Miss 360Flex? See what folks said about it

Did you miss 360|Flex Seattle? But you're bumming aren't you? Well have no fear, we've got all sorts of coolness planned. in the meantime take a look at what some of our attendees had to say.

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


If we missed anyone, please accept our apologies, and make sure to add your link in a comment.

360Flex Lost and found

in packing up on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, Tom and I found some treasures.

If you lost something, let us know, and we'll tell you if it's what we found. Why the cloak and dagger? Cuz advertising 'I found a Blank, who's is it?', could elicit replies from some less than scrupulous peeps who want something that isn't theirs for no more than the cost of shipping.

So let us know, or else they're mine! :D

360Flex Announces RIAcommunity.com

Not much time to write but we wanted to make a quick post about RIACommunity.com.

360|Flex Italy is quite a ways away, so we will need something to keep us busy. Therefore, we have decided to create an RIA Community site in the meantime. Curious what it will be about? Read our Vision Doc. Roughly, it is going to be a community driven site about all things RIA: Apollo, Flex, Ajax, Silverlight, Google Tools, JavaFX, etc. It will be a place for those looking into this new RIA phenomenon and for the experts that want honest comparisions between the various technologies.

Take a look at the vision doc and sign up for updates. We want you to contribute! Sign up here

Over the next few weeks, we'll be fleshing out the content more and updating the site with rough sketches, storyboards, etc. We want you to help us make this the site you want. Our vision doc is just that, our vision. We want you all to contribute your vision as well. This is for the community and by the community, so step up and let your voice be heard.

360flex day one, sessions.... DONE

Time for more beer!

Day one is wrapping up, we had a great keynote, with the Charity Code Jam, and Ted, plus our announcement of 360|Flex Italy. You heard right.

We also announced our impending east coast invasion, location TBD, but think sometime this coming February.

The Buzzword blog has some great write ups on some of today's sessions, make sure to take a look.


Tomorrow promises to be more of the same great stuff. The Code Jam is still going strong, Ali and crew are determined to deliver a great app in three days!

No keynote tomorrow so we're jumping right into the presentation goodness!

360Flex it's Sunday, ready for some Guitar Hero?

Tom and I are busy as all get out, putting together the welcome kits, finishing up the stuffing of folders, and printing like mad tree killers.

Hope everyone has/had/is having safe flights.

We're getting set up for the Speaker Sponsor dinner, and the badge pick up, Guitar Hero Tournament, and Charity Code Jam kick off, hope you're ready!

Still haven't registered? You've got some options. Register online, then show up, and we'll make you a badge (sorry, they've long since gone to print, and we're not (yet) cool enough to print on the spot, or bring your credit card, or $360.00 in cash (don't make us make change), and we can register you on the spot. We can't take checks, sorry, and the credit card processing is still via the regular online site.

It's not too late to get in on the premiere Flex developer conference in the world, we started it, and we're still doing it!!! :)

See everyone soon!

360Flex WebORB BOF

Excited about .NET and Flex? PHP and Flex? Maybe Rails and Flex?

Mark Piller of the Midnight Coders has your back (end system... get it?)

Mark will be holding a 'using WebORB with Flex' session on Tuesday. That session will run right into a WebORB BOF (That's Birds Of a Feather for those uninitiated types).

If you're using .NET with Flex and don't want to use XML over HTTP (Which I can tell you sucks) you should see Mark, and sit in on the BOF. The BOF will be a hands on style, you'll need to bring your laptop, Flex Builder 3 Beta if you want to build the AIR app sample, Visual Studio 2005, (warning, you have to register to DL the trial) the .NET Framework 2.0, and IIS.

If you don't feel like .NET'ing out your machine, or if you're one of the chosen people... Mac owners I mean... Feel free to still show up, the information alone will be invaluable. I plan to be at both the session and BOF as much as I can, since my current project is a nightmarish, .NET, XML over HTTP kludge-aroo!

360Flex gives you Wings!

Actually, 360|Flex won't give you wings, but Red Bull will, and if you're up late Code Jam'ing, or just enjoying the Presidential suite deep in conversation about design patterns, micro-architectures or custom components, we've got your back.

Red Bull has officially signed on to be our "Energy Sponsor"!!

They want to make sure those brave souls undertaking the Charity Code Jam challenge aren't going to run out of steam early.

They also want to make sure you crazy party animals that plan to be up late, in a dark room lit only by a dozen laptop screens, writing code, blogging, catching up on RSS feeds aren't going to wake up with QWERTY face.

Our hat's off to Red Bull for their generous support of 360|Flex Seattle!

Still not registered? It's not too late!

360Flex there's more Beta invites than two

We announced San Dimas, and Buzzword, but that's not all there is in our "thanks for staying at the hotel" welcome package. We've also got beta invites for Saffron and Aftermix. You read right...

Saffron, the uber cool AIR UML Modeling tool, by Sam Agesilas will be one of the Betas you get. If you are serious about Flex development, then your serious about tracking all your classes. The power that will be provided by this tool will be critical to many a project's success. Coming from enterprise environments, Tom and I can see immediate need for this tool.

Aftermix, the Flex and FMS based video editor from Brightcove. Tom saw a demo of this by Jeremy Allaire at Adobe Engage. Tom's the nut that likes to slack off/play around with video editors doing movies of his rugrats. He is stoked to be able to do that sorta mixing online. I just want to be able to remix Transformers, right Brian?

Those of you staying at the Red Lion who registered during the early room block period will have these two great beta invites waiting for you, along with San Dimas and Buzzword.... Don't stay up all night playing with them!

360Flex Schedule and Sessions

First off, the schedule for the sessions is here This is just for pre-show reference. Once you arrive at the show, we've got your back in a few ways:

1. Your Badge has the full schedule. That's right...when you carry your badge, you're carrying the schedule. Wonder what's going on after this session, bust out your badge and Bam! You got your answer.
2. Room drops. For those who like to have up to the morning info, we'll be slipping little envelopes under your doors nightly. This way, you can read up on what's for breakfast, lunch and dinner, along with more detailed descriptions of the sessions.
3. Big ol' signs. Lastly, we have huge signs listing what's going on in each room.

We've also been asked about picking/scheduling your sessions. While we had high hopes (even did mockups and web services!) of creating a bomb-diggity scheduler, but work and conf planning got in the way. However, our scheduler was more of a favorites tracker than a true scheduler. We do not force you to register for sessions. You just show up. If you like the session, stick around. If not, get up and go to another one. We want you to learn and have the best experience you can, and locking you into a schedule would prevent that.

For the next 360Flex conference, we're thinking of having a contest for the best scheduler app. Stay tuned to the website post conference for details on that!

If you've read the schedule and are itching to come, registration is still open. You can also register onsite next week. Either way, just get yer bad self down (or up if you're not a Canadian) here or you'll regret it.

360Flex Seattle Site Seeing Tips

Got some extra time in Seattle before or after 360|Flex?

We've got a few ideas. Things we've done and think are pretty cool. Locals, make sure if you only comment on one posting, it's this one. Give the out-a-towners some love.

(a Letterman style drum roll would sound really cool here)

1. The Seattle Underground Tour.. A must see. Did you know there's a city under Seattle? I've done the tour twice now and my wife wants to make sure we do it while we're in town this time too. It's a great little peak at the history of Seattle.
2. The Duck. I've never "done the duck" but Tom doesn't shut up about it. The Duck (there's actually a fleet of them) are amphibious transports, that are all painted up. They take groups around downtown Seattle, showing them some sites, then they drive into the sound, and off they go giving a harbor cruise/tour. They sound neat, maybe I'll make time, this visit.
3. The Space Needle. It's the Space Needle for crying out loud. It's tall, it's cool, and the restaurant rotates 360 (he he) degrees while you're eating. The observation deack, while not rotating gives you a killer view of just about everything; the city, the mountains, the sound, neighboring cities, etc. it's very cool!
4. The EMP (Experience Music Project), and the Sci Fi museum/hall of fame. To me, both are just "all right" I love Sci Fi, and the museum is kinda neat. I'm not a music maven, so the EMP didn't do a thing for me, though they do have Prince's Purple jumpsuit IIRC, that's fun to point and chuckle at.
5. Harbor cruises. There's plenty to choose from. You can go into Kirkland, and see Bill Gates' compound. 'House' stops being the right term when there's out buildings, and the lot spans acres, and the house is covering most of it. (Acres might be an exageration, but damn that thing is big!) You can also do plenty of cruises in Seattle around the sound, so take your pick. They're all fun.
6. The first Starbucks... I know, hard to believe there was a time when there was only one, but there was, and the mermaid was topless and spread eagle... don't ask how a mermaid can be spread eagle, I don't want to know, and I try not to think about it. Be prepared for a line, the "I got this mocha at the first Starbucks" thing is strong and the line long.
7. Pike Place market. Fish throwers, crowds, seafood that's still wiggling around, that's Pike Place. Great for fresh fruits, seafood, and people watching. There's also a few ethnic food places scattered between fish houses, which looked really good last time I was there. It too is crowded, so prepare yourself... the line ride at Disneyland, ain't got nothing on Pike Place in the summer.

360Flex and Project San Dimas: Excellent!

Tired of seeing the same old demo of San Dimas? Why not try it out yourself?

For those of you smart enough to register early at the hotel, you will find yourself with a little invitation to come to San Dimas, Project San Dimas that is. No longer will you be held at the whim of the demo'er d' jour. You will be in control. You will be able to see how eBay and EffectiveUI have joined forces to produce what has to be one of the coolest and most advanced implementation of AIR.

Being an eBay alumni, I may be a bit biased. However, once you take the eBay Desktop for a spin, you'll be a convert too. It's feels so nice to be free of the browser. As an advocate of eBay putting less resources on their own site and more resources on projects like this, it's great to see others be able to play.

The folks from EffectiveUI are speaking at the conference as well. You can either yell or high five 'em, depending on how much you like the San Dimas Beta. The best thing though is you get to learn from over 30+ speakers on topics just like this.

If you're serious about Flex, you have to get here pronto. In one week, all this knowledge will be flowing from the speakers to the attendees in sessions and in hallway conversations. Don't participate by just reading blog posts. Participate by being there. It's not too late. Register now.

360Flex Books galore!

On top of the great books we'll be giving away during the day as raffle prizes, we're also happy to announce our partnership with the University of Washington Book Store.

We've worked with them to provide a range of Flex 2 and ActionScript 3 titles so you'll be able to take a look and leave with some new knowledge tools for the ol' toolbelt.

The book store will be in the "chill out" room from 11am - 2pm all three days, so you'll have plenty of opportunity to take a look.

Make sure to stop by and see if there's any titles you don't have yet.

360Flex 300+, this is Sparrrrrrtttttaaaaaaa!!

Well it's not, it's Seattle but the title and this pic are for Jesse!

Don't be fooled by percentages, Tom and I guesstimated 500 for attendance. It was a bit high, but why aim low? We're almost 70% of that number, but in terms of 360|Flex San Jose, we're closer to about 90% of attendance.

Last week over 50 people registered for 360|Flex Seattle, and it wasn't because I bribed them, I'm cheap. By early Friday, we were already past the 300 mark. Like the movie, this is 300 of the world's best Flex'ers vs other conferences where the numbers are higher, but the percentage to Flexers is low. An army of this talent in one place is surely a force to be reckoned with.

Last week was the single biggest weekly surge we've experienced, and that's great! It says a lot too.

It says: Tom and I aren't lying when we say this is the conference to be at for Flex Developers.

It says: 360|Flex is growing in reputation, and the type of conference we provide is the type of conference people want.

The numbers are impressive when you consider the following: the price went up, we weren't able to make it to the east coast (Don't worry easties, you're time is coming, I promise on my .... well on my MacBook Pro), and we're close to newly, refocused MAX.

We're thrilled with everyone that will be in Seattle with us. If you're not among the 300, it's not too late to register. We'll also be doing onsite registration as well.

360Flex Community activities.... PARTIES!

We wanted to take a minute to make sure that everyone knew what was going on during the conference... not sessions, you all should know that by now. The schedule is here. We mean the parties!!

Sunday night before the conference, we're having our traditional badge pick up, except that this time there will be food and drink. Show up between 8pm - 10pm Sunday the 12th, get your conference gear, get in on the guitar hero tournament, hosted by Matchmine, sign up for the Charity Code Jam, meet other attendees, enjoy some yummy appetizers, and basically get a taste for the next three days.

Monday after we've seen Tony talk about more engaging user interfaces, and Renaun talk about the Flex logging framework, among other great topics, we'll be out on the Garden Terrace for the "HR Event" or "Meat Mixer" as I prefer to call it.
Bring your job reqs, your business cards, your funny one liners, whatever you want. This event is for everyone to meet, mingle, pick up clients, find consultants, even find full time gigs. It's also just to hang out and have a good time enjoying (a theme here) food and drinks with the rest of the folks at the conference.

Tuesday is our popular Adobe party. Last time, in San Jose, Adobe threw a great bash with yummy food! After we've learned from the masters of skinning, learned what Buzzword is all about, and found out how they built Eyejot we'll be back on the Garden Terrace for night of hanging out, swapping stories about clients, customers and code (It's not as nerdy as it sounds, we'll have beers in our hands after all :) ). Matt Chotin and some of the Flex team will be on hand for a Birds of a Feather session we're calling 'Harass the Flex PM', where you'll be able to find out what the team has in store for Flex 3, and beyond.

We'll also be having another BOF about using .NET with WebORB and Flex to create .NET backed Flex applications (I so wish we had had WebORB on my current project!!) Mark Piller will be following up his presentation with even more stuff, and answering any questions.

That brings us to Wednesday.... Sorry no party on Wednesday, as the old saying goes, "You ain't gotta go home, but you can't stay here." That applies here. We'll wrap up the conference with more great sessions like; Sam Agesilas talking about Saffron, and James Echmalian talking about Design Patterns (ever the popular talk at conferences!).

Wednesday is also our community focused keynote. We'll be giving some of the community time to talk and showcase what they've been working on. After all, who else is this event for if not the community. Lets' see what ya'll have been up to!

360Flex Can't wait until October to be "inspired"?

Come see David Coletta talk all about Buzzword in Seattle. Not only will you be "inspired" but you'll be able to say hi, have a drink and enjoy some eats with him during the conference.

Better yet: If you reserved your hotel room early, when we told you Buzzword was coming, you'll not only be getting "inspired" in a week but you'll be getting a beta invite to use Buzzword, which just went into Preview 4!

That's right, every attendee staying at the Red Lion, that registered with the hotel discount code, will be getting among other cool betas (we'll be letting those cats out of the bag soon) the Buzzword private beta.

Tom and I have been using Buzzword for a few months now to collaborate on 360|Flex Seattle, since he's in California and I'm in Colorado, apps like Buzzword are a dream come true. Once you use Buzzword you'll be saying "Email you the doc file? What's that?"

Stay tuned for more goodies!

It's too late to get in on the Welcome Box list, but not too late to get in on 360|Flex Seattle. REGISTER HERE

360Flex Congrats to Flex Camp

Ted mentioned how successful Flex Camp was (bummed I couldn't be there :( ) and we wanted to expand on that a little.

Flex Camp sounded awesome. We "double click" Ted's kudos to Lisa Ferguson and Mike Potter. Lisa helped us out with 360|Flex San Jose and Mike has been monumental in helping out with 360|Flex Seattle. Adobe does put on some great events and with people like Lisa and Mike on the team, it's easy to see why.

Another shout out that Ted forgot but that we also share in common with Flex Camp is the marketing team. Flying Logo Sisters do a lot of creative work for Adobe and 360Conferences (minus Doug's killer logos). If you need some design work, ping 'em. They take real good care of you, whether you big ole' Adobe or tiny little 360Conferences. Gotta love companies that look at for the little guys. That's how we think and we're glad we're not alone.

Tom was there and he said it rocked the 601 Townsend house. Adobe presence was strong as was the Flex Community. Adobe showed off a ton of Flex 3 features as well as the Flex Component Kit for Flash CS3 that he loves so much. Though he was sad that his growing and shrinking blueBalls where one upped by the exploding yellow balls. LOL

Two 360|Flex Seattle t-shirts even made an appearance. As you can see, the logo master himself was modelling and double fistin' Seattle style. If Tom and I were smarter, we would've sent all of our speakers shirts to wear there. Sorry guys (and Deepa). We'll be more on the ball next time. If you want to preorder a t-shirt for the conference, visit our online store. We won't be giving away t-shirts, but rather really nice Polo shirts.

Ted mentioned the startup/VC presence. Tom too said he had deja vu moments back to 360|Flex San Jose. It was a great event, with VC's and start ups actively working the crowd for developers, funding, ideas, etc. Granted no one was standing outside handing out fliers, but that's because we invited them in for beer and food during our "Meat Mixer" as we nicknamed it. The HR BBQ event held that Monday night (which will be repeated Monday night, the 13th, in Seattle) was a great party and people could meet, talk. In fact, we even had space specifically set aside to do interviews on the spot.

If you're not going to be in Seattle, you should remedy that. 360|Flex is the first Adobe Flex specific conference, and we're aiming to stay at the top of that game and remain the premier event for Flex developers, agencies, consultants, start ups, VCs, PCs, and BCCs.

Ready to register? DO IT!