360Flex all 47 speaking slots taken!

First off, we'd like to give a big thanks to the Flex Community. We had a record turn out for speaker submissions! It's a testament that the Flex Community is growing by leaps and bounds. We're just happy to have a small part in helping that growth.

It really sucks to have to tell someone their topic didn't make the cut. Tom made me do all the dirty work. Just so you know though, we trimmed the Hands-on track to just Sunday and Tuesday. This gave us 8 more session slots to fill ( 4 on Monday, 4 on Wednesday). That's how good and numerous our topics were. Now, for attendees though, the choice will be tougher!

To those that we had to decline, we don't want you to think your topic sucked. In fact, we want to encourage those that didn't make it this time to submit again next time! For those who were still working on a topic to submit, finish working on it and submit as soon as we open the gates on the next one.

If you haven't seen the schedule, check it out, it's freaking awesome!

For those that did make the cut, thank you again for being willing to make 360|Flex San Jose great. We're thrilled to have each one of you onboard. While Tom and I may "get the party started", you're the reason 360|Flex kicks such ass and why attendees show up!

Haven't registered yet? With a line up like that and 47 sessions, you better get on it, register now! This is gonna be the best 360|Flex yet. Don't be left behind "wishing" you were there.

360Flex Free Preconference Training by Lynda.com

Note: By free, we mean free to paid (registered) attendees, not free to the public. Sorry for any confusion.

We've partnered with the great folks at Lynda.com to bring you the very best free pre-conference training available. Did I mention free? Yeah? Ok just checking.

We'll have David Gassner (of 360|Flex Seattle and lynda.com DVD fame) teaching an all day Flex 101 hands on class on Sunday the 17th before 360|Flex kicks off. If you're looking into Flex, or need to brush up a bit, you'll want to make sure to sign up for this. It's "Bring Your Own Laptop" but lunch is provided! Just drop an email to info@360flex.com and say you're attending Gassner's 101 training.

We're really happy to be partnering with Lynda.com on our training. Lynda's training materials and speakers are first rate. We read Gassner's reviews in Seattle and so we know a lot of you will be thrilled to have him back and for a full day this time.

David has even graciously volunteered to a full day of pure Flex or mix in some AIR topics as well. Voice your opinion in the comments below and we'll let him know your opinion.

We're going to have some really cool things to put in our conference folder and on the USB key from Lynda, so make sure you're in San Jose to get some great content and training materials! Your client/employer/resume will thank you!

Register now before it's too late.

360Flex new look. Like our hair?

So what do you think? Many thanks to Anthony Tanaka for whipping up this kick ass design for us. Tom has been belly-aching for a while now that our site needed to change up it's look. No offense Ted :) your template has served us well for a many a show, but it was time.

Anthony stepped up and gave us this sweet ass template. Let us know what you think; what should change, what you'd improve or drop, etc. Our main goal was making things easier to find, and put more content like Speaker names, sponsors, etc 'above the fold'

Also in case you were planning to submit a design, please do. We've created a test site, for new UI's for the 360Flex blog and even the 360Conferences blog (all derived from the same original template). The test site will be the place to take a peek and see what we're planning, what we're testing, etc. BEFORE it goes live on our main sites. There won't ever be content there, so don't plug it into your readers, but bookmark it, check in once in a while if you're curious what Tom and I are planning.

360Flex The Daily Schedule

Click here for the Schedule

OK first, Tom and I apologize. We aimed to get the schedule finalized a few days ago, then we waited for an email to draw a few more, then I got sick, then these crazy three legged aliens invaded, etc. Thankfully they couldn't breath our air or something...

At any rate, here it is! We promise getting the schedule completed and posted in a timely manner is at the top of our list of improvements. Tom will have to update his eProgram Guide later, but we wanted to get this out to you ASAP.

Now that we've got the daily sessions all plugged in, we're turning our attention to an area that has suffered in the past: Birds of a Feather. We're thinking the BoFs will run concurrently with our nightly festivities, so everyone can grab some grub, a beer or two and enjoy some great conversation on a wide range of topics: meet the Flex Team, talk to the ADC team, see how some cool Flex Apps/Frameworks came to be, get the latest on Open Source initiatives.

What we need from you are ideas on the BoFs: How can we make them better? Should we have more than 2 a night? Or is 2 a night too many and having a party is enough? Let us know by dropping your thoughts below in the comments.

If you like the schedule, then head over and buy your ticket now. There's only 400 and they'll likely go quicker now that we have the schedule up. Click here to register.

Click here for the Schedule

360Flex San Jose Hotel Options

I was in San Jose last Thursday, checking out hotel options. It was fairly easy :)

The official hotel of 360|Flex will be the Holiday Inn!

1740 North First St.
San Jose, CA 95112
Hotel Front Desk: 1-408-793-3300
Hotel Fax: 1-408-453-0259
Group Code 1: Three Sixty Flex
Group Code 2: FLE

If you were with us back in the day (that's March '07, yo), you'll know there's a lounge (open until 11-ish). Once the after hours parties at ebay's Town Hall wind down, we'll come back here to cap off the evening. This is where we'll be staying along with the speakers.

We have a room block with discounted pricing of $129 per night. The link above should automatically get you the $129 rate. If you book by phone, mention the group code of "FLE" or "Three Sixty Flex". It seems that Holiday Inn's reservation system does not allow numbers for group codes, hence the dual code setup for us.

If the HI doesn't work for you, there's a few other options;

There's a Double Tree nearby but they're currently sold out for the 18th.

Also try:
Fairfield Inn
Homestead Studio Suites
Motel 6

360Flex call for beer!

If you attended 360|Flex San Jose '07, you'll know our beer selection was incredible (thanks COWPU crew!). This year as we return home to San Jose and eBay's Town Hall, we're empowered to once again select whatever beer we feel like (they'll attempt to source whatever we request).



What would ya'll like to drink? Micro brews? Hefs? IPAs? Fruit flavored stuff (not my choice, but hey)? Leave us a comment and we'll make up a list, see what we can do. Obviously those beers with the most votes will win, since we can't have 30 different kegs around the place... Well I guess we could but we'd like you guys to remember to show up the next day, so it'll probably be 2-3 kegs, each night.

For you non-drinkers, don't worry. Tom (a fellow non-drinker) will make sure your crowd is properly represented! But feel free to request your favorite lemonade or soda pop flavah! (We don't really use the word soda pop, but we didn't want those who actually do use it to feel left out...like Ryan Stewart. Only he doesn't even add the "soda" prefix, he says straight up "pop"! LOL)

360|Flex San Jose Sponsors

Would you like to sponsor?

Email us at:
info@360flex.com
Or download the general sponsor packet PDF at:
http://www.360flex.com/downloads/SponsorPacketSanJose.pdf

One thing that helps us put on these shows are the sponsors. Without their support, we just wouldn't be able to do 360|Flex. Some not only sponsor financially, but also send speakers and/or provide free giveaways.

Interested in becoming a sponsor? As little as $1K can get you in (and that includes a free ticket!). Then, if you really want to make an impression, the Diamond Level is still available. Our last Diamond netted 7 Flex developers which breaks down to roughly $2K per developer. You can beat that sort of rate for finding talent! Details for all levels can be found here.

Mad props to eBay, Simplified Logic, EffectiveUI and SavenTech for stepping up early and signing on before we even formally announced the show.

At Host Level, we have:



At Platinum, we have the following:





At Gold, we have the following:





At Silver, we have the following:





Helping out with the Thumb Drives, we have:




The 360|Flex Polo is sponsored by!






Free Sunday Training:





At Bronze, we have the following:





Partners:

360Flex.com needs a new design

Calling all designers, information architects or interaction desginers! We're thinking it's time to change up the look of 360flex.com, so we need your help. The site isn't "broken" per se, since San Jose is the 5th show to use it. However, people say info is hard to find at times, so we'd like to address that.

The main thing we'd like to get away from is the "skinniness" of our layout and the super long sidebar. We want information to be easy (and intuitive) to find.

The 3 important parts of our site are:

1. The Details - Where, when and how much the show is.

2. The Speakers - Who's talking, when and what about

3. The Sponsors - Who's making the show possible and how can we find what they're offering

If you didn't know, the site is a blogger blog. Ideally, the design should be a blogger friendly template. We won't make that a requirement though, just a "nice to have".

Any thoughts? Any friends you can think of? We're not sure how much these things cost, but we're willing to give up a free ticket as payment. Not to mention accolades in a blog post and a "Designed by: " link to you or your business in the footer.

Interested parties should drop a line to info@360flex.com with the word "Redesign" somewhere in the subject. Thanks!