cfObjective Recap

I've been out at cf.Objective in Minneapolis this weekend, learning more than I have in quite some time at a conference. One might assume that the real "theme" of the conference would be Scorpio, but it's really only a part of what's being discussed inside and outside of the sessions.

Most of the discussions have been about making us all better programmers. Using smarter tools, better techniques and debating our philosophies has been the real "meat" of the weekend. We're talking about frameworks (current and future), helper codegen tools and our authoring/monitoring tools.

What's surprising to me (living in something of a bubble) is how many people *here* are true professionals and are dealing with programmers "back home" who, simply, aren't. The most common frustration is with developers who refuse to investigate or adopt these tools. It's perplexing that any developer would be so stubborn as to fight the one thing that could improve their code and make them a more marketable professional!

So here we are...230 top-notch CF (and Flex) developers sequestered in our really nice hotel, constantly working to improve not only ourselves but the overall perception of ColdFusion developers. It's not all preaching and idealistic expectations - the people who build the frameworks and have that incredible skill to translate an idea into code overnight are here. It's inspiring, especially so close to an expected major version release, that we're still so focused as a community on being better developers and NOT as much focused on what Scorpio can do for us.

That's not to say Scorpio isn't going to be outstanding. The features that have been announced have been widely blogged and I fully expect another round of them after Ben's presentation in about an hour. Rumor has it there will be another feature announcement, but I have no idea what it will be. I had a great chat in the hallway about CFPRESENTATION with Jason Delmore (CF Product Mgr), Adam Lehman and a couple of the guys from the Philly CFUG. I know how I'll be using it for at least one eLearning app I thought up during the opening keynote. These are the conversations I look forward to at conferences!

In terms of the value of the conference versus the expense, this has got to be the best return on ANY conference trip I've taken in at least 3 years. Jared and his crew have done an OUTSTANDING job with this event. Up to and including the food, which is a recurring conference weak spot! It's been consistently good here. Clearly the organizers know what really counts :-)

I strongly recommend this conference for folks who are looking to take the next step with the CF development skills. There aren't any newbie sessions - every single one is geared towards "our kind" and is absolutely top notch. Be here next year for sure!