The CFUnited speaker voting form is now available online. Go here to vote for me, Aaron, and Mike Harman now!

Every vote counts! This would be our first time speaking at CFUnited and would be a great opportunity for all of us. Please take a few moments to make a difference! Thanks for your support!!!

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!

Tuesday, September 30th at 7:30 p.m. at Canal Street Tavern will be the first ever combined user group event between the WPCFUG and MVCFUG. The event will be absolutely awesome! That's about all I can say right now. Just be prepared to get yourself there and have a great evening with other Adobe developers and enthusiasts.

More details to come soon! Check out the MVCFUG site for more details!

This past weekend I attended the BFusion/BFlex conference in Bloomington, Indiana, and I must say it was very well done. I was sad I wasn't able to stay through Sunday for the Flex portion of the conference, but the ColdFusion sessions on Saturday were terrific. I can't comment on the Flex sessions, but I imagine they were just as well done. Others in the community have blogged about this event already, but I would like to throw in my two cents as well.

Mike Brunt and Elliott Sprehn from Teratech were on hand with some very good sessions (I was impressed with both of them at CFUnited), and they didn't fail to disappoint. I also sat in sessions by Adam Haskell, Dan Wilson, and Adam Lehman--all well done. It seemed as though the advanced tracks were a little thin, mainly due to the fact that I think there were a lot of noobs in the beginner/intermediate tracks, which is wonderful!

This conference felt VERY organized and well put-together as opposed to some others I've attended this year. I attended Spring Break in Athens, OH earlier this year and was sorely disappointed in the entire experience. I didn't like the session tracks, the speakers (Adam H--if you're reading this--I wasn't in your session), or the keynotes, and it felt completely disorganized. I don't think it's anyone's fault necessarily, it just didn't "do it" for me this year. However, BFusion didn't feel that way at all! In fact, it was extremely well put-together. This almost felt like a mini CFUnited in a way, and it was FREE! If this event lasted a few days they could easily charge several hundred dollars to attendees (I hope they don't in the future!).

One additional note--The IU campus is absolutely beautiful. It has a small-town university feel with some ivy-league thrown in (Greek row is nice). The town is clean, quiet, and quaint. I highly recommend the Irish Lion to anyone who visits Bloomington, and definitely try the blarney puff balls.

I am so glad to finally see the CF community getting stronger with quality events such as this. I've been coding CF for almost ten years, and have seen a lot of people come and go in the community. Lately, though, it seems as though there are a lot of good people who not only know what they're talking about, but are also active in the community and want to contribute in some way. And, it's always good to network with other developers who are enthusiastic about CF and want to see the community grow and evolve. There are a lot of really great people out there, like Aaron West and Chris Hough, to name just a couple. Great seeing you guys, by the way.

As many of you know, I am co-founder of the Miami Valley CF User Group, and hope to promote many more CF events right here in the Dayton area. I would even go so far as to say I'd like to do an event like BFusion in the Dayton area--but the logistics of such an event are huge. With twin boys on the way, I just don't know if I have the time or availability. We will see!

To the BFusion/BFlex crew if you're reading, job well done! Please keep up the great work and do this again next year! We will be sure to bring all the CF guys in our department to the next event.

I am here in Bloomington, Indiana for the BFusion/BFlex conference. Unfortunately, I will only be able to stay for one day, but, I am getting a lot out of this day. So far, the sessions have been very good, and I've networked with a lot of very cool people. More to come soon.

In a couple weeks (September 6th and 7th) I will be attending BFusion/BFlex '08--a free ColdFusion/Flex conference in Bloomingon, Indiana, a mere 3 hour drive from Dayton. This is two whole days of free training from some of the top peeps in the biz and includes a free catered lunch! The only thing attendees have to pay for is gas, hotel rooms, and morning/evening meals. That's the only real catch--hotel rooms in Bloomington are surprisingly expensive. I about fell over when I found out the normal price of the Courtyard Marriot, which is the conference hotel. Even with the "conference rate" it is still pretty expensive, but I think the conference will be worth it.

Apparently, this conference first started last year and had 80 attendees, but I had never heard of it before (which was surprising to me). According to the latest blog post on their site, there are already 400 people signed up (200 is the max they have budgeted). They have started a wait list for people now in case others drop off.

I am very happy to see such a huge interest in ColdFusion/Flex so close to home, and I'm really looking forward to this event and think it will be a good one. As usual, I will be blogging and Twittering live from the conference as soon as I get there. Stay tuned!

http://www.bfusion.info

First off, I apologize for not doing wrap-up posts for days 3 and 4. Those two days were pretty hectic with running from session to session and everything else I just didn't have the time to blog. So, I am doing a full summary now.

Day three was awesome, and there were some very good sessions. The best was Elliot Sprehn's "Internals of the CF Server". A lot of it was over my head but incredibly interesting and I learned a lot about how the CF server actually does it's magic. Even Ray Camden and Sean Corfield were blown away by this whiz kid.

Day four was also great, with two sessions by Hal Helms which were just fascinating. Hal is an incredible guy--I got to meet him afterward and he is just so nice. He is one smart cookie. His "Prototyping for Smarties" session was by far one of the best I attended all week.

Overall, the conference was well done once again. However, something did seem a bit "off" this time around. I'm not really able to put my finger on it, but something just wasn't right this year. Maybe it was the new venue/conference center, maybe it was the shift in some of the community members. I don't know. I heard attendance was down by at least 150 this year. I have to say, the walk from the hotel to the convention center started to get old after day 2. I missed the days of the Bethesda center where it was just a walk downstairs from the room to the conference. It reminded me way too much of past MAX conferences where we had to walk for what seemed like miles to get to the conference each morning--lugging a backpack with a laptop.

What I thought was really weird was I only saw Ben Forta for about an hour and barely saw Michael Smith at all. The true "lynch pins" of the CF community weren't really around. However, I did see a lot of Ray Camden, Mark Drew and Joe Rinehart. I also got to meet Ben Nadel who's blog I refer to all the time--awesome guy.

The other thing that was very different (but good to see) this year was the attendance of many noobs to CF. A lot of people were just starting to use it and had little to no experience with it whatsoever. I thought that was pretty cool--lots of new blood which might breathe some new life into the community. I got to meet a great guy named Mike who I will hopefully be lifelong friends with. He currently lives in Oregon and is one of the nicest people I've ever met.

In all, it was a great experience and I am glad I got to go. Conferences such as this are essential for anyone who cares about furthering their career or just bettering themselves as a developer. Thanks to the great people at Teratech (Michael and Liz) for continuing to do such a great job with such a monumental effort. Here's to hoping there are another ten years of CFUnited conferences!

See images from the trip on my Flickr site.

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!

Eric Meyer just finished a presentation at Spring Break entitled "The Emerging Craftsman". This was a very interesting look at the role of the developer in the emerging Web. He emphasized the importance of understanding how code works as opposed to just letting the IDE (ie. Dreamweaver) do the work for you. He also covered an interesting history of the original Web and how far it has come since then.

Mr. Meyer made a great point that anyone who considers him or herself a developer should be able to write the code they want, and not have to rely on an IDE to do it for them. I wholeheartedly agree! I am one of the remaining few CF developers who still uses Dreamweaver. But, I do everything in code view and never use the design view. I still find a lot of value in using DW, especially the file management/FTP capabilities. I think that's why I still use it as opposed to Eclipse or some other IDE. Everything I write is in code view. As long as I still find value in the software, I will continue to use it. Plain and simple. If the value goes away or there are better options, then I'll utilize them.

Meyer used a great example--Chihouly (sp?). He is a master artistan who knows how to create the glass sculptures he wants created and is able to convey the concepts to the artists he has create them for him. Without that knowledge, he would not be able to do it. The same goes for Web development of any kind. To create something worthwhile on the front end, a developer must understand the back end, whether it's CSS, HTML, ColdFusion, PHP, SQL, whatever.

Eric is a very good speaker and has a lot of interesting things to say. I've always enjoyed his books and will probably pick up more.

The opening keynote covered Adobe Acrobat Connect Enterprise and how it is used. A live classroom session which spanned across the globe to Japan was demonstrated.