For 2009, Liz Frederick at CFUnited is doing a call for topics and speakers, and Aaron Wolfe, Mike Harman, and I are going to put in some topics we'd like to present at the conference this year. We will be entering six topics, listed below. You can vote for one or all of the topics you think would be a good presentation.

"Have a Site that Forgets Users More than the Stock Market Changes? - Cookie/Session Problems Solved" – Aaron Wolfe and Lance Smith Is your site getting lots of timeouts or are users complaining they are continuously logging in? Are you ready to learn how sessions, cookies, and different browsers really work in an application? Look no further. In this track, we'll start with the basics of sessions and cookies and go all the way through to more advanced session management techniques. We'll demonstrate how to deal with pesky persistence problems, debug those problems, and ultimately prevent unwanted session timeouts. We'll also show how session management can make or break an application and detail how to prevent major headaches by using server logs and other tools to your advantage.

"Got an SLA problem? ColdFusion Enterprise's Load Balancing has the Solution so You Can Get Some Sleep at Night" – Aaron Wolfe and Lance Smith Tired of emails/phone calls at 3 a.m. on Sunday morning telling you the server is down? Rest easy, ColdFusion Enterprise's load balancing, sticky sessions, and session replication features will come to the rescue. In this session, we'll show you the advantages and pitfalls of using these features without any expensive network hardware. We'll also show you how to properly load balance multiple ColdFusion instances while getting the best performance you possibly can by using web server stress testing tools. If you ever need to admin a ColdFusion server and like your personal life, you won't want to miss this session!

"Inheriting Legacy Applications – Dealing with That Application from 1999" – Aaron Wolfe, Lance Smith, and Mike Harman Just about every developer has had to deal with that "10 year old site" that's been online since the dawn of the Internet (or at least your company's Internet department). We've all been there. Many of us deal with legacy applications in our every day job--full of spaghetti code, no code formatting, no cfc's, bad or no security, or all of the above. In this session you will learn how to stop wrestling with those old sites and get them under control. Not all of us have the budget, time, or luxury of building sites from scratch in a fancy new framework, and we'll provide the knowledge to make old applications better.

"Not Just Another Security Presentation" – Aaron Wolfe, Lance Smith, and Mike Harman A lot of talk has been going around lately about site security, yet many developers don't feel they have the time or ability to add the necessary extra security to their sites. Yet, every day sites fall victim to SQL injection, cross-site scripting and other common and not-so-common hacks and attacks. With each passing day, hackers find new ways to bring even the biggest and best sites to their knees. In this session, we'll cover some simple yet effective methods of using ColdFusion to your advantage to make your site more secure in an increasingly more dangerous Web.

"Handling Errors with Error Handling" – Aaron Wolfe and Lance Smith Most developers know the importance of having error handling on their site. But, many do not know how extensible error handling can be and the control they have over it with the power and ease of ColdFusion. In this presentation, we'll show you how to use Application.cfc and custom error pages to their full potential to handle custom errors, missing pages, and other common site errors without using that cause massive emails in your Inbox.

"CF User Groups – Worth the Investment" – Lance Smith and Aaron Wolfe Have you thought about starting a CF user group in your area, but aren't sure how? The benefits of managing a user group are numerous. User groups receive many opportunities single individuals normally don't, including access to training, materials, software, and reduced conference rates. While it might seem like too much work for some, it is well worth the effort. We'll show you how to go about starting a user group in your area, what is involved once you start a group, and how to attract and keep members. We'll also cover how to avoid common pitfalls that many failed user groups tend to fall into.

We will post a link to where to vote as soon as it's available. Remember, the speaker(s) who get the most votes will win something extra special--possibly another free CFUnited ticket. If you're interested in attending the conference for free this year, be sure and vote for us!

Today has been an interesting day...we woke up to a phone call from our boss about an application issue. Apparently, one of our sites was having _major_ issues, and no one knew what the problem was. We finally realized it was a bad index on a table, and after re-indexing the problem was immediately fixed.

The sessions for today were great--learned a lot and got lots of notes. I'm anxious to try out some of the stuff I learned.

We attended the special event at the Crime & Punishment Museum tonight. It was a good time. The place is a little weird, or morbid, I guess I'd say. It almost seems to "celebrate" crime. But, I still ended up buying some goofy souvenirs including a refrigerator magnet which is a must have.

Well, the first day of CFUnited is over...I can say it was a good one. I honestly wasn't impressed with this morning's keynote, and the venue hasn't been that great for me, so CFUnited was starting out a little frustrating today. I was starting out with mixed emotions.

But, I must say my sessions were wonderful today. I've already learned a heck of a lot, and I'm really looking forward to some of the sessions coming up. The classes and instructors are great. Thanks to all of you instructors out there--you guys (and ladies) are doing an awesome job! Keep up the good work.

I also attended a great BOF session about extending beyond the CF Community. I met Dee Sadler and Ben Nadel tonight--both great people. I am so glad to be making so many connections this year.

I'm looking forward to what the rest of the week has to offer.

Oh yeah--just found out I'm going to Oshkosh, Wisconsin next month for work. Never been there, so it should be interesting!

In less than 24 hours I'll be on a plane to DC for CFUnited '08. I'm very excited to be able to attend again this year. This is by far one of the most relevant conferences in regard to what I do, and I love the CF community. I'm looking forward to meeting up with some old friends and meeting new people for the very first time. I've met a lot of very cool developers via Twitter and Brightkite and can't wait to see them in person.

The keynotes and sessions are always great, and the social events before/after are fun, too. I always find myself wanting more and more knowledge with each session. I never get tired of the shop talk. Call me a nerd.

If you're a CF developer in any way, shape, or form and can afford it (or get your company to pay for it), go! Don't walk--run and sign up now!

In response to this blog post on the CFUnited blog, I am answering some questions about the upcoming CFUnited conference.

What are you looking forward to most?
The chance to learn some new things, meet new people, and visit a far away land.

Which speaker will most likely end up on your camera?
Ray Camden/Ben Forta

What do you plan to do outside conference time? (Clubbing/Bar Hopping, DC Tour, DC dinner cruise, Museum, Fine dining, Live Band shows, etc.)
I have no idea. I'd like to do some sightseeing and see some places I haven't been to before. I'd like to find some quaint local establishments--those are always the hidden gems.

Fill in the blank: I will mainly be around the ______ booth.
ThinkGeek. Definitely.

Do you have a new project you are working on and will reveal it at CFUnited?
Though it's not _extremely_ exciting, my new personal site is up! If you're reading this, you're on it!

CFUnited 2008 is rapidly approaching. I have finally nailed down my schedule, which I've made available for download. If you're cool enough to be going, you might want to be cool enough to hang out with me in the same sessions I'm in ;-) This is still slightly tentative at this time.

My main focus will be (obviously) CF-oriented tracks, with an emphasis on more advanced tracks this go round. I was a little disappointed at the lack of Flex/AIR tracks this year, but I'm still not doing much with that technology yet, so an emphasis in ColdFusion works for me.

Stay tuned for more CFUnited news to come. I'm going to try to blog about the things to see and do in DC, and the joy of attending CFUnited--the best ColdFusion conference in the world!