Win A FREE Ticket To CFUNITED 2009

I'd definitely love to attend 'Developing and Marketing A 2.0 Startup' By Todd Sharp. As a fellow entrepreneur, I would love to hear how Todd built up a successful business with CF as the back end. Taking a concept from idea to successful execution is a phenomenal accomplishment.

I would be super interested in attending the "OO Development", I was recently starting to learn java and how to use oo methodologies in my coldfusion work but unfortunately my position was eliminated at my job so my educational learning from my coworkers was cut short. I learn best by talking with fellow developers and I think this session would blow my mind with the amount of topics covered and give me that leap forward that I need. Thanks Ben!

I'd like to go to the ColdFusion (advanced) session. I'm still sorting things out and would like to get a better understanding of what I can do and make projects happen without the stress of trying to figure out "where do I go from here?"

I would like to attend "Introduction to OO modeling and design" with Brian Kotek. I don't have a sophisticated computer engineering degree, so I want to learn as much as I can about OO concepts, especially how to design them before trying to implement code right away.

I'd like to attend "Do more work in less time: Become an Automation Rock Star!" Having recently stood-up our first svn repository at work, we're still struggling with getting files automatically deployed to our development/qa environment. This has been a big change in the team's development process, and it would go a long way to keeping people happy if I could better understand Ant and other automation tools and share that with my team.

Advanced Custom Tags
Presented By Ben Nadel

And to get my picture taken with you so I can make it on your website... why else would I go?

Seriously though this is a rocking CF event last year was my first time and I was impressed.

I normally reserve my bucks for MAX but I think CFUnited may become my "Technical & Networking" event.

BTW thanks for what you do... I hope to see you there.(when I win)

Posted this to my blog too. =)

CFUnited is the best Coldfusion Developer's conference out there I think. I've been to several CFun/CFUnited confernces in the past. I skipped last year so I could go to MAX (and then had the MAX conference pulled out fron under me), and was scheduled to go to CFUnited this year but had that pulled out from under me too due to budget cuts at the University. So I'm not going. At least not on the University's budget. And not on my own budget if I have to pay for my own registration.

But thanks to Ben Nadel, I might yet have a way of going.

I supposed to look at the list of topics and pick one that I really want to attend and why. This is extremely difficult because there are a multitude of topics that I'd like to go to. You see, I have two jobs. I have a "real job" where I work 40 hours a week and get salary and benefits at Duke University. And then I have a freelance job with Classcreator.com, a web site tool for planning class reunions. Most of the topics that would interest me are related to Classcreator - scalable applications, geolocation, performance tuning, APIs, etc.

I think, if I have to pick one, I'll go with Geolocation with Coldfusion. We're still building out Classcreator, but eventually we're going to need to target products and services towards a user's physical location.

Or maybe Design Patterns and Coldfusion - a good generic topic for solving problems. And let's not forget the SciFi BOF Session (or is it ScyFy)? We must discuss how we felt about the end of Battlestar Galactica, or maybe we can talk about the upcoming Stargate Universe!

Does it count as an entry if i can't make up my mind?

BTW if I win a ticket I'm going to have to share a room with someone!

I would like to learn more about Flex, and what better way to start than by learning "How not to code Flex Applications" by Jeff Tapper?!?

Ben, I'm the only commenter with a Gravatar! BTW, my post reads weird cuz it's my own blog entry, copied/pasted here :)

Flash Catalyst
Ryan Stewart

Looking forward to Ryan's wizardry and magics... anxious to keep tabs on future Flash/Flex tools.

I would like to attend "Design Patterns and ColdFusion: Exploring Object Based Programming". To be honest I haven't jumped on the OO for coldfusion bandwagon and would really like to know what all the hub-bub is about. As one who has been a cf developer for awhile (since 4.5 on Linux) , I have seen different frameworks embrace this methodology and as they have, so has business. In some it was a painless switch in others it almost cost them their profitability. I have completed 3 Java programming courses in my college classes, I love Java's use of objects and OOP, So I can easily see the allure to bring some of that home to CF. However most old timers I know personally decry OO frameworks as just a means to complicate code and protect jobs. I'm a little more opened minded about it, but I definitely have a "show me" attitude. Education eliminates ignorance, so someone show me the light already!

Sorry, trying to get it to quit emailing me by un-checking subscribe to entry and re-posting...

Session: ColdFusion (advanced)
Reason: I have a fever. And the prescription...is more ColdFusion.

I'd like to see Design Patterns and ColdFusion: Exploring Object Based Programming. I think the CF community is really lacking a strong set of CF domain-specific design patterns and a common language to use them. I'm also very interested in seeing what patterns other people are using to architect their systems.

Also, anchor tags are restricted in your comments?

Session: ColdFusion and jQuery: Perfect Together
Reason: I have just recently come upon the Greatness that is jQuery within the last year. I usually shied away from libraries in the past because they always limited your flexibility eventually. A colleague had been so kind to show me the light with the unlimited potential of jQuery. This session will be great to better learn how to integrate the two together and take your applications to the next level.

I would attend Extending CFCs' Power by Hal Helms. Hal is the man on CF OO issues and a great teacher. I would love to attend a session by him, and get greater insight into expanding my Coldfusion development skills.

I would love to learn more about Flex and Object Oriented programming. The Advanced ColdFusion topic would be a great benefit too. Well, as a matter of fact all of it looks great; it would be hard to decide!

I'd love to attend the Advanced SQL for ColdFusion topic. You can greatly benefit from getting SQL to do some of the heavy lifting!

I'd like to attend all Advanced Coldfusion tracks, mainly Facebook apps with a ColdFusion backend.
Unfortunately, after 5 consecutive years of attending CFUnited, this year my company has shrunk the budget and I was cut out.

I'd like to attend Understanding Application.cfc
This is a topic I'd really like to wrap my head around properly.

While narrowing it down to one is quite near impossible, the session highest on my list is the "Coldbox" by Luis Majano.

I'm getting ready to due a major re-write of an application and I'm almost positive I'm using Coldbox as the framework, so I'd like to learn as much as possible about the framework before I start the process.

Fortunately, if I actually get to go to CFUnited, I won't have to pick only ONE. That would almost be more torture than not getting to go at all!

I think the session I *need* the most is Shlomy Gantz' Hack Proofing ColdFusion, and even that isn't just one session; it's a two-parter. (So, to really narrow it down to one, I guess it would have to be Part 1.)

I have worked on improving the security of my code, but I know I have lots to learn, and security is a very important place to start!

Thanks, Adobe and Ben.

Building Scalable Web Applications with ColdFusion- Face it, sometimes we build apps quickly, we get it done quick so we make some shortcuts. Then later it comes back to haunt you. I had a flash hype for a couple months and then later i had so many problems with it for many different reasons. It worked some days and then it didn't on others. Now when i have a flash app out there, i just want to redo it all in html format and sometimes i do. Whether it be because of scalability or not, the point is i want my stuff to last today and in the future.

My topic of choice: "Creating Public Facing API's"

As the writeup states, I really do think this is an important topic to cover because it is the direction we're all heading. There must be so much to consider when building these, but I'll bet some considerations fall by the wayside due to deadlines and ignorance for many developers and shops out there.

As a university with a Web Development Bachelor of Science program, we at Full Sail University should be experts on this to lead by example. I want to know more!

I would most want to go to ColdFusion 9: Working w/ MS Office, Sharepoint and Exchange. The reason is that my organization has made a huge commitment to SharePoint; and I think there is an opportunity to carve out more of a space for ColdFusion here if we can capitalize on SharePoint integration.

I would like to attend "Coldbox" by Luis Majano and really learn how to use this framework.

I'd like to attend "Model-Glue:Gesture for Fun and Profit" by Dan Wilson, because this sounds right up my alley. I'm working on a fun and "profitable to users" website with my friends, and MG sounds like a great framework for my project. Having been laid off in 2005 and seriously under/un-employed since then, I try to maintain my programming skills by reading all I can find on the web and working in my CF sandbox. Oh, and I hang out in the #coldfusion channels and I'd get to meet Dan Wilson in person . . .

I'd like to attend ColdFusion Builder: Getting Started (Bring Your Laptop)
Presented By Bhakti Pingale and Dipanwita Sarkar It should be a great session about CFBuilder.

ColdBox -- I've heard a lot of good things about the framework and would love to learn more about it.

I would love to go to ColdFusion 9: Advanced ORM. I haven't had a chance yet to use ORM and I'm hot to learn some. More ORM! More ORM, please!

I my god, I want them all. But I'd love to see how CF balances out under load, so "Dynamic Load Testing with Webserver Stress Tool" would be my #1.

AIR Messaging: Integrating AIR, BlazeDS, and ColdFusion

I've got all of this ColdFusion skill and some great ideas for desktop apps. ColdFusion to AS3-powered AIR apps with some Blaze sounds like a recipe for bad assery.

I would attend "Advanced Custom Tags", of course, presented by the one and only BEN NADEL! lol...I'm actually a hack with my custom tags and this would be good for me to listen in on.....this would be a great opportunity to attend CFUnited for the first time! Thanks for the chance!

Picking Performance Tuning ColdFusion: Before the JVM would be the easy choice.

It's my job to keep everyone's super freaky, advanced, hyper-awesome-o cold fusion code running at peak efficiency/non-crashy-ness all the while others known as "users" try any and all fire power to bring down the applications in a spectacular red and white flaming ball of plasma.

CFGroovy - Groovy for the CFML Developer

We're using Groovy in our Java development and I think it would be good to use it in our CF development also. Having a commonality will help bridge the gap between the Java only and CF only developers.

I would like to attend: RAD Object Oriented CF Development

From what I have seen most CFers still look at Design Patterns as a black box area. With the introduction of ORM in CF9 I feel like this is going to change. Learning what patterns can be used and how in your CF code can only enhance what we are doing. Plus anything to make development faster is always loved by our bosses!

Definitely the "ColdFusion 9 & Flex 4: Application Development" classes. I'd really like to get up-to-speed with all the new features in both CF9 and Flex 4, and how they integrate together.

I would like to see the "Thinking Outside of the CF Box" presentation by John Paul Ashenfelter.

I have never seen John Paul in person but I did download his presentation on testing a couple of years ago and it completely changed the way I view testing for ColdFusion development.

I have recently noticed a lot of trends with non-CF development tools and languages intersecting with ColdFusion development, from Ant to Groovy to Git to Mylyn. I think it would be great to hear someone like John Paul show us how "outside" development technologies are evolving and how they may change how we do ColdFusion development in the future.

I'd like to attend the ColdBox session because although I'm using it, I know I'm not taking advantage of all it's features.

I'd like to attend the 'Introduction to jQuery with ColdFusion' session by Ray Camden because I would like to learn how to integrate jQuery better with my ColdFusion applications.

I'd like to attend the 'Introduction to jQuery with ColdFusion' session by Ray Camden because I would also like to learn how to integrate jQuery better with my ColdFusion applications.

I'd like to attend the 'iPhone Apps + Adobe ColdFusion' session by Josh Adams because I've been diving into building iPhone apps but have yet to expand beyond just using objective-C. I'd love to see how I can have my apps interact with CF.

Ben,

Being able to attend CFUNITED and to be able to attend the ColdFusion (advanced) lectures would astonish me.

It was "Love at first application", when I began using ColdFusion. Being a senior in college and commuting back and forth to my internship most days have vastly improved my confidence and knowledge of Web Development, but if I was able to attend the biggest ColdFusion conference, that would be an honor and a point in my life I could easily say, I would never forget.

Not too mention, my boss wouldn't know what to say if I told him I was able to go!

Win or lose, thanks for the help and I'll see you on twitter!

Thanks,

Michael Stone

I'd like to learn more about Creating Public Facing API's, as well as the Ajax topics.

I would love to attend the session 'Living in the Cloud'. Since my father first introduced me to Coldfusion when I was in middle school I have always been interested in web computing. As we progress more and more towards pervasive computing on the global level, the scalability afforded to us from the cloud-computing model will provide us with the on demand resources we need when we need them and hopefully give us the ability to save some resources when we don't. My goal in attending the class would be to help me in my pursuit of both saving green in terms of money and being green in terms of resource management while creating rich and powerful applications with the ease of development that we have all come to love about Coldfusion.

I'd like to attend 'Data Visualization with Flex' as I've been doing more of that lately.

I'd like to attend "ColdFusion 9: An Introduction to ORM". I've had very little exposure to ORM but I like what I've read so far about CF9's implementation.

Ok really just one, I think I will be glued to the seat.

Topics in dire need.
"ColdFusion 9: An Introduction to ORM"
"ColdFusion 9: Advanced ORM"
"ColdFusion 9 & LiveCycle ES: SOA Development"
"ColdFusion 9 & AIR: Developing Offline Applications"
"Design Patterns and ColdFusion: Exploring Object Based Programming"
"Extending CFCs' Power"

Why cause I have a child's mind and the need to learn :)

Enjoy!!!

Thanks a lot, Ben!

I am so taken back about how many people want to go to CFUnited but won't get to go for some reason or another.

Please please, if you want to go and you want to cut a deal, I'm all ears.

Email me. There's not a lot of time left!

What would be nice if CFUnited would offer a online deal too. I know, I know conferences are about communicating with other developers, but it would be a nice choice if you can't make it for whatever reason.

yeah some Adobe connect preso's would be worth paying something for, for sure. It seems like there were a ton of blog posts last year with presentations etc, but it seems to be "mums the word" out there this year...maybe I'm not plugged into the right frequency this time around :-)

@Ben,

Having the presentations is a huge plus, but being able to see it live would be pretty nice (even ask questions or post comments etc). Just a thought.