Upcoming Events: CodeMash, RIA Jam, Flex-TurboGears Jam

It’s hard to believe that 2007 is almost over. It’s been an amazing year! Thanks for reading and contributing. I’m looking forward to another great year in 2008. And it all begins when I hit the road the second week of January for CodeMash 2008. I went to CodeMash last year and really enjoyed the conference, especially the water slides. :) I’ll be speaking again at CodeMash 2008 about Adobe AIR and Flex.

The week following CodeMash there will be a RIA Jam in Ann Arbor. The RIA Jam will be hosted by SRT Solutions and Bruce Eckel. My friend and co-RIA-conspirator, Josh Holmes, will also be there helping people learn Silverlight while I help people learn Flex and AIR. In February Bruce will also be hosting another Flex Jam in Crested Butte, Colorado. The Jam in February will cover Flex, TurboGears, integrating the two and hopefully some exploratory work into integrating Flex with Lift, the new Scala based web framework. I will be there helping people learn Flex and undoubtedly learning some new things myself.

The Jam and Open Spaces style events that Bruce hosts are my favorite events of the year. The events in Crested Butte are always so refreshing. While most conferences keep me indoors for days at a time, Bruce’s event encourage attendees to get outside, into open spaces. For me this helps to relax my mind which makes it much easier to learn and focus. At the Crested Butte events in the summer we hike for a few hours every day and in the winter we ski / snowshoe. These events are also incredibly affordable since there isn’t a high cost associated with putting them on. And as a bonus attendees to the Jams will receive a free copy of Flex Builder 2. If you are learning Flex, no matter what level, you will learn more in these few days than you will at any other conference. They are hands-on events so you actually learn through experimentation and peer interaction.

I’ll be at many other events in 2008 and hope to see many of you somewhere along the way. Until then have a happy and safe holiday season.