ColdFusion Product Manager Jason Delmore has just announced he'll be giving a session at MAX Europe in Milan on "ORM in CF9". And he'll be using Bolt to show you how much fun ORM can be!!!
Unfortunately I can't make it to MAX, so go heckle Jason for me!!!
Lately I've been doing a lot of work involving improving workflows, and in particular using ColdFusion 8's new PDF features to do just that.
A nasty example of poor workflow is in trying to place an order for a good or service, or even internally, trying to request a new computer. You typically have to fill out a number of forms (get a quote, purchase order, etc), you then have to get signatures from X number of people depending on what the good/service/requirement is and how much it costs.
Part of the workflow problem is getting hold of Purchase Order numbers, getting the right people to sign the forms (even more difficult if they aren't necessarily in the same building, or even the same country).
Even when you reach the invoice stage, finance departments aren't that keen on paying out (then again, who is) and you typically have to pick up the phone, write an email of take a walk to the department to find out why your goods/service/requirement hasn't materialised.
I'll be talking about how to improve your workflow in Munich at the end of this month at the ColdFusion Camp event.
We at Fuzzy Orange will be rolling a workflow solution into a project we are doing for the Glasgow School of Art's Centre for Advanced Textiles (CAT) department and interestingly, the guys we're working with at CAT are involved in some other workflow concepts.
Andy McDonald, a research student at CAT is working with Dr.WooHoo on this, and Dr.WooHoo is covering a session at MAX North America on using Flex and Air to Automate CS4 Workflows.
Dr.WooHoo will be talking about building cross-platform applications that integrate CS4 (InDesign, Photoshop and Bridge) into your workflow.
Working with Andy we've already been exposed to some of his ideas, which also includes a project code named "KimonoBuilder", which you can see a little sneak peak of at the following online interviews [1][2].
Knowing Andy McDonald personally, in addition to just how awesome Dr.WooHoo is, I can't wait to see what these guys come up with. If you're going to be at MAX NA, I'd urge you to attend this session. "Crazy shit", in a good way of course, springs to mind.
The sessions for MAX Europe, Milan were announced today.
From a ColdFusion perspective it seems even scarcer that 2007, with just the 3 sessions dedicated to ColdFusion. There's another 3 sessions that may feature CF, but they are more general and will either talk about other server side technologies as well, or will focus on Adobe as a whole.
Lab wise, we have 3 focused on ColdFusion, with another that will undoubtedly touch on it (it's being given by Ben Forta).
Lastly, there is one post event training session that covers CF (which costs an additional €300 I believe).
In all, it's a very poor allocation of sessions, especially in comparison to MAX NA in San Francisco, where I believe there is 17 dedicated CF sessions, plus the labs, etc.
Additionally, at this point there is only one European based speaker talking on ColdFusion. Admittedly, not every session has a speaker assigned to them yet; ColdFusion Powered Ajax and Architecting ColdFusion for Scalability and High Availability being the ones in question, however it does give the impression that either there is a lack of European based ColdFusion speakers (though maybe few submitted themselves), OR the team behind MAX Europe rejected the talks.
Having spoken at MAX Europe last year I was hoping to be chosen again, but alas neither of my talks were picked; ColdFusion Server Monitoring and Improving Your Workflow with ColdFusion and PDF. Such is life.
There's still plenty of good talks in regards Flex, AIR, LiveCycle, and a healthy number on the CS products so everyone's mileage of the sessions is going to vary.
From a CF perspective, and that's my baby, what with me being a Certified Developer, Certified Instructor and Community Expert for CF, plus Fuzzy Orange being a Solution Partner and Authorised Reseller specialising in ColdFusion... it's a poor showing.
I've not yet bought my ticket, as I was waiting to see if I would be chosen as a speaker (hint to MAX organising team - let us know if we've not been picked. Cheers!) and it's kinda looking doubtful that I will actually make it, mainly due to the fact I get married November 8th and my honeymoon could well conflict with the conference. My lovely missus had agreed to postponing the honeymoon if I was chosen as a speaker, but as that hasn't happened.....
Maybe I can talk her into going to San Francisco :)