CF "U-see-Charlie" -- My speaking schedule at CFUnited, and a little CFUnited history

Note: This blog post is from 2007. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.

I'm delighted to be speaking again (for the 9th year) at CFUnited, and I list below the 7 times I'll be speaking: 1 bootcamp session, 1 Scorpio session (repeated Sat.), 1 vendor session (for Intergral), a daylong class the day before, speaking at the Minimax event Tues. evening, and co-leading a BOF.

A Couple Tidbits of CFUnited History

Before that, though, I thought I'd share a couple points of history about the conference. Did you know it started back in 1999, as the DCCFUC. Back then it was a single day, single-track conference (though still with hundreds in attendance) held at the NIH auditorium in Bethesda--which I remember pointing out happened to be right across the street from the hospital where I was born, and the hall where my parent's had their wedding reception. :-)

You can get a sense of what it was like from reports about the 2000 event. The one by Eva Holtsmark happens to have a photo of the auditorium. Yep, that's me at the front of the room. :-)

It was at the 2000 conference when it was renamed to CFUN, and then in 2005 it became CFUnited. You can read more about the past events (and indeed all past CF-oriented conferences) at the nifty CFCONF site that Teratech has long run.

I'm pretty sure I'm the only person other than Michael Smith (the organizer) who's been at each of the 9 events, and it's been just a delight to watch how it's grown and evolved. Great job, Michael and company.

My Presentation Schedule

Now, as for my presentations, here they are:

1. Tues: Daylong class, "New in CFMX 6/7, what did you miss?" (you may be amazed at what you've missed)
2. Tues eve.: Minimax talk, "Hidden Gems in Scorpio"
3. Wed 8:00p: Birds of a Feather session, "Solo Coding" (co-leading)
4. Thurs 3:15: Bootcamp session, "Introducing the CF Admin"
5. Fri 8:30a: Scorpio session, "Step Debugging in CF 6/7/8 with FusionDebug or the new Scorpio"
6. Fri 12: Vendor presentation, "FusionReactor and FusionDebug - Professional Monitoring and Debugging tools for CF 6,7 and 8!"
7. Sat 8:30a: Repeat, "Step Debugging in CF 6/7/8 with FusionDebug or the new Scorpio"

Who's hat am I wearing?

You may notice that I'm doing one of the Adobe Scorpio slots. I was really tickled by that invitation. Yet I'm also speaking in a vendor slot for Intergral. Who am I working for? I work for myself. I'm an independent consultant now.

I'd like to clarify that the debugging talk was originally on FusionDebug alone, but once the Scorpio debugger was announced, I was asked by Adobe if I'd like to speak on it. I explained I already had the FD talk on the schedule, but I could change it to cover both. That benefits both audiences: those who don't move to CF8 soon can still benefit from learning about FD (since it runs on 6, 7, and 8).

And Intergral had asked if I'd like to speak (along with others from their company) about their coming updates to FusionDebug and FusionReactor. Of course, I'm happy to. They're great guys. And Adobe understands, too. They recognize that there is still a place for third-party tools, even if Scorpio may take some of their market away.

I've talked previously about why I don't think it's a bad thing for the vendors, including Webapper's SeeFusion.

I don't mind playing "Switzerland" among the various tools. Those who know me know that I've always just wanted to help folks learn about all the different tools available to solve a problem--yes, even including my days evangelizing BlueDragon.

And in case you hadn't heard, I left New Atlanta 15 months ago. I'm amazed how many people "didn't get the memo"! I still have some BD clients, but clearly I'm back to supporting the entire CFML community, and indeed I'm doing a lot of work with Adobe (more on that soon).

Finally, on hearing of my 7 sessions, someone quipped that I must be "the hardest working man at CFUnited", but that appellation really much goes instead to Michael, or indeed to Liz Frederick, who coordinates the whole thing. Thanks again to them and all the TeraTech employees and volunteers for their hard work and dedication to this annual event. Hope you'll come on out.

PS If you've not yet started filling out your schedule, note that there is an online scheduler. It's gotten a lot of praises for its usability. Note that some of the sessions (one particular room) will require pre-registration.

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