The Speakers

360Flex 2011 – Who SHOULD NOT Come

March 3, 2011 By John

So we’ve done “who should come” posts before, and they definitely apply to every 360|Flex. I thought I’d take a minute to point out who shouldn’t come to 360|Flex 2011.

You shouldn’t come to 360|Flex if…

You’re “so busy” you don’t need to learn anything new or meet anyone new.
You don’t want to establish and build a network of awesome colleagues that could land you your next gig
You’re such an expert with Flex, AIR, AIR for Android, and RIA in general that surely there’s nothing anyone else can teach you.
you’re so awesome at Rock Band, playing has just gotten old to you. :)
You have no interest in the latest and greatest announcement from Adobe, RIM, Intel, and more
You’d rather spend 4 days at home not enjoying the great Denver weather and being surrounded by crazy smart people
You’d rather spend more money on another event with fewer sessions, fewer speakers and far less ‘awesome’

Can you think of any i missed?

Filed Under: 360flex, Community, Reasons to Attend, Sessions, Sponsors, The Speakers Tagged With: 360flex, Amazing Deals, Community, Countdown, Denver, Flash Platform, Reasons to Come, Sessions, speakers, Sponsors

360Flex Speaker Chat with Jeffry Houser

February 28, 2011 By John

Join us this thursday for another 360|Flex speaker chat! Jeffry Houser, the brains behind the Flextras components will be joining us to talk about his session at 360|Flex 2011, custom components and more.

Save the date!

March 3rd, 11am MTN time. RIGHT HERE

Don’t miss out on the best Flex/AIR developer event around. Often immitated, NEVER duplicated :) See you in Denver!

Filed Under: 360flex, Announcements, Community, Reasons to Attend, The Speakers Tagged With: 360flex, Amazing Deals, Community, Countdown, Denver, Flash Platform, Reasons to Come, speakers

360Flex 2011 – The Schedule

January 27, 2011 By John

We’ve completed (mostly) the selection process for speakers, and we’ve got the schedule PDF completed!

This tweet really hits home how we feel about this year’s schedule.

We sent the speakers the schedule last night for a sneak peak before this post went live.

This tweet came after that email went out, and MADE my night!

We’ve started work on the AIR app and the mobile apps, so keep an eye out for those announcements, but for now, go enjoy the PDF!

This will be an awesome 360|Flex, don’t miss out on the best Flex/AIR event of the year! Register now!

Filed Under: 360flex, Announcements, Community, Schedule, Sessions, The Speakers Tagged With: 360flex, Community, Denver, Reasons to Come, Schedule, Sessions, speakers

360Flex – Speaker David Ortinau

September 10, 2010 By John

David Ortinau is.. well a great guy! He’s smart as hell and doing 2 sessions at 360|Flex DC

The First session, Tuesday at 10:50a ‘The Invaluable Freelance Flasher’ will cover what you need to know as a freelance developer. The second session, Wednesday at 1:30p ‘How to Scale Your Freelance Biz and Maximize Your Profit.’ will supercharge your freelancing!

Q:How long have you been working with Flex?

A: Since about the time Flex 3 came out. I was starting my affair with Rails and picked up Peter Armstrong’s “Flexible Rails” book figuring I could combine my new passion with my longtime Flash platform love. Sadly, I’ve still not been able to use both on the same project.

Yeah we still see a lot of Flex/CF and Flex/Java combos, not so much with rails… yet we hope.

Q: What do you like most about Flex?

A: Oh, I’d probably have to say data binding was a revelation coming from old school Flash development. For me, Flex sings when building data centric apps with lots of services, forms and visualizations. I still do a lot of pure AS3 apart from the Flex framework, so I’m constantly on that boundary trying to decide which way to go with my projects.

By far one of my favorite features (i think i’ve said this before, LOL) is databinding. So easy and so, ‘damn why hasn’t it always been this way?’

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

A: Gah, just 1?! This is 360Flex, are you kidding asking for just 1? I’m definitely looking forward to Antonio Holguin’s talks, especially the mobile UX session.

LOL Yeah it’s easy to say “All of them” much harder to pick a single one from such a great line up!

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

A: The people. At past 360s I’ve talked to people writing Flex consoles for telco systems, deep sea mapping, HVAC GUIs, games, an app that tell you when to pee during a movie, and tons more. I guarantee attendees will have at least 1 eye-opening conversation during this conversation that make a significant, measurable impact on their career over the next 6 months.

Q: Do you prefer ninjas or robots?

A: Based on the movies I watched throughout the 80s, the hours I practiced catching arrows shot at my chest by my younger brother, the throwing stars, the sneaking through the woods on my tip toes…. I’m gonna have to say Ninjas.

Much like the spanish inquisition, no expects NINJAS!!! I hope the arrows were blunted :)

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

A: The file size. I’d like to only incur the weight for the bits I use.

That’d be nice. Oh wait, kinda like Reflex :) Check out Tyler Wright’s session

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

A: Clinkinbeard. He never replies to any of my tweets; so what if we’re complete strangers. Hi Ben!

He’s shy.. If you threaten to fire him for not properly supporting his open source projects, he opens right up…

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: I know how hard it is to consider taking time away from project deadlines to travel and attend a conference. Despite what it feels like, you’ll survive and your projects can still get done. You can even scrum before morning sessions. And what the 360Flex experience will do for your career far outweighs the impact of a few days on your current workload.

That’s what we try to tell everyone :) 360|Flex is just a week away! Don’t miss out! You’re career will thank you! Register now!

Filed Under: 360flex, Community, East Coast, Reasons to Attend, The Speakers Tagged With: 360flex, Amazing Deals, Charity Code Jam, Community, Countdown, Flash Platform, Reasons to Come, speakers, Washington DC

360Flex – Speaker Tyler Wright

September 2, 2010 By John

If there were wonder twins of the Flex community it’s the Wright brothers! (Let’s not dwell on which on is Jayna)

Whether working on Reflex (Wednesday at 2:50) or something else awesome, Jac and Tyler are always up to something cool!

Q: How long have you been working with Flex?

A: In Flex? since Flex 2 and ActionScript 3 first came out – 3, 4 years now? In Flash? Eight wonderful years! ;)

Nice. A Flash convert :)

Q: What do you like most about Flex?

A: I love the ease of Binding and the MXML workflow in all it’s state-filled, style-enhanced glory!

Yeah there’s so much that looks hard, but is easy and impressive about Flex. It’s great for building really kick ass things that normally might not be worth the effort!

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

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

A: The city is choice, the sessions are exciting, but I am most excited for the amazing concentration of Flex talent I can associate with at 360|Flex DC. There are some seriously talented devs presenting & attending and, as devs tend to be, they are surprisingly down-to-earth and happy to talk to anyone about cool coding and upcoming projects.

So true. If there’s someone who’s helped you out on Flexcoders, or elsewhere, they’re likely speaking at 360|Flex, and if not, will be in the audience!

Q: Do you prefer ninjas or robots?

A: Ha haaa … my preference on ninjas or robots will be revealed in the concluding session of 360|Flex DC: A Component Set Called Reflex. You don’t want to miss this presentation, or the results of the timeless question of ninjas vs robots.

NICE! Well played, and now I can’t wait (I was already excited about the session!!) to see the session!

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

A: Besides seeing it “become more like Reflex” :P (not really true), I’d like to see the Flex Framework continue to grow more compatible with Flash and AS3 libraries and workflows. Though not an insignificant task, unifying the Flex and Flash community will go a long way in strengthening the Flash Platform and its ecosystem. Which task becomes more and more important as other technologies try and defame our work.

Very very true! No small task, but one worth undertaking!

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

A: Is there someone I’m not excited to see at 360|Flex DC is a more pertinent question. I’m sad my brother Jacob won’t be making this conference, and John Lindquist has been conferenced-out this year as well. But it will be great to connect again with the wise Ben Stucki, the seemingly ritalin-induced Jesse Warden, the not-a-bum Jesse Freeman, David Ortinau, Nate Beck, Bruno Fonzi, Paul Robertson just to name a few. Um, mostly John Wilker, that goes without saying of course…

It does go without saying but it’s nice to hear nonetheless!! And yeah the conference is pretty much a who’s who of the Flash Flex community.

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: 360|Flex is an investment with the highest return on personal growth in this industry. Between highly educational sessions and talented peers you’ll befriend your work will become more productive and your knowledge well-rounded as you explore for 3 days the areas of your work you didn’t know existed. Don’t miss this conference, don’t miss the experience, the fun, the learning and the growth. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention how much fun it is, 3 straight days of geeking out without deadlines or distractions.

Agreed! The return on Investment is huge, and we try to make sure that point get’s across! If you’re looking to get a new job, get a promotion, get new projects, or just get new knowledge, there’s no place else you’ll get it. Don’t miss out on this much awesome! Go Register! Do it now!

Filed Under: 360flex, Community, East Coast, Reasons to Attend, Sessions, The Speakers Tagged With: 360flex, Amazing Deals, Community, Countdown, Flash Platform, Sessions, Washington DC