If you're an Atlanta area (or even Macon / Augusta / Chattanooga area) developer and want to learn more about how a developer sees user experience design, make sure you come to the Atlanta Flex User Group meeting tomorrow. I will be giving my presentation:
It's guaranteed to make you laugh, cry, or angry. I'd like to say it's entertaining, but that's just a bit more shameless self-promotion than I'm willing to do (at this time). I think that this presentation is well suited to any type of developer (not just Flex) that wants to learn more about what exactly user experience design is. I've heard, even Sledge Hammer! might be making an appearance.
We're just over a week away from Flash Camp Phoenix and tickets are almost sold out. If you're interested in going, but have been on the fence, all the sessions are posted here.
This past Friday, I gave a presentation, "UX For The Development-Minded" at RIA Unleashed. It went really well, but I have to admit, the audience got short-changed. I actually cut a lot of content out, about one third, because it was orginally written to be a longer form presnetation for 360|Flex. Well, I'm happy to say that you can see the entire presentation, unabridged, at 360|Flex San Jose in March of 2010 because I just got notice that I will be giving the full presentation. Let's call this version the "director's cut."
Time to digest another CFUnited. I didn't go last year because I was not too happy with the event after 2007. It had gotten too kitschy and too, for lack of a better term, silly. This year though, it seems things have turned around. I think we have to attribute that to the conference being under Stellr's guidance.
Overall, I'm very happy with how the flex tracks turned out. Great speakers, great content. The venue was good and it was a bit spread out, but that's how it is. The content in all the sessions was very strong. That's something that has been lacking in years past; the content was too rudimentary. This year, however, it's come back around. I think that competition from 360|Conferences and cf.Objective() has been taken to account and the content has been upped, in concequence.
The high point, for me, was the end of the demo mania when Doug McCune brought the house down. Now, note the irony here, one of the biggest names in the flex community brought the house down to close the show at CFUnited.
If you missed Doug's video (a mashup of the Adobe OSMF and FlexLingo), here it is:
A few days ago, we were having some internal discussions about Flash Camp Atlanta. We had gotten a couple of topics in, and oddly enough, they all had a common theme. So, through part of our discussions, we decided that we were going to have a theme for Flash Camp Atlanta. The first theme we came up with, "80's day", had been done before and was a bit tired. The second idea we had was much better: "Enabling The Convergence of Art & Design With The Flash Platform".
A couple of things inspired this theme. Firstly, this document, by Christian Saylor, has been a huge inspiration in everything we do at Universal Mind. Go ahead, take a minute or two and read it; this post will still be here for you to read. Second, Ben Stucki submitted a topic along these same lines (session descriptions are coming soon). So what does this mean? It means that we are going to strive to have all of our topics tie into this common thread through the day. We've got a great littany of speakers lined up and it's an event that you won't want to miss.
I'm also working on lining up a great venue (not Stats, it's been played out) for the community get together the night before. Also, Delta Airlines announced a slew of cheap fares (as low as $80 roundtrip from Charlotte, NC) today that are valid for the dates of Flash Camp Atlanta.
Flash Camp Atlanta is a full-day event featuring some top industry
experts on the Adobe Flash Platform from both inside and outside Adobe.
Come advance your Flex and Flash skills, meet members of the Adobe team
and network with local companies and fellow developers. Sessions will
be geared towards developers and designers with little to advanced
level of experience with Flex and/or ActionScript. There will be plenty
of giveaways, raffles and swag (and lunch).
In addition to a great Main Session (9am-5pm) there will also be a special Introductory Session (8-9am)
for developers who are new to the Adobe Flash Platform. This special
session only costs an additional $15 (until July 30th and $25
thereafter). This session will get these developers up to speed
aspects of the Flash Platform like Adobe Flex, AIR, and Flash Builder.
This friday, Flash Camp Orlando will be one of two launch events for Adobe. There will be big news regarding the Flash Platform announced at the event as well as free software including CS4 Master Collection and FlexBuilder. If you're interested in attending, head over to www.flashcamporlando.com and sign up today.
In addition to the Adobe announcements there will be great sessions on AIR, Flex, and UX.
You can walk in to the event, but if you sign up today, your seat will be guaranteed!
This Wednesday, if you're in the Atlanta area (that means you too Chattanooga, Macon, & Augusta), come on out to CFUnited Express. You'll get to see great topics on ColdFusion, Flex, & AIR, as well as hear from some great speakers, myself included. It's a great price point and a great lineup. Finish up your taxes, then come on over to CFUnited Express!
If you were thinking about coming to FlexCamp Miami, but thought you were too late to buy tickets, don't fret! You can walk up the day of the show and still buy tickets. There is a ton of great content and the event will be hosted by yours truly. So, hurry over and register now, or come on over the day of the show. There's still time left!
Make Up Your Mind
Chemistry
Fire Escape
Threesome