flex.com or else Get on it!

360Flex how to get to the Red Lion

When you land at Sea-Tac, you've got two main choices for getting to the Red Lion. When Tom and I came for our on-site meeting, we took the Gray Line Airporter. Round Trip it's like $17.00 a person, and get's you to within a block or so of the Red Lion. You can spend $5.00 more and they'll go right to the Red Lion, but save the dough, you can get off at the Sheraton stop or The Crown Plaza stop, walk a block and be five bucks richer, and a smidge more healthy feeling.

Taxi's are the second option, and according to the gal at the airport a taxi ride to the Red Lion will run you a cool $45.00 dollars or so, give or take the route the cabby takes, and how crooked he or she might be. :)

If you got some friends, maybe you're a team who is coming, the taxi might be a good option, but otherwise, we recommend the Gray Line, it's pretty quick and comfy, and much less creepy than most cabs.

Also in light of the traffic advisory, a cab will have the added benefit of taking longer, and running the fare up while enjoying the lovely smell of cherry poppit.

360Flex travel advisory, wouldn't want you to miss the fun

Not staying at the Red Lion? (shame on you!) You better make sure you're not staying south of the city. Driving in? Don't drive in from south of the city (sorry Oregonians) on Monday morning expecting to make the keynote.

Interstate 5 will be under construction in August (Honestly, we didn't know when we booked Seattle). The alternative routes, which may not normally suck, will, without a doubt, suck to the nth degree. Just don't do it, if you don't have to. If I had to guess it will rival, or beat LA traffic... yeah old ladies walk faster than LA traffic so do the math. For your best bet, drive or fly in on Sunday. There will be no commuter traffic that day and delays likely won't be as bad as Monday morning. Plus, we're kicking off the charity code jam and jammin' on the Guitar Hero on Sunday and you don't want to miss that!

Here's the article on the construction.

If you're thinking that's the pits, we agree. Construction starts the 10th, guess what day Tom and I fly into Seattle.... Yup, the 10th.

We've already filed our complaint with WDOT, who kinda looked at us like we were purple. We're taking it to the Governor next, but if I were you, I'd make plans now for staying in the city (or at least North of the city).

On the upside, if you fly in and Gray Line it, even if you're in traffic, the busses are quite comfy. If you're thinking of taking a Taxi, you might want to reconsider as it may be one of the costliest you'll ever pay.

See you in Seattle!

Not Registered? What's wrong with you? Do it!

360Flex Charity Code Jam Press Release

Contact: Ali Daniali FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Cell Phone: 425-879-0324
Email: blog@flexilicio.us

SEATTLE ADOBE FLEX USER GROUP SPONSORS NORTHWEST CHARITY FLEX JAM
Hundreds of developers to converge to build Northwest Harvest new Adobe
Flex Site

The Seattle Adobe Flex User Group (SeaFlex) is sponsoring the first
Northwest Charity Flex Jam Event to benefit Washington State's Northwest
Harvest. This event to be held for 36 Hours straight starting August
13-15, 2007 at the Red Lion Hotel in Seattle, WA. This event is
happening during the 360 | Flex Seattle Conference and will draw upon
the hundreds of Adobe Flex developers who will be attending the
conference.

Northwest Harvest is Washington's own, and only, statewide hunger relief
agency. They supply food free, without dues or fees of any kind, to a
network of nearly 300 independent food banks and meal programs
throughout the state. They have been selected by SeaFlex as the primary
charity to benefit from the Charity Flex Jam. Northwest Harvest in
coordination with Seattle-based RedClay Interactive Agency, an Adobe
Solutions Partner, will work with SeaFlex to build a Virtual Food Drive
Challenge web site using Adobe Flex programming language. Drawing on an
all volunteer team of Flex programmers, SeaFlex organizers, plan to
complete the application in 36 Hours (the duration of the 360 | Flex
Seattle Conference). The final application when completed will be
released as an open source project so that other food banks around the
country can gain benefit of the application.

The Seattle Adobe Flex User Group, is a local user group of like-minded
professional programmers that use or plan to use Adobe Flex. Ali
Daniali, SeaFlex User Manager, says "this event is an opportunity for
developers to flex their programming muscles, learn new skills from a
community of other developers, while giving back to the community."
During the Charity Flex Jam, participants will have support from other
SeaFlex User Group members, Adobe Flex Community experts, attending
conference speakers, and expert Adobe developers from around the United
States. Example event mentors include Michael Labriola & Josh Berling
from Digital Primates and Jeff Tapper & Mike Nimer from Tapper Nimer and
Associates.

Further information regarding the event, sponsors and further
participating mentors will be made available on the SeaFlex website
located at http://www.flexilicio.us. If you or your company would like
to participate or provide sponsorship for this event please contact Ali
Daniali through the SeaFlex e-mail address, blog@flexilicio.us.

Northwest Harvest contacts include Maureen Brindle, Special Events and
New Media Coordinator, at MaureenB@northwestharvest.org and Claire Acey,
Communications Director, at ClaireA@northwestharvest.org. Main phone
number is (206) 625-0755 and website located at
http://www.northwestharvest.org.

RedClay Interactive contacts include Andrew Grinaker, Director, Online
Marketing at andrew@redclay.us, and Scot Refsland, founder, at
scot@redclay.us. Main phone number is (425) 296-4324 and website located
at http://www.redclay.us.

360|Flex Conference contacts include John Wilker at
john.wilker@gmail.com and Tom Ortega at tom.ortega@gmail.com. Website
located at http://www.360conferences.com/360flex/

##

If you'd like more information about this topic, or to schedule an
interview with Ali Daniali, please call 425-879-0324 or e-mail Ali at
blog@flexilicio.us.

360Flex, are you a hero? Prove it on Sunday night.

Can you wail on the axe like Eddie Van Halen? Do you think you can, but your friends know you can't? How about coding to help out charity? Have you ever wanted to use your coding skills to help serve your fellow man? In either case, make sure you're at the Red Lion on Sunday night, August 12th @ 8 pm. We've got a great time lined up for everyone.

Feel like getting your badge and conference stuff? We'll be there doing early badge pickup, and even registration (sure, show up, we've got room for ya). We'll be enjoying pizza and of course (you know it) BEER! Sim, bring the stein!

Thanks to our pals at matchmine, we'll be eatin' pizza, enjoyin' some great Seattle Micro Brews, and gettin' our Guitar Hero on.

Even better... the winner (I'm not sure how that's determined in Guitar hero... do you get to smash the plastic guitar on the carpet or something) goes home (three days later of course) with a shiny Xbox 360, courtesy of matchmine.

On top of that, we'll be kicking off our first charity code jam! That's right, you heard me, CHARITY CODE JAM. What's that? Let me tell you...

Ali Daniali has arranged a charity code jam to support a local non-profit. More info will be forthcoming on the SeaFlex (Seattle Flex User Group) site. How cool is that! Code Jam, nothing new. Code Jam to benefit a non-profit, that otherwise might not be able to pay for a whiz bang shiny Flex app, that's cool. Plus, it's good kharma and who doesn't need more of that? We're hoping that this becomes a tradition at 360Flex conferences.

So whether you're a proven guitar hero or want to be a code hero, we look forward to seeing you on Sunday night.

Not Registered? Register NOW

360Flex on AIR Bus Tour handouts

Mad props goes out to the folks that helped spread the 360Flex love on the first leg of the on AIR Bus tour.

Adobe helped out by stuffing our flyers into the handout bags in Seattle, Vancouver and Portland. Robert Cadena, of SearchCoders and Los Angeles Flex User Group fame, helped pimp the show in LA by handing out our postcard adverts. Gene McCullagh, of Dallas/Fort Worth Adobe User Group fame, also stepped up in a big Texan way (is there any other way to do things in Texas besides big?) to pass out our adverts at his UG booth.

While the bus missed my area (how did they not do a stop in the Bay Area? It left from here for goodness sakes!), it's nice to know I can live vicariously through some marketing goods making its way around each stop of the first leg. =)

If you're in Denver, keep an eye out for Wilker in the Skittle Green 360|Flex T-shirt! He'll be there handing out flyers and enjoying the event.

360Flex We've got Flex Training coming out of our ears

On top of our 3 days of hands on, Flex and AIR training, that are available at 360|Flex Seattle, we're also happy to announce our 'Training Partner', Total Training. The folks over at Total Training, have provided 8 copies of their Flex 2 training products (Flex 2 advanced visual programming, and Flex 2 Rich Internet Applications), for us to raffle off during the conference. That's 16 copies in all to be handed out.

On top of the great raffle prices they've provided, each attendee will get a flier for 15% off of Total Training products, including their new online training.

We're thrilled that Total Training has signed on to be our official Training Sponsor, since part of our goal with 360|Flex is to increase the number of Flex developers in the world. Offering training outside the event is a great way to accomplish that and Total Training can help you achieve that.

Not Registered for 360|Flex, yet? What're you waiting for, do it!

360Flex schwag up on the store

We finally got the cafe press thing figured out! Take a look at the 360Conferences, 360|Flex store!

Thanks to Doug (again! Doug really is our hero!) and our pals over at Flying Logo Sisters, we've got some killer graphics for everything from shirts (like this one) to coasters, laptop bags, etc.

Remember, if you're staying at the Red Lion and register before the 13th of July, you'll have a $20 gift certificate in your welcome package. Good for anything at the Official online store.

Take a look, see what we've got, show your spirit and show up on Monday
in some fly gear! In case you're curious, and because we believe in transparency, we've added 10% markup to the store, that's it. Clearly the store isn't aimed at being a money maker :)

Show us some love, whatever we make goes to making future conferences better!

register for 360|Flex

360Flex Seattle is all systems go!

Just wanted to give you all an update on what's done and what's left. We're about a month away and things are moving along nicely.

The 360|Flex ball has begun to roll and there's not stopping it until August 16th (that's the day after the conference in case we just lost ya ;D ). The Hotel/Conference Center is fully booked and the teams have their marching orders. The contracts are signed and, more importantly, the bills are paid. The party kicks off on Sunday, August 12th at 8pm, and it's gonna friggin' rock the Emerald City. Beautiful weather, beautiful town, and beautiful hotel guarantee that this will make San Jose seem like child's play.

Sessions/Speakers - Check
Food Menu (3 days of brekkie and lunch) - Check
Sunday Night Badge Pickup Space - Check
Sunday Night Party/Charity Flex Jam - Check
Monday Night Networking Party - Check
Tuesday Night Adobe Party - Check
Presidential Suites After Hour Chill Out Room - Check
Daytime Chill Out Room - Check
Keynote Setup - Check
Session to Room Assignment - Check

A/V Equipment - Currently being bidded
Session Descriptions - Check(ing for straggler emails)
Signs - Being ordered
Shirts - Awaiting samples
Badges - Being designed

As you can see, we're more "done" than we are "work to do". Not bad, not bad at all. If you were waiting to register, cut it out and get online. If you're serious about Flex, it's THE place to be! Register now.

For those already registered, get ready to be spun around mentally...360|Flex style.

360Flex's last session filled by Charles Freedman and a hot new component

We've been working with Charles Freedman on a big announcement. Imagine having the ability to build in phone support into an Flex app. Imagine it being as simple as adding a component. Lastly, imagine it being FREE!

As Chuck mentioned on his blog, this is exciting news for Ribbit and the Flex Development community. Personally, I've looked for such a component for a project and am looking forward to learning more about this brand-spanking new technology.

This is one more example of how 360|Flex is quickly becoming the place to be for Flex developers. You get first peek at so many new Flex products, but more importantly, you get to hang out with the developers that make the magic happen. Charles missed the first 360|Flex, for a good reason, and so we're glad to see he'll be at the next one.

He's also a Seattle virgin. If you too have never been there, don't worry. We'll keep you plenty busy, but your welcome box will also have some items to help you go about the Emerald City. Another reason to book your room before the Friday, the 13th!

360Flex time's running out to book your hotel room

Are you a fence sitter? Haven't booked your room yet?

Don't wait too long, in fact don't wait at all. This Friday is the last day to book your room at the Red Lion, and qualify for the 360|Flex discount.

Discounts aside, it's also the cut off for getting all the cool stuff we're planning to give to those who are staying at the hotel. Remember those Beta invites we mentioned? FlexTV? Schwag? You have to register by July 13th (I know, spooky, Friday the 13th and all) using the discount code of 0707360CON_002, to get the 186.00 a night rate.

Having now stayed at the Red Lion, let me tell you, the rooms are sweet! The views are killer (city side or water, both r0ck), and the overall appearance of the hotel is great. It's also very central to all kinds of great stuff.

That code let's the hotel know who 'belongs' to us, and who we can make room deliveries to. You're welcome to register after Friday of course, we're not sold out yet, but the standard room rate will apply, so if you're on the fence, get off it!

See you in Seattle.

Register HERE

360FlexSeattle tag on flickr

We landed Thursday night into a beautiful evening in Seattle. I was able to snap a few air shots of the Pacific Northwest Volcanics. I'll be posting those along with others to flickr with the tag: 360FlexSeattle Feel free to add your own pictures to the mix. An easy way to do it is by emailing it to against41common@photos.flickr.com It will autotag it with 360FlexSeattle for ya. Be sure to add this email address as a contact now in your phone and and crackberry, so you can snap candid shots during the conference and send them up easily without having to trackdown this address.

These pictures can be of you prepping for the show, i.e. packing, travelling, working on your session, working on your manager to let you go, badges, etc. We'll post a lot of our printed collateral for the show, so you can see some of that. Feel free to send us a yearbook style snapshot of yourself to the address, then add your name as a Tag or in the comment.

The best shots will be composed into a book, so therefore try to use high megapixels for the shots if you want some full page love. Otherwise, you'll be dropped into a grid on a page with 11 other shots. =)

When you vote, be sure to add your own caption for us to use with it. Just add the word "Caption:" so we know it's a caption submission vs a comment. We'll try to pick the best caption or make up a funny one ourselves. Be sure to put people's names in the comment section as well. Don't know their name? Then ask! Be friendly.

We'll put the albums up for sale for you to buy as keepsakes, but we'll also be giving some vouchers at the show for a free copy. Once again, this is just the kind of thing we at 360Conferences want to do to help build the community. Nothing better to remember your friends by than pictures of them making fools of themselves. LOL

360Flex Seattle Update

Tom and I spent today (and are still at it) meeting people, planning, meeting more people, and doing more planning, for 360|Flex.

We had lunch with Ali, Bryan, and Daryn, talking Flex, charity code jams, and video encoding (that last one went mostly over my head, but Bryan and Daryn seemed to know what they were talkin' about.)

I flew in from Denver, he flew up from Oakland. One of us checked his bag, the other carried on, one had no luggage when we landed, I'm wearing clean clothes today. :)

Seattle is definitely a city worthy of conferences, we're gonna have a freaking blast. The 5th floor Terrace Gardens is ours to use, for the nighttime events, looking down onto 4th avenue, and out over the water. We're gonna have two cool rooms on the 20th floor for chillin' out. The Charity Code Jam will be up there, doing good works, folks will be talkin' code up there, playing games, enjoying local microbrews. During the day when the upstairs rooms are closed, we managed to make room for a chill out room on the conference floor level, where folks can keep up the code jam'in and the shop talkin'.

I'm really excited. Not that I wasn't before, but now, after being onsite, meeting the folks at Red Lion, planning the rooms, mapping out the Expo space, enjoying some great Seattle food, this conferece is gonna kill San Jose.

Mark my words, 360|Flex San Jose was just a warm up.

360Flex Hotel Walkthrough Schedule

We landed last night. John and I headed to the Palace Kitchen for a late dinner. Unlike San Jose, Seattle doesn't shut down by 11. The Palace Kitchen, for instance, serves dinner til 1 am for those late night munchy attacks. It's a lot better for your tummy then the Denny's near eBay's HQ, sucka*.

We eat brekkie with the Red Lion Staff at 8:30 am. Do some touring and coordinating with them until lunchtime. At 12:30, we'll be doing a walk through with some of the Seattle local folk: Bryan Zug (who'll help us with FlexTV), Ali Daniali (manager of Seaflex - the Seattle FUG) and hopefully some of the eyejot folk (no name dropping, so no pressure guys! LOL) After the lunch tour with them, all of us will be doing lunch.

Once lunch is done, it's hardcore conference planning for John and I. It'll probably be a 12 hour planning session. If you have any ideas or questions, now is the time to ask. Post it in the comments or hit up info@360flex.com and we'll try to get them answered or put into works today.

The Red Lion so far is awesome. Free wifi in the room's work great. There are beautiful views and great goodies awaiting you. (Pictures will be up in a bit, look for another post soon) Also, one bonus: free toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, etc. in case your airline loses your bag like they did mine. (The things I go through for you community folk! LOL)

*Homage to Jesse Warden's Denny twitter at 360Flex San Jose

360|Flex is the conference for Flex developers

If you attended 360|Flex San Jose you're already a little familiar with how we do conferences. I say 'a little' because Seattle will make you think twice about conferences.

We alluded to it before, but we want to explain in more detail.

The goal of 360|Flex and 360Conferences in general, isn't to be just another Conference, there's already a lot of those out there.

Of course sessions and speakers are important, and we pride ourselves on getting the best and brightest people to come and present. But that's only the tip of the iceberg.

We aim to provide; answers, education, involvement, community, and more.

Answers, bring your questions. If it's not answered in a hands on classroom session, maybe some one in the code jam will know, or maybe some one will have a sticker with your question topic on it and you can talk in the Presidential suite, don't forget your laptop.

Education, hands on sessions are great, but what can you accomplish in a single session? The RIA community is growing, people are flocking to Flex. We want to make the transition easy and productive. That's why our hands on sessions are a track unto themselves. Sit in on a full day of AIR (formerly Apollo) training, leave with an Apollo application. Check in with Jeff and the intro to Components class, learn all about building custom components. Maybe visit Matt in the Flex 101 session, learn something knew.

Involvement, is more than just sitting quietly in a session, then moving down the hall to the next. It's talking in the halls to Jesse Warden, Sim Bateman, Ted Patrick, David Coletta, and more. It's hanging out in the Presidential Suite till the cows come home, debating Cairngorm vs. Model Glue: Flex. It's sitting in the bar lamenting clients and tight deadlines over a pint (ok milk, of course!) It's finding someone that has a question about E4X and making their day by helping them out.

Community, is all that and more. FlexCoders, the Cairngorm Y! group, User Groups, all that is what makes the Flex community so strong. The Flex team will be here to answer your questions, we'll be dedicating the Day Three keynote to the activities of the community, Sam and Saffron, (The one's you know, that escape me now). We want attendees to leave Seattle with new IM contacts, pockets jammed with business cards, heck! maybe even some new contracting work (It worked for Doug! It was you who mentioned it, wasn't it Doug? :) )

360|Flex is the conference to attend if Flex and ActionScript are your life and community is important to you.

360Flex helping you solve your Flex problems

One thing we noticed in San Jose was that people needed help with their Flex Apps. Most of the time, it was just a question or two to sorta get them over the hump. A lot of times, you could get speakers who spoke about your topic to ask. However, with small passing times and 1 speaker, it was hard to get that face time.

What if it was easier to tell what people wanted help on? What if you combined Birds of a Feather with Q & A and made it last 3 days? We're not sure what you'd get, but we'd like to find out.

During the conference, we'll have stickers to stick to your badge. There will be red stickers and green stickers. The Red stickers are things you need help on. The green stickers are the things you love and feel pretty knowledgeable about. The things can be anything: Cairngorm, custom components, E4X, hardcore AS3, whatever. The point is that you decide what to put on each.

The point of the stickers are to hook you up with one another. While grabbing breakfast, look down on your neighbors sticker, bam...start talking. Discussion gets good and you need a common spot to hang and chat later? The presidential suite will be there for you. There will be snacks and drinks to help you code and chat through the night.

360|Flex is all about hooking the Flex community up with one another. We're going to try our best to make sure you go home, not only with new general Flex knowledge, but also with your problems solved.

360|Flex isn't just sessions. Of course they're important, and we have the biggest names in Flex presenting on incredible topics, but there's more, or at least we think there should be more. There should be a sense of community, Flexcoders doesn't have tens of thousands of posts for no reason. The Cairngorm Y! group doesn't have daily traffic for no good reason.

360Flex Skinning MegaBlock and Workshop

Andy McIntosh of EffectiveUI and Juan Sanchez of ScaleNine will be teaming up for a dual-speaker presentation and workshop covering a variety of methods for creating visually engaging Flex applications. Topics that will be covered include styling, graphical skinning, programmatic skinning, runtime CSS, filters, effects, transitions and more.

The sessions will be merged into one megablock. It will start with the informational presentation and finish up with a workshop session, where participants will be applying methods covered to a small application, so bring your laptops.

One of the benefits of using Flex is the ability to create visually appealing and engaging rich internet applications. The goal of this extended session is to inform the audience of what's possible with Flex, and help them make a decision for the best way to enhance their applications.

They've got a secret application that they'll be skinning and using as their example, so secret, even we don't know.