Aug 19 2008

Is This The Future for ColdFusion and other Conferences?

Posted by Mike Brunt at 1:40 PM
6 comments - Categories: ColdFusion | JRun-J2EE

 

What I am thinking about in this post is a possible future for conferences which are part of an overall product line, such as ColdFusion and Flex-AIR are a part of the Adobe range of offerings. I am couching this in the context that Adobe has an overall conference, (MAX) yet there is some sort of groundswell at the community level that this is not sufficient or focussed enough to adequately address the needs of a community. Of course, this pre-dates Adobe's acquisition of Macromedia as CFUnited, CFObjective and WebManiacs-FlexManiacs can attest to. I should get to the point here but I will finish this section by saying that all these conferences, including MAX, are expensive to attend.

 In just over one week there will be a free conference in Bloomington IN at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, details are here; BFusion, BFlex 08. I wonder what the effect would be if we could spread this sort of event around the USA in educational institutions such as Indiana University? As Adobe prepares to make ColdFusion free to students and faculty should we not also be thinking of trying to spread free conferences throughout the USA?

Comments

Mike Henke

Mike Henke wrote on 08/19/08 6:27 PM

I think focusing in on a product line conference still only hits the people who know about the product. You should look into BarCamps. See my post about my experience last weekend in Omaha and I am going to another this weekend in Des Moines, IA. Adobe should start sponsoring the local bar camps and have a speaker or two attend. Maybe from a local user group or even flew someone in. http://tinyurl.com/5uk8my
Mike Brunt

Mike Brunt wrote on 08/19/08 6:51 PM

@Mike thanks for your comments and pointer to BarCamps I was not aware of them before and will certainly follow this up.
Sharon

Sharon wrote on 08/21/08 11:33 AM

I will help with the Coldfusion User group. If we could have regular online meetings and group meetings with a speaker also. Let me know how I can help.
Mike Brunt

Mike Brunt wrote on 08/21/08 2:10 PM

@Sharon thanks for your offer of help, the current delay is caused by not having a regular place to meet and also the fact that I spend around 60% of my time on the road.
John Wilker

John Wilker wrote on 08/27/08 2:10 PM

I feel there's a middle ground, yes, those events you named are all expensive, Tom and I do 360|Flex and I think most would agree, it's not in the 'expensive' camp.

I like the barcamp idea, but the main problem is it relies on a more or less volunteer army. Being free is great, but also means the event is at the mercy of sponsorships if it's going to offer food, or SWAG or anything at all for that matter. Add to that, not all schools are free, some charge for their facilities.

All that said, conferences do cost too much. The knowledge and networking gained for 3 days off work, and dropping a grand or close to it, usually isn't worth it. Tom and I make sure (as much as we have the power) that everyone leaves 360|Flex thinking, 'That was totally worth $480'

SOrry I know that sounds kinda schilly for my conference, but wanted to interject that not all conferences are expensive
Mike Brunt

Mike Brunt wrote on 09/07/08 6:59 AM

@John, I am sorry I overlooked your comment here and I can say that 360 Flex always elicits very positive comments whenever an event is mentioned and there is no doubt that the price delivers great value for money in comparison to others.

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