Hands-On

360Flex – Why choose the Flex platform?

February 18, 2010 By Tom

It occurred to me that while we tend to hype the show, there’s always an understood sentiment: Flex is the way to go. However, it dawned on me that some companies and/or developers are just now jumping on the Rich Internet Application bandwagon. They may think that Flex is an option, but they’re not going to commit to 360|Flex until they know for sure. Therefore, I’d like to point out a few reasons why we chose to do 360|Flex vs 360|AJAX or something like that.

1) Flex is fun: First and foremost, Flex is fun. If you ever tried to build a RIA in the Flash Authoring IDE, you know it was an exercise in futility. Sure, sure, it could be done, much like surgery can be done with a machete, but it was far too painful for the masses. Flex, especially with Flex/Flash Builder, makes the experience so much better.

2) Flex saves time: The framework does so much for you, right out of the proverbial box. One of my favorite things when teaching Flex to new people is to start a new project and add this single line of code:

<mx:Button label=”Main Button”/>

Then I run the application and show them how it’s a fully functional program. I show them how there is already built in a hover state, down state and normal state. All of this built-in to Flex, with no extra effort on your part.

3) Flex is easy: By this, I don’t mean you’ll be a Flex Superstar within a week. Instead, what I mean is that Flex is a language that’s easy to come to from other scripting or programming languages. For instance, that line above looks like HTML, because MXML is a markup language too. ActionScript, the scripting language of Flex, is based on ECMAScript, which makes it instantly familiar to JavaScripters. Flex is also Object-Oriented base, lending to itself design patterns that are familiar to others from the Java and other programming languages.

4) Flex doesn’t limit you: Most programming languages don’t limit you per se, but some make it tough to go beyond what the language and/or framework was meant to do. This is not the case with Flex. I’ve seen some pretty amazing edge cases that push the envelope of what the Flex framework was meant to do. That’s the great thing about Flex. It was made to be used right out of the box, which is good for some apps. However, the framework is also one big lesson on how to do anything your heart (or realistically, your Product Manager’s heart) can desire.

These are just a few reasons we became Flex developers back in the day. It was also one of the reasons we created this conference. We realized the potential that Flex had, and imagined the great things that would come of bringing everyone in the Flex community together. The outcome of the shows have been greater than anything we could’ve imagined. Frameworks, books, companies, businesses, friendships, etc. have all been born at 360|Flex. It’s a testament to the power of a unique community around an amazing product.

While 360|Flex does have some of the most advanced sessions on Flex, we haven’t forgotten about the newcomers. We always have a (free to paid attendees) Flex 101 session on Sunday before the show. This is a full day of beginning training for those new to Flex or those needing a refresher before the conference. You bring your own laptop and we have amazing instructors like Garth Braithwaite that teach you the basics of Flex.

If this all sounds great, then definitely come out and join us. Register here for what’s sure to be a great time in San Jose. Because if the framework is fun, you can imagine how much more fun the community is!

Filed Under: Business, Community, Hands-On, Reasons to Attend, San Jose, why Tagged With: Reasons to Choose Flex, Why Flex

360Flex – In pictures

February 10, 2010 By John

I posted about what you do and don’t get, and we’ve done more posts than I can count on the overall vibe, and the parties etc. So I wanted to take a minute to just post some pictures. I grabbed these off of flickr.

That’s just a few. Some 1200 pics are on flickr right now for 360|Flex. We’ll get that number higher :)

Hopefully that shows you a little bit of what we’re talking about when we talk about the people, the parties, and everything else that makes people say “Here’s what I love about the 360Flex conferences: even if you didn’t attend a single session it’s worth the time and money to attend. The conversations with other developers in the hallways, at lunch/dinner, at the bars in the evenings is just as educational and of course more fun” Dan Florio

Imagine if you attended some sessions ;)

Filed Under: 360flex, Announcements, Community, Groups, Hands-On, Reasons to Attend, San Jose, Sessions Tagged With: 360flex, Community, Countdown, Flash Platform, Hands-On, Reasons to Come, San Jose, Sessions, speakers

360Flex – Get your New Year’s Resolution on

January 12, 2010 By Tom

It’s that time of the year.

You know, the one pictured in the image. It’s a time where the gym population magically balloons. The times when streets fill with walkers and joggers (at least out west). It’s a new year and, thus, resolution time.

Aside from the health one, there are two resolutions that are pretty popular.

Learn something new
Get a better job/position

Now, let’s see how it is that 360|Flex can help you fulfill those resolutions.

Learn something new

This one should be fairly obvious, but just in case let us reiterate some points.

There are over 40 sessions at the next 360|Flex, lead by industry leaders and devs in the trenches just like you
2 Keynotes – Adobe always delivers a great keynote, often with big news for the Flex community. The community portion of the other keynote is always an amazing glimpse into projects that blow your mind and inspire
Free Hands-On Sunday Workshops – That’s right, a lot of shows make you pay for your conference pass then extra for hands-on workshops. At 360|Flex, you’re regular admission ticket lets you into the Flex 101, Mate and Flex/Hardware workshops. Just bring your laptop
Panels – New to 360|Flex this year are panels. This will be your chance to hear from many experts at once and pick their brains
Meet the Flex Team – We usually have a Birds of a Feather where you can pick the brains of various members of the Flex team

Get a better job/position

Whether you’re tired of your current job or just want to move from Junior Flex Dev to Senior Flex Dev at the same company, we can help:

Highly technical sessions got finally get you over that hump from Junior to Senior
The parties offer an opportunity to meet and interact with many Senior Developers as well as those from contracting or full-time realm. Meet your peers, ask for advice and learn from them.
Hallway chatter is always amazing at conferences and 360|Flex is no different. Many people come simply for the hallway chatter, where very heavy discussions happen on the fly.
People who are looking for Flex developers know that they can find developers at 360|Flex. Learn about opportunities and the market to better help you decide to stay with your current job or to possibly seek out another

As you can see, 360|Flex can help avoid the “Nothing’s changed” feeling that usually accompanies resolutions. Registers now and make that first step in achieving your goals. ”Help us, help you.” :)

Filed Under: Hands-On, Reasons to Attend, why Tagged With: Better oneself, Increase Skills, Learn Flex, New Years Resolution

360Flex – The Sunday Offerings are incredible!

November 19, 2009 By John

For those of you that know us, you know we like to offer all sorts of hands-on classes the Sunday before 360|Flex, completely free to attendees.

360|Flex San Jose might actually raise the bar :)

For those new to the community, or looking to brush up on their skill we’ve got Adobe Certified Instructor Garth Braithwaite doing a full day Flex 101 – Intro to Flex workshop. If you’re new to Flex, or just want to bone up before the main event, Garth’s session is the one for you. Garth is awesome!

We’ve also got Justin Mclean Doing a full day of hands-on connecting Flex to Arduino. Yeah that’s right, take Flex and AIR, out of the computer, off the web, and play with some Hardware! This session is for those looking to do things like Kevin Hoyt will be talking about on Monday (Flex + Fidgets = BEER!). This is new type of training for us, we’ve never done a full day of training around hardware! It’s gonna be awesome.

What else?

Sid Maestre will be doing a half-day workshop on the MATE framework, if you’re curious about MATE, this is the workshop for you. MATE is a great framework, for your Flex apps, you should check it out if none of the other workshops are for you!

We’ve got more to announce, but I don’t want to blow your mind :)

Filed Under: 360flex, Announcements, Hands-On, San Jose, Sessions Tagged With: 360flex, Business, Hands-On, Reasons to Come, San Jose, Schedule, Sessions, speakers

360Flexpress training, coming up fast, Great line up!

October 27, 2009 By John

Tom posted some details for day one, over on the 360|Flexpress site, it’s really shaping up nicely. If you’re in the valley, or nearby and are looking for somehing to boost your game, or even break into Flex development, this training is for you.

You’ll come away at the end with so much incredible knowledge, it’ll take days to process it all. Ok maybe not days, but hours for sure!

Tom Ortega, and Thomas Burleson are both great instructors, and crazy smart developers. Oh yeah and Keith Sutton of SilVaFUG will be doing some hands-on intro to PureMVC at the end of the day saturday.

We’re also working on lining someone up to do some Mate Hands-On.

If you’re looking to level up your skills, don’t miss 360|Flexpress in San Jose. Hands-On training, by pros.

Oh yeah, and Apress is sponsoring the training, we’ll have some great Apress/Friends of Ed Flex books to give away each day! Don’t miss it!

Filed Under: 360flex, Announcements, Books, Hands-On, San Jose, Schedule Tagged With: 360flex, Amazing Deals, Community, Reasons to Come