360Flex where the parties be?

While on our onsite, Tom and I scoped out places to have our events each night. The hotel is always an option, but not as appealing of an option. Plus since any money we spent at a hotel restaurant didn't count towards what we had to spend, it freed us up to look elsewhere. Good thing too! We found Stats.

This is a pic of the "Fight Room" there's taps all along the wall, at each end is a nice little room, perfect for a BOF. The TVs can be connected to game decks... Guitar hero or Rockband anyone? The plan is to do all of our parties in the same location; easy to reach (read: stumble to and from the hotel), super convenient, and best of all, cool!

They broadcast a sports talk radio show from the main room during the day; That's very cool to watch, even if you don't like sports.

Thinking of missing our welcome reception? Maybe blowing off the Monday or Tuesday night parties? I'd think again. Stats is where the action will be.

Don't have your invite to the parties yet? Register now for you all access pass!

360Flex Keynote with Matt Chotin: Flex 3 - Behind the Scenes

Any conference can have a keynote about Flex 3's new features, but how many keynotes will give you a behind the scenes into how Flex 3 was built? Matt Chotin, a Product Manager for Flex, will give a never-before-scene peek into the development of Flex 3.

We all know that Flex is a wonderful platform. We also all rejoiced with the announcement of Flex 3 going open source. Many of us make our livelihood on this wonderful product.

But have you ever wondered how Flex itself gets made? Who are the faces behind the magic? Who's responsible for this feature? Who made the push to go Open Source? How much pressure does a public bugbase build?

In a keynote tailored specifically to developers, Flex Product Manager Matt Chotin goes into all the details you've wanted to know but were afraid to ask. Does Ely win arguments by pulling the "People worship me" card? Or does Deepa's beaming smile swoop in for the kill?

While we're saddened by Brother Ted's No Show for Monday's keynote, it's understandable. Engage is a small, intimate gathering with a ton of interaction. It's cool to see Adobe finds worth in the very things we as a company stand for. I went to the first Engage and it was great. Don't worry though, Ted says he's flying out to the ATL post-haste after the Engage event. Therefore, we should still be able to party with him. :)

If you're serious about Flex, then you need to be present for this keynote. You'll get a first hand view into the inner world of Flex 3. Not to mention, Matt will bedazzle us with his McCune-sponsored bling.

Register now or regret it later.

360Flex Badges, we've had 'em sorry

Doug "Bedazzler" McCune made us these sweet images a while back and we never really made an effort to share, sooo...... Here's a zip with 4 images, 2 each of "bling" and "Peach" 100px and 150px

They're for anyone; speaker, attendee, sponsor, fanboy, competitor trying to be slick, whatever. Show and share, the love for the premiere Flex/AIR event in the country!


DOWNLOAD them here.




You can also get, this sweet local flavor version from Dave.

Juan also whipped up a really stylish badge! Show your support, pick a badge, be cool! :)

360Flex there's room for more sponsors

Think you missed the boat? Think that the best Flex/AIR conference will go on without you?

You are wrong.

There's still plenty of room at the 360|Flex Atlanta sponsorship table. If you're on the fence, take a look at the sponsorship packet. Look at who will be attending. Look at the benefits that come with being at the premiere Flex/AIR Developer conference.

See what level works best for your goals, then drop us a note! Do a quick search on the 'net and you'll see, attendees love the conference. You can be forefront in their mind as making the conference happen.

Google just signed on. If they (with their index of the web) can see the value of sponsoring, what more are you waiting for?

See you there!

360Flex 480.00 is 4 days of Flex/AIR and ActionScript content

I was asked the other day, "Is $480.00 just for one day?"

It made us realize that you can never be clear enough when it comes to money.

So what does $480 buy you?

• Sunday 9-5 All day Flex 101 training from Digital Primates.
• Mon- Wed 41 sessions on all topics Flex, AIR, and ActionScript.
• 1 gb USB Thumb Drive with all presentations, sample content from Fusion Authority, our AIR survey application (No more paper sessions surveys!)
• Lunch Mon-Wed
• A welcome reception Sunday night (drinks on us!)
• a 'Big ol' Adobe party' on Monday
• a party sponsored by Universal Mind and Effective UI on Tuesday
• 40! sessions ranging from beginner to advanced, taught by greats like Anatole, Joe Berkovitz, Doug McCune, Jesse Warden, and more, including members of the Flex Team!

Not to mention, incredible hallways conversations, drinking and hanging out with the best and brightest, maybe even landing your next project or finding a person or agency to help with your next project.

If any one of those items is worth $480 to you, then register now.

360Flex Open letter to future (past) attendees

Bookmark this and read it after you attend 360|Flex, it'll mean more. :)

Hey,

Tom and I wanted to reach out to you, reminding you that 360|Flex Atlanta is right around the corner (Feb. 25-27). We're not writing you to ask you to attend, but by all means, come out and say, 'hi'. We're asking that you tell your friends, co-workers, family members, etc. about 360|Flex.

You've attended, you know what goes into our conferences. if you liked what you saw, share the love. This one is looking to be much better in every way, than last. We're very excited about what we've got in store for everyone.

At $480.00, marketing is the last thing on our expenses list. We're relying on you, the community we serve, to spread the word about the premiere Flex/AIR Developer conference. Without you, we're literally nothing.

Thanks in advance for helping us out!

Love,
John and Tom


P.S. What other company puts 'love' in their emails, and means it?

360Flex Onsite

Tom and I are in Atlanta right now, checking out the OMNI. It's nice!

The Marta is probably the easiest and I'm sure the cheapest route. You take it from the Airport to "five points" get off, take the Westbound line, 1 stop. You're there. It did take us a bit of walking around to find the hotel once we got into the CNN center, but that could be the effects of a Red eye flight.

We had lunch at Stats, which we're scoping out for one of our parties. It's a really dope spot, I think it'll be fun to party there.

We also made a list of nearby hotels, should you be staying on past Wednesday. Make sure to map them to make sure they're close enough for you, but they all should be walkable or at least cheaply cab-able.

Westin Peachtree Plaza
(404) 659-1400
210 Peachtree St NW
Atlanta, GA

Atlanta Marriott Marquis
(404) 521-0000
265 PeachTree Center Ave NE Atlanta GA

Sheraton Atlanta Hotel
(404) 659-6500
165 Courtland st Ne Atlanta Ga

Days Inn
(404) 523-1144
300 Spring St Nw, Atlanta, GA

Travelodge Atlanta Downtown
(404) 659-4545
311 Courtland St Ne, Atlanta, GA

Residence Inn by Marriott Atlanta Downtown
(404) 522-0950
134 Peachtree St Nw, Atlanta, GA

Judith Dinowitz of Fusion Authority fame, did some legwork and shared her findings,
Westin Peachtree (three blocks away)- 404-659-1400 quoted me $259 a night.
Embassy Suites (one block away) - over $200 a night. Didn't give me a definite price because he sold me on the Hampton Inn. These are suites, so they're more expensive.
Marriott - 2 blocks away - 404-688-8600 Didn't get a price.
Atlanta Hilton - 8 blocks away - 404-659-2000 Didn't get a price.
Atlanta Gateway Sheraton - 11 miles away, right by the airport - $189 a night.

The caveat, of course, is that these room rates are subject to change - and probably will go up as we get closer to the conference.

360Flex the training options grow!

We've already talked about the free pre-conference Flex 101 training, thanks to Digital Primates. Now we're also announcing that during the conference we'll have two raffle prizes from Sterling Ledet and Associates for Adobe Authorized Flex training.

The winner of each prize will receive a complementary seat in the five day Flex Training class (value of $2490.00)


Winners can also swap out the Flex training for another Adobe software training class of their choice. Take a look at their course options.

On top of these two sweet prizes, they've generously offered a 10% discount code to all attendees of 360|Flex. The offer ends 2/29 so don't dilly dally. The discount code is will be sent in an email to all Registered attendees.

Not registered for 360|Flex? What're you waiting for? Do it!

360Flex Sunday All day training

As if 3 full days of out of this world Flex/ActionScript/AIR goodness wasn't enough, we're insanely happy to announce officially that the Sunday before 360|Flex Atlanta, there will be a 9a - 5p hands on Flex 101 session with (I quote) "...a lot of content" brought to you buy the guys from Digital Primates.

Training will be in the main conference area (Specific room tbd). Lunch will be provided, but feel free to go with your mates, meet new people, catch up with old friends, even stay in class and pound erasers. OK there won't be any erasers to pound, but feel free to do what you like during lunch.

As we've mentioned before, we think the whole "Pay extra on top of your already high price of admission, for an extra day pre or post event" concept, is for the birds, so nothing special is needed to attend Sunday's trainings, simply show up, with a laptop, power cord, and a desire to 'get yo' flex on'. That's all there is to it.

Haven't registered? It's not too late! There's no rush, no early bird pricing nonsense, register whenever you like, but why not now?

The API Contest @ 360Flex: Enter and Win

This idea has been bumping around for a few weeks now, and it's finally time to announce! At Atlanta, we'll be starting what we hope will become a new tradition: The API Contest @ 360Flex

Like APIs? Like building cool apps/widgets to show off to the world? Like winning cool prizes? Then keep reading because we've teamed up with some great folks to offer up a really kick ass contest.

We've got Ribbit (you know the Silicon Valley Phone company), Ebay, and Degrafa on board!

First the guidelines. Each company (or project, in Degrafa's case) is also running their own contest. We've linked to each, so you can read their rules. Most of them are running concurrently with ours or ending just before or after 360|Flex Atlanta. If your entry fits in the guidelines of both the 360|Flex contest and another group's own contest, feel free to use the same submission for both.

What's Degrafa doing in the mix? Well, it's an example of something we're going to try and do from now on: pick a community initiative make it a contest category. Also, in the Community category is the "help us out" category. What's that mean? Well it means, Tom and I need help with apps. We're both developers full time, and then conference organizers by night, weekend, free time, passing period, etc. That means writing apps for our night gig is about as likely as me learning to Italian before 360|Flex Europe (though Tom wants to try that, friggin' nut).

We'd love it if someone were to take up the charge of building a kick ass scheduler for 360Conferences to use, it'd be open source (we'd put it up on Riaforge) and shared with any other conference or event or whatever that would want to make use of it.

So the categories are as follows.
1. Ribbit: build something cool using Ribbit's API (Beta 2 is out now!)
2. Ebay: build a widget or app or whatever using Ebay's cool Action Script API.
3. Community: Build a cool app using degrafa, build a cool app for 360Conferences, or do both. Choose your own adventure!

The Rules:
For our contest there are no rules, well there is one... it has to rock :)
Build a big app, a little app, a widget, whatever you like, we don't care. HOWEVER if you plan to enter your app in one of the other contests by our sponsors, you'll need to conform to their rules. Ebay's rules are here, Ribbit's here, and Degrafa here.

The Prizes...
Hell yeah, there's prizes. We don't expect you to build these cool things for nothing.

1. Ribbit has a WII bundle with 6 games for the winner of their category. (This is separate of their contest, so enter both. Maybe you'll win twice, and if you win this category, you'll be automagically a finalist in Ribbits, "Opportunity is Calling" contest!)
2. Ebay has an Xbox 360 and 2 games for the winner of their category. (This is also separate of their contest. Enter both to try to win more than once.)
3. Community has a PS3 for the winner of this category. Like I said, you've got a few paths to enter in this category, so go for it! (They too have a separate prize for their own contest as well)

We'll be launching a contest site soon with more details. However, we just wanted to get the word out so you can get as excited about this as we are.

Oh, one more thing, you need not even be present at the show to win. However, why wouldn't you wan to be there? Register now!

360Flex hotel info

So Tom and I suck for not posting this sooner, sorry about that.

If you've registered, chances are you already know this, but we like to make sure it's on the conference site as well.

360|Flex Atlanta will be at the OMNI Hotel at CNN Center.

Hotel Info:
Omni Hotel at CNN Center
100 CNN Center
Atlanta, GA 30303

Currently the OMNI is sold out for the days of the conference. Below are nearby alternatives.

Westin Peachtree Plaza
(404) 659-1400
210 Peachtree St NW
Atlanta, GA

Atlanta Marriott Marquis
(404) 521-0000
265 PeachTree Center Ave NE Atlanta GA

Sheraton Atlanta Hotel
(404) 659-6500
165 Courtland st Ne Atlanta Ga

Days Inn
(404) 523-1144
300 Spring St Nw, Atlanta, GA

Travelodge Atlanta Downtown
(404) 659-4545
311 Courtland St Ne, Atlanta, GA

Residence Inn by Marriott Atlanta Downtown
(404) 522-0950
134 Peachtree St Nw, Atlanta, GA

Judith Dinowitz of Fusion Authority fame, did some legwork and shared her findings,
Westin Peachtree (three blocks away)- 404-659-1400 quoted me $259 a night.
Embassy Suites (one block away) - over $200 a night. Didn't give me a definite price because he sold me on the Hampton Inn. These are suites, so they're more expensive.
Marriott - 2 blocks away - 404-688-8600 Didn't get a price.
Atlanta Hilton - 8 blocks away - 404-659-2000 Didn't get a price.
Atlanta Gateway Sheraton - 11 miles away, right by the airport - $189 a night.

The caveat, of course, is that these room rates are subject to change - and probably will go up as we get closer to the conference.

360Flex Atlanta the Schedule and Choose Your Own Adventure!

This is not the absolutely positively final schedule, as evidenced by the blank spots. However this should give ya'll an idea of the freakin' awesome sessions we've got in store for attendees.

We'll be filling in the final blanks with stuff like the "skills for the workplace idea", Adobe Flex Team members and maybe some other stuff too Muwa ha ha ha ha

The best thing about the two Flex Team spots is you get to pick the topic. How sweet is that? It's like the Choose Your Own Adventures of old. Just don't pick wrong cuz you know what happens! :) Email your topic choice to info@360flex.com or just put it in the comments below. Just make your voice heard!

So go ahead, download this bad boy, break out your highlighter, show your boss (corporate or spouse) all 30 some odd reasons you need to be in Atlanta in February!

There's two documents for your viewing pleasure:
A simple speaker to session title list

And a Day/Time Schedule

Not registered yet? Now that you see what you'll be missing, get on it!

360Flex teaches top Flex skills desired in the workplace

Today and tomorrow we'll be making posts on potential hands-on sessions for 360|Flex Atlanta. As you know, we're never content with staying the same. There is always room for improvement. Therefore, in that vein, we give the following for your consideration.

We are thinking of a hands-on session entitled "Top Flex skills desired in the workplace". The purpose of this session is helping grow developers in their worth.

You've all seen the job postings listing "Experience with Cairngorm" or "Master of OOP concepts". Others have helped the new hire get up to speed while muttering, "Gosh, why doesn't (s)he know this already?"

Therefore, let's spend a day helping one another get up to speed on these things. Whether you a senior developer who knows what needs to be taught or a junior that's tired of seeing job postings with skills you don't have, this session could benefit from your help.

Go ahead and start listing things in the comments. The more topics we get submitted, the better for us to choose from. Topics that get listed often will more likely be covered. Even if you don't have items to add to the list, voice whether you think this is a good idea or not. Let us know if you want to participate and teach a portion of the session, i.e. "This is ASDoc tags and here's how to use them."

And if you really think it's great, remember there's only 1 way to experience it: by attending the show. Hands-on sessions do not get recorded for later playback.

360Flex admission and Sponsorship for only $1000

Yup, you read that correctly. While some shows may cost you that or more just to get in the door, we think differently. For $1000, you can get a bronze level sponsorship at 360|Flex.

What does Bronze level getcha? 1 registration to the conference, an insert of your marketing goods into the conference folder, electronic copies of that material on the media we give out and your name listed on the sponsor page. (If you want your logo and link there, you need to bump up to Silver Level.)

For those of you who are independents, this is tailor made for you to plug your shop. Or if you have corporate backing, here's a way to get to the show and give a little love back to the home office.

Who cares what your company does, advertising is still advertising. Plus, you'll be advertising to the most dedicated group of Flex Developers out there. These are the forward thinkers adopting new technologies with a passion. Who wouldn't want to advertise to that group?

Full details of all advertising levels can be found at:

http://www.360flex.com/downloads/SponsorPacketAtlanta.pdf

If you don't have anything to advert, don't worry just come as a plain attendee. Register now!