360Flex – Speaker Kevin Hoyt

August 31, 2010 By

Have you met Kevin Hoyt? Not only is he super tall, he’s an awesome guy, beer and cigar lover, and Adobe Flex evangelist! Yup that’s right, if you want to ask him anything, he can answer it! Because he’s that great, and more awesome!

Kevin is another long time supporter of 360|Flex. Ever wanted to see an AIR app dispense beer with RFID sensors? Kevin’s done it!
Q: How long have you been working with Flex?
A: Since Royale (code name of Flex).
Royale with cheese? Ah Macro… Adobe code names, gotta love ‘em. If you’re not familiar with the code name royale, well let’s say there wasn’t a code name before that. I think :)
Q: What do you like most about Flex?
A: Productivity.
Agreed. It’s hard to argue that you can’t whip up some truly awesome apps in short order. Sure big projects take a while, but if you need a tool that shows videos as a demo reel app for your business, it’s cake, and that’s where Flex shines. Big apps all take time, but the small things, those are where you want to excel, and Flex does!
Q: What 1 session are you most excited about seeing at 360|Flex DC?
A: Flexerific Visual Effects, Leonard Souza
That should be a good one! Flex comes with so much great stuff packed into the framework, but even better, you can take it in your own directions!
Q: What about 360|Flex DC are you most excited about?
A: Location. Location. Location.
DC is an awesome city! We’re so excited to come to the east coast. There’s so much great Flexing taking place!
Q: Do you prefer ninjas or robots?
A: Ninjas that build robots.
Unionized Ninjas? Great, now I’m gonna have nightmares!
Q: What is one thing you’d like to see improved in the Flex Framework?
A: Size matters – make it smaller.
You mean like Reflex? :) There’s a session for that :)
Q: Is there someone you’re hoping to see at 360|Flex DC?
A: Denver representing!
Denver, and CO in general will be representing big time!
Q: Lastly, what would you tell someone who was on the fence or hadn’t heard (I know, they’re out there though) of 360|Flex to get them to come?
A: MAX is a great all-around Adobe conference. FITC is design inspiration. If you want to go deep on Flex, then 360 is where it is at!
That’s a great point! There’s tons of events, and they’re all awesome in their way. 360|Flex is the one to come to if you’re looking to go deep with Flex. No fluffy marketing “what’s new” sessions here, it’s advanced, and it’s gonna send you home more knowledgable than you arrived!!!
Don’t miss out on the only exclusively Flex/AIR/ActionScript event in the world, yes world! Register now!
Filed Under: 360flex, Adobe MAX, Community, East Coast, Reasons to Attend, Sessions, The Speakers Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

360Flex – Speaker Samer Sadek

August 31, 2010 By

This 360|Flex will be Samer’s first time presenting and we’re happy to have him. It’s always great to have new people in the community step up to present. Whether new to presenting or simply new to presenting at 360|Flex, it’s always fun to meet new people who’ve decided to share what they know with the community.

Q: How long have you been working with Flex?

A: 3 years

Q: What do you like most about Flex?

A: Flex allows us to easily create a rich presentation layer to our applications.  The Flex framework provides the components to build stateful clients that enhance the user experience.  Also the fact that Flex communicates easily with ColdFusion is a big plus for me.

Couldn’t agree more! The CF to Flex integration is killer! Obviously both being Adobe helps, but anyone looking to start from scratch, go CF and Flex, you won’t be sorry!!

Q: What 1 session are you most excited about seeing at 360|Flex DC?

A: If I had to choose just one, it would be Michael Labriola’s talk, “Flex 4 Components from the Firehose.”

Mike Never disappoints. It’s always amazing to see him present. He’s one of the most knowledgable developers I know, plus he’s an all around awesome guy!

Q:What about 360|Flex DC are you most excited about?

A: The fact that it is in DC.  Flex is a big resource for the government, and this will be a chance to shine a spotlight on the Flex community in this area and the work they are doing.

We’re really excited about being in DC and coming to the east coast finally. It’s gonna be an awesome event, the best the east coast has seen, just wait and see!

Q: Do you prefer ninjas or robots?

A: I know this is my setup to say something funny and witty, but I have nothing.

Robots don’t laugh, so it’s ok.

Q: What is one thing you’d like to see improved in the Flex Framework?

A: Flex 4 and Flash Builder fulfilled most of my wishes. I guess a faster compiler would be nice. If this would include AIR, it would allow for a better offline/online synchronization process.

Off/online sync would be awesome if improved! It’s nice now, but there’s so much room for improvement, and that’s such an awesome and powerful feature!

Q: Is there someone you’re hoping to see at 360|Flex DC?

A: Everybody from our Capital Area Flex User Group

Awesome! Hope to see them there!

Q: Lastly, what would you tell someone who was on the fence or hadn’t heard (I know, they’re out there though) of 360|Flex to get them to come?

A: You should.  The sessions levels vary from intro to expert, so you will learn a lot. 360|Flex is a great opportunity to mingle with other developers from all levels, find out where the technology is going, and learn about what is the latest and greatest in the Flex world.

Well said! You can’t get this kind of stuff anywhere else. Sure you can get some of it somewhere, but you’ll never get this collection of sessions from this collection of community experts, ANYWHERE. Register now, don’t miss this 1 of a kind east coast event!

Filed Under: 360flex, Announcements, Community, East Coast, Reasons to Attend, The Speakers Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

360Flex – Speaker Leonard Souza

August 30, 2010 By

Leonard Souza has spoken at several 360|Flex about several things, and we’re really happy to have him back in DC speaking about “Flexerific Visual effects” on Tuesday.

Whether you’re a developer at a company with designers or not, this session is a great place to get an idea of how to build out visual effects in Flex, and exactly what is and isn’t possible to do.

Q: How long have you been working with Flex?

A: Since the early days of Flex 2, which was about 4 years ago. I had been a heavy user of flash for years and really needed a stronger development platform.

That seems fairly common, those in the community that were more developer than designer, flocked to Flex from the Flash IDE.

Q: What do you like most about Flex?

A: Its ability to integrate extremely rich visual interactions with enterprise conventions. I have never seen a better tool for this. It has been engineered from the ground up to empower developers and designers in any vertical.

My first experiences with Flex were building rich front ends to enterprise (very NOT rich) systems. Flex really is in a class of it’s own in that space!

Q: What 1 session are you most excited about seeing at 360|Flex DC?

A: Doug McCune’s keynote, which will be worth the price of admission alone (no pressure Doug, just sayin’). Ben Stucki never disappoints as well.

I’m actually really excited to watch Doug keynote! His presentation at RIAdventure really inspired me, and I knew then that he’d be an awesome keynoter, and just what 360|Flex needed to galvanize the crowd and send them out into sessions ready to kick ass and take names.

Q: What about 360|Flex DC are you most excited about?

A: The people. I have so much fun at this event it’s practically a vacation. The D.C. area is one of my favorites as well.

Awesome! I think so too! Once the planning is done, and we’re all together, it’s time to relax, learn and enjoy the best of the community!

Q: Do you prefer ninjas or robots?

A: Well that all depends on the context. Am I in command them? Or battling them? If there are pirates involved, then I have no comment.

Pirates are a major wildcard, more so if they’re ICE PIRATES!

Q: What is one thing you’d like to see improved in the Flex Framework?

A: Hardware acceleration and multi-threading (couldn’t keep it to one). This angers me so that I dare say I cannot speak further of it. It makes me want to unleash a legion of ninjas and robots.

HA HA

Q: Is there someone you’re hoping to see at 360|Flex DC?

A: Honestly, if my liver lasts long enough to have a conversation with one or two people all of my hopes will be met.

When it comes to 360|Flex and Livers, it’s like Robots and Ninjas!

Q: Lastly, what would you tell someone who was on the fence or hadn’t heard (I know, they’re out there though) of 360|Flex to get them to come?

A: This is a great conference for those who want to take their programming/interaction skills to the next level. You also get to hang with amazing people. It is frustrating when you have no one around to talk to about what you do (which may be the case for those in more remote positions, etc.). This is a conference where everyone is dying to talk all night about it. It is very inspiring and rejuvenates those creative urges that have been forcibly shoved aside from God knows what.

For a lot of people 360|Flex is their chance to meet folks they’ve only met online, and re-connect with friends from around the globe! It’s a great time and the chance to learn from the best in the community… well sometimes we think we charge too little :) Go register before we change our minds!!

Filed Under: 360flex, Community, East Coast, Reasons to Attend, Schedule, Sessions, The Speakers Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

360Flex – The Charity Code Jam is On!

August 30, 2010 By

Want to build an app for a great Charity? Want to do something bigger than you? The 360|Flex Charity Code Jam is a great way to do that!! Thanks to Adrian Pomillio for pushing forward and locking in the details.

Check out the full details here. For those that don’t know here’s how the Charity Code Jam works.

Monday morning at the keynote we kick off the Jam. We’ve got a room in the hotel, and from Monday morning until Wednesday morning anyone who wants to help simply shows up and contributes code, mentorship, DB skills, design, whatever is needed. The Game Jam doesn’t stop for breakfast or dinner, and often attendees who participate, aren’t seen until its done.

This time the Charity we’re building an app for is the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. You can find out more about this great Foundation fighting children’s Cancer here (PDF).

We can’t say enough about how awesome the Code Jam is. It’s so great to help support non profits, by building software they most likely wouldn’t be able to afford otherwise. In previous years we’ve built apps for Food Banks, and other non profits, things that have helped them and their constituents immensely.

Build up some software Karma points, help out during the Code Jam, there’s no other event where this happens, and it’s part of what makes 360|Flex such an awesome event (if we do say so ourselves). Register now!!

Filed Under: 360flex, Announcements, Charity Code Jam, Community, East Coast, Reasons to Attend Tagged With: , , , , , ,

360Flex – Speaker – Michael Labriola

August 27, 2010 By
Michael Labriola is a long time (like from the start!!) supporter of 360|Flex and this time around he’s pulling double duty doing a solo talk (Flex 4 Components from the Firehose) as well as one with his partner in crime Jeff Tapper (Writing Testable code.)
Michael helped us out a ton during 360|Flex Europe too, keeping us from international incident, and shepherding us towards awesome meals. He’s a great guy and you shouldn’t miss his sessions!
Q: How long have you been working with Flex?
A: 1.0 Alpha and Betas
I remember the Flex 1.x days and the crappy Dreamweaver port called Flex Builder.
Q: What do you like most about Flex?
A: That I can do whatever I want… With some effort.
So true. Love that the hard stuff is easy, and sometimes a few easy things are hard, but not too often!
Q: What 1 session are you most excited about seeing at 360|Flex DC?
A: Anything with Doug gets a vote. Keynote or not.
I can’t wait to see the Monday keynote. Between Christophe talking Mobile AIR, and Doug, talking about well… I don’t know yet, but it’ll be epic.
Q: What about 360|Flex DC are you most excited about?
A: Trying to make John laugh.
LOL, that’s not hard
Q: Do you prefer ninjas or robots?
A: Ninjas (Bionic ones++)
That’s a scary thought! They’d be stronger, better and faster. HOWEVER they’d make weird noises when they jump, probly give them away.
Q: What is one thing you’d like to see improved in the Flex Framework?
A: Tests. Interfaces. Decoupled dependencies…. It’s all one thing: architecture.
Fair enough. :) Here’s hoping Flex 5 answers some of that LOL
Q: Is there someone you’re hoping to see at 360|Flex DC?
A: Jessica Biel. She’s coming right?
Damn straight! Just saw her registration come through this morning even.
Q: Lastly, what would you tell someone who was on the fence or hadn’t heard (I know, they’re out there though) of 360|Flex to get them to come?
A: Seriously. If you are committed to learning Flex, there isn’t a better chance. Come. Learn. Get better at what you do. Become a rock star.
Couldn’t agree more!! Whether you’re getting started with Flex, or you’ve been at it for years, you’ll leave DC with more than you came with, we promise! Register now! Don’t forget to book your room at the hotel! It’s gonna be grand!
Filed Under: 360flex, Community, East Coast, Reasons to Attend, Schedule, Sessions Tagged With: , , , , ,
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