speakers

360Flex 2011 – Session details posted

February 2, 2011 By John

So you’ve downloaded the schedule right? Now you can download the session details doc!

If you’re not impressed by this line up… well I don’t know what would impress you :)

This is a truly bad ass line up! It’s hard to not get excited when I see the names and details for this line up! There’s a lot of conferences out there, A LOT! But I think you’ll agree this is a pretty diverse line up, not just “the regular folks who present every time” which is really part of what (I think) makes 360|Flex so great! Who wants to see the same people every time giving the next version of the talk they gave last time, etc. BORING!

Remember also! Pre-Conference training, is FREE! Included in the price of your ticket! We’ve been doing it for years, and it’s still pretty much un heard of! Why pay extra? Check out the Sunday options!

Check out the details, check out the schedule then go get your ticket!

Filed Under: 360flex, Announcements, Community, Hands-On, Reasons to Attend, Schedule, Sessions Tagged With: 360flex, Amazing Deals, Community, Denver, Flash Platform, Reasons to Come, Schedule, Sessions, 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 – Conferences aren’t dance clubs

January 20, 2011 By John

(I debated all night about whether to post this or throw it away. In the end I decided to post it. )

Yesterday there was an interesting discussion on twitter about women in technology. It started because a conference is offering 50 free passes to women, they just need to make some sort of video and send it in. Feel free to apply if you like.

This caused me to tweet this. Not to attack FITC. Shawn’s a nice guy, we’ve chatted a few times and hung out at MAX. My issue wasn’t the ends (presumably getting more women to attend) but the means. Conferences, tech or otherwise, aren’t and shouldn’t act like dance clubs. There shouldn’t be a “ladies night” approach to this issue. When taken, it’s a cheap PR stunt “Look we want women in tech, we’re giving away free passes” and doesn’t address the real issue. Who doesn’t want a free pass to a conference?

Yes as an industry, tech could use a few more women, it’s mostly a sausage fest, conferences make that fact more clear than any thing else. Treating women like charity cases however, doesn’t feel like the right way to tell women “We value your being a part of the community”

How would it go over if I said “360|Flex doesn’t have enough Canadians, I’ll give 50 free tickets to the best videos i get from Canadians telling me why they should come” I know the answer, not well. It’s borderline racist, and in the end would have little impact on Canadians in the tech community, it would possibly only have a short term effect of making 360|Flex more diverse. Don’t get me wrong by the way, 360|Flex is fairly diverse, though like all events we could use more women in attendance, we average roughly 5-10%.

Why belittle a group by telling them they can come for free, when you could encourage them to WANT to attend? Reach out to women in tech groups, offer passes to give away as raffle prizes at meetings and discount codes for members to register with. Don’t make women perform to get in? What about the ones who bought a ticket already? What about those you don’t select? What about the rest of the attendees? Because they fail to meet a specific demographic they have to pay full price?

Is the message “we want more women, but only 50, that’s enough”?

360|Flex hasn’t, and won’t be offering women free passes. We will however work with any women in tech group like Women2.0 to encourage women to attend.

Sidenote, we often encourage our sponsors to gift their unused passes (sponsorships include varying numbers of free passes) like scholarships to those who might not be able to attend. Often times (not always) a free pass is enough to make attending a conference financially do-able. It’s kind of like the old saying, you can give a man a fish and feed him for a day, or teach him to fish and he’s never hungry. I’d be curious to know how many women who get in on these “Ladies Night” style passes, pay to attend the following year(s)

See you in Denver

Filed Under: 360flex, Community, Reasons to Attend Tagged With: 360flex, Community, Flash Platform, Reasons to Come, 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 – There’s an App for that!

September 9, 2010 By John

Well, it’s in review, but still, there’s an app, and our pal Chris Griffith wrote it (again)! Don’t worry AIR for Android crowd, he’s working on an AIR version too.

Chris has done an awesome job! We’ve got favoriting now, a map of hot spots in the area. Of course the session survey is there too! Remember, each survey you submit is an entry in the raffles!

Check out this awesome speaker listing!