Two years ago I blogged about having attended a conference completely outside the 'geek crowd' and how much of an eye-opening experience it was. Since then, not only have the marketers' forecasts become reality (Twitter going big and them taking advantage of it) but I've also been fortunate to attend Higher Ed Camp Philly.

Higher Ed Philly was a great experience. I was really surprised at the great blend of technical folks and educators (from both public schools and universities) in attendance. The effect this had on the sessions was tremendous and has completely changed what I want to get out of attending a conference. In short, it was nothing like what I expected...it was way better!

From the perspective of a tech person who generally attends tech conferences, the interaction among the attendees was totally different. Instead of constant hardcore technical discussion, there was a balance of talk about tools and practical application. The educators' minds worked quite differently from ours but in a really valuable, interesting way. I found myself wanting to attend more of the educator-focused sessions simply to further understand their way of looking at the things we create as the starting point for their work to take off.

Consider this: we create, sometimes in a vacuum, but always with limited feedback. The educator must somehow translate the practical utility of whatever it is we created into something that the average human can understand and then apply to their own want or need. Their entire job is to act as our forgotten intermediary; a good number of them spend most of their time trying to keep other teachers up to speed on what's possible. Their (presumptive) reason for attending was to get a head start on that process.

Every session I attended included elements of show and tell, the educators talking about what they see as useful, and the techies trying to offer suggestions on the spot. We live to solve problems, and the challenges put forward by our fellow attendees were some of the most creative, interesting ones I got to think about all week. I think that's awesome and should stand as a strong message to all of us that we have to get out of our niche and spend more conference (unguarded, relaxed, non-work) time in a similarly blended community.

I bet we could have taught some of those teachers and instructional technology people at Higher Ed Philly a couple lines of CFML and made them dangerously powerful. I bet they could teach us a few things about how to understand methods of learning and made us dangerously effective communicators and trainers. Together we were kicking around ideas that wouldn't have naturally evolved from either camp alone and improved ourselves in ways we never expected.

...

Later today, the final CFUNITED conference will get underway. I'll miss it for all of the reasons that the attendees from any year share. But in retrospect, and through the lens of this new outlook on conference participation, I realize that the best learning I ever did there was from the informal chatter of people talking about their challenges, their daily realities, in a group of people we'd all like to consider colleagues. We talk about problems that are technical (solvable) and political (not always). We bring differing skills but a common understanding of CFML to the table and have a great time learning from one another.

CFUNITED has served us well as the table around which we gather, but tables also make us focus inward. In its absence next year, I hope to see the regional events (like CF.Objective, RIA Unleashed, NCDevCon and BFlex/BFusion to name a few) continue their excellent growth right alongside unconferences and meetups that blend our technical proficiency with people from other disciplines in the same space. We can't lock ourselves up in our own tech-specific shows all the time and expect to grow our community and grow our skills in a career-savvy way. The ColdFusion community, while awesome, will need to look outside the realm of those who work with competing technologies and instead turn towards people with complementary skills and interests to evangelize CFML as a platform.

Use the end of CFUNITED as a reason to expand your participation in new directions. Show off what your CF skills can do while scratching someone else's itch. And once you've done it, come back and share with everyone else. It's a big world, and we're all students of everyone else.

See you in Virginia!

Keep an eye on (and contribute to!) the topic wiki for the Higher Ed Barcamp happening in Philadelphia late this spring or early summer.

I'm especially interested in this barcamp as the topics are sure to span everything from emerging technology to legacy integration, admissions to alumni relations. There's a reason we're in to the whole higher ed world -- it's so broad that there's always something new and interesting to work on.

So...even if you don't necessarily work in higher ed, you are almost certainly a product of it. What would you apply from your day job to the operations of your alma mater to provide a better learning environment, customer experience and lifelong connection?

Share your suggestions on the higher ed barcamp wiki.

I don't know about the rest of you, but the end of 2008 couldn't come soon enough for me. It was a great year for business, but we were exhausted and needed a break. Now, refreshed, we're plowing in to 2009 with a lot of work on the books and a solid focus.

No "happy new year" post is complete without a few resolutions!

Communicate Better

As a consulting company, we're always serving as intermediary for someone but there are many occasions when we're speaking for ourselves. Progress reporting, designing something new or even responding to a helpdesk request (yes, we've all got bugs to deal with) all come to mind. We don't let things languish, but in our response we should be conveying our desire to help, our energy and our drive to build really great software, every single time. I resolve to communicate confidently, expressing a willingness to listen to feedback and promote an open and frank conversation with our clients all the time.

Improve Satisfaction

One thing I resolve to do in 2009 is to reach out to our active clients once a week (minimum) and see what else is on their mind. Sitting back and waiting for the "right time" to ask is a short trip to miscommunication and dissatisfaction. The better you know your clients, the more responsive (and perceptive) you become to their needs. Our clients have been absolutely amazing at providing us referral business and I intend to keep that trend alive in 2009. I resolve to reach out to our current clients more frequently and prospective clients more aggressively in 2009 so that we can delight and retain the clients we have, while simultaneously attracting new ones in to the fold.

Be a Champion

I could only dream of having been on the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies. That's not the kind of champion I mean. We should be strong advocates for the tools we use, simply because we've found honest and powerful utility in them. I think the Adobe toolset has provided us with many opportunities to solve problems effectively and efficiently while making a decent living doing so. So, go ColdFusion! Go Flex!

Therefore, I resolve to be more vocal in my support of our chosen platform and spread news of the successes we have had working with it in order to attract more people to the ColdFusion and Flex community. Having served as user group manager of the Philadelphia ColdFusion User Group for several years, I know how great it feels to be part of a vibrant and active community of empowered and motivated folks.

In a similar vein, we do a lot of work in higher education. We've never passed on an opportunity to promote ColdFusion and the results we're able to deliver using our skills. I think there's still plenty of room for growth there (Wharton is just a little ways away and look at all the cool things they do with CF and Flex!) and I'll do my best to continue to encourage more use within our sphere of influence.

Grow. Now.

One of my favorite movie quotes:

"Get busy living or get busy dying"

Grow the Business

I will seek out and secure new, interesting work solving problems that excite us and simplify the work of our clients. I think that resolution will be difficult enough on its own in 2009!

Grow Professionally

My role is just like that of many small businessmen: a different hat every 10 minutes, 24/7. I must (MUST) work on clock management (just like Andy Reid)(minus a few hundred pounds) and prioritization. We are all committed to doing whatever it takes to get the job done and more than satisfy our clients, but there were two periods last year where we sacrificed more than we should have due to commitments I made and should not have. I resolve to stop, think, plan, collaborate and leave room to breathe, even if that means passing up new opportunities. I would rather delight fewer clients and end the year slightly less well off than mismanage the only real resource we have: our time. I respect the people I work with too much to abuse them. I will improve this, starting now.

Grow Personally

To those that know me, you know I'm generally non-confrontational. At times, that has not served the company well. As a leader, I need to be more focused on the goals (client, project, and company), clear in my communications, and strong enough in my resolve to hold fast when necessary, bend when prudent and never compromise the stability of our enterprise. Again, I respect the people I have the privilege of working with too much to let them down on this one. I resolve to (well, gee, I don't know how else to say this...) find my backbone *g* in 09. That said, I'm still planning on enjoying what we do as much as I can...self employment is an amazing opportunity to grow every single day and I love that responsibility.

Be Better Geeks

ColdFusion (MachII, Coldspring). Flex (Cairngorm, Mate). AIR. LCDS. Enterprise Service Bus. Databases (SQL Server, Oracle). We touch these things (or plan on touching them) this year. To deliver well, we need to keep learning and advance our skills. That's the best part of being in the software field -- there's always something new, something to get better at and something you can then teach someone else. I want to learn more, know more, master more, and then deliver great stuff because of it...and then turn around and teach someone else how to become a master. I may not blog as frequently as Ben Nadel (I blame Twitter for that) and Matt's just not much of a talker (ha!), but I think together we'll come up with some interesting things to share as we learn more this year. I resolve to acquire at least one new skill and improve the ones I currently have in 2009. Even if that means taking a real DBA class ;-)

Oh, so you decided to read this far? Perhaps I could interest you in the services of a growing, intelligent, poised and information-hungry consulting company specializing in the Adobe platform!

I look forward to sharing more with you in 2009. Best wishes for a strong start to the year for everyone!