MAX 2008 :: Going off big time and secret show!!!

I don't know what the limit is or how many more we can squeeze inside MAX, but I just got an internal email stating the number (sorry - cannot share) and I believe it will be amongst the largest 3 events I have attended this year! MAX is gonna rock, especially this year. Why? Well - first, we have tons of new content and stuff to show. Second, there are major industry setting announcements.

My own sessions are actually mostly sold out. Check this out:

Four out of six are sold out completely. If you want to still catch the AIR Boot Camp though, it will be taught in Milan in December. I am sure we can talk Enrique into a new sets of labs for building service clients with Adobe Flex and AIR too since all 3 courses sold out.

BIG (NOT SO) SECRET EVENT!!!




On Monday November 17, there is a special live band party at 330 Ritch. My band 22nd Century is playing and we will be covering stuff off our first CD as well as new songs from the upcoming 2nd CD and tons of covers from Ramones, Foo Fighters, Smashing Pumpkins and other hard rock/punk bands.. Take a listen here - if you like the music, download it and come along. Email me dnickull at adobe dot com to get tickets for this event. IT ALSO IS HALF SOLD OUT!!! This is being sponsored by Nitobi, Konductor Software and Mix Match Music!

My invitation to everyone on my Tuesday classes:

Let's Rock late on Monday night then do the sessions Tuesday AM!

Moscone, Norovirus, JavaOne - The Truth Please

I made an earlier blog post here discussing my experience with a norovirus and passing out on stage. Like most people who attended JavaOne, I never really questioned the mainstream press story until people started posting comments on my blog that seem to contradict the official story. Now I want to call out and ask for people who have had similar experiences to add comments to this blog if they want to request a more thorough investigation of what really happened.

I have also contacted a couple of reporters and asked them to look into this further. Here are the things that concern me:

1. The Contra Costa Times and others reported that the SF Department of Health became aware of the norovirus problem on Wednesday, May 7. Why were JavaOne attendees not warned until Friday at 3:00 AM and why was food allowed to be served Wed, Thurs and Friday if it was suspected that it was a food issue?

2. The official statement from Jim Soos was that no one was hospitalized, however Greg H. (he left a comment on the earlier post) was. Besides, how would he know if we went to hospitals anyways? If a spokesperson doesn't know, they had no business making such statements as fact. Understandably, Jim is probably now aware that at least one person was hospitalized and maybe didn't know at the time he spoke.

3. Most of the official press reported that only 3 non-Moscone staff got sick. Obviously more than 3 non-Moscone workers contracted it as there are myself and 4 others just on the earlier blog post. If you had it or the symptoms please leave a comment on this blog. I want to find out how many people really got sick. This official number of "3" is now wrong. The number comes from David Perry, spokesperson for Moscone who stated:

David Perry, spokesman for the Moscone Center, said 67 of people infected were staff working at the weeklong conference and 3 were attendees

See full story here

4. What the hell was Moscone doing serving us food? Here is what a statement to ponder (courtesy of San Francisco Chronicle):

The source of the virus has not yet been identified, but generally the norovirus is passed when an infected person spreads microbes either by preparing food or sharing plates or utensils, said Jim Soos, assistant director of policy and planning at the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

So Moscone knew about it as early as Wednesday, but continued to serve us food Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Hmmm - was any testing done to make sure the food was safe? Were we warned that maybe the food might be the cause? No - nothing but silence! This is not right IMO.

I want to point out that I don't blame any one group. I love Sun (a lot of friends there) and I want to be at every JavaOne conference in the future. I will be back at Moscone for other conferences this year and actually know many of the staff there who are very polite and pleasant. I don't know Jim Soos but imagine he must have a tough job.

What I really want to do is to find the truth. If you know something, please add it here.

Talks for WebManiacs 2008!

I have agreed to do two talks for WebManiacs 2008 in Washington, DC this spring (May 19-23).

The WebManiacs 2008 conference schedule has been finalized and registration is open. Early bird pricing ends Jan 31. Consisting of a two-day ColdFusion conference ("CFManiacs") coupled with a three-day Flex conference (FlexManiacs), hosting over 70 speakers and 130 distinct topics (some of which are hands-on), WebManiacs promises to have the most comprehensive coverage of Flex, AIR, and ColdFusion at the lowest price. Seating is limited, so folks should register early in order to get into the more popular sessions.

My sessions are architectural in nature:

1. SOA and BPM, a practical approach to business automation

Abstract: This session will discuss Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) as
an architectural paradigm then pose some interesting architectural questions
about the pragmatic relationship with Business Process Management (BPM).
While many consider BPM a part of SOA, it is in fact not and the presenter
will clearly explain why. It is, however, often the end state sought by
those who pursue SOA as an architectural model and hence has a close
relationship with SOA.

The topics covered will include identifying services by modeling
business processes to spot services used by more than one process, the
question of how much process state a service should be aware of, reuse vs.
repurposing, various standards approaches to SOA and BPM, as well as a case
study of large scale SOA for powering Enterprise 2.0 type applications.

2. Web 2.0 patterns, models and architecture

Abstract: Many enterprises seek knowledge of the design patterns used by
successful Web 2.0 companies. This session starts with Tim O'Reilly's list
of Web 2.0 examples and distills the abstract architectural patterns
behind the examples. By using the patterns notation, the core knowledge of
the design principles is preserved in a template which can be reused in
multiple contexts.

Duane will also show the evolution of the client server model into a 5-tier
model based on the consistent concepts of most successful Web 2.0 patterns.
The model serves as a useful starting point for anyone designing either
business models or technology for Web 2.0. The Web 2.0 model is also used to
illustrate a reference architecture. This abstract set of technology
components allows developers to start thinking about the types of technology
decisions required for building Web 2.0 projects.

***************************

Hope to see you all there!!!

Adobe MAX 2008 - help us!

Adobe MAX 2008 has been officially announced. It will take place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. While looking around for comments on this I found someone on Ben Forta's blog post on the subject who objected to the location due to the expense. Sometimes in an attempt to just make things happen, we let details like this slip through the cracks.

I would like to invite anyone who has ideas for how we can make MAX 2008 better to comment on this blog post and give us ideas. One of our corporate mantras is "good ideas come from everywhere in the company" and it seems like now is a good time to go with a truncated Web 2.0 version of that - good ideas come from everywhere.

Adobe MAX 2007 is now SOLD OUT!

My colleague Ted Patrick (ATE) was put in charge of MAX this year to get it more in alignment with developers, architects and other technical personalities. Ted is a rabid over-achiever who strikes me as the type of person who has probably never failed at any job. His mandate was to grow the MAX event from around 3,000 attendees by ten percent.

Today he sent an internal email that indicates the seemingly impossible has happened:

We shut down registration last night for MAX due to high number of attendees and our ability to deliver the conference.

First time MAX has "SOLD OUT"!

Ted :)

We are officially sold out. Ted rules! For those of you lucky enough to have registered in advance, this year's gonna rawk!! OMG!! Really, really rock!

For those who did not get in this year, I've already started a wish list for MAX 2008 here. Next year there are several things people want:

1. An earlier call for papers
2. Hold the conference on the east or west coast. Maybe we should alternate?
3. More external speakers
4. More technical sessions
5. No marketing fluff

Adobe MAX 2007 is LiveCycle's breakout year.

Anyone who uses Adobe LiveCycle should definitely consider this year's MAX as a primary place to be in 2007. We have worked hard on making almost 4 full days of content available for the enterprise track and have lined up great sessions and speakers. This is ground zero for anyone who considers themselves a LiveCycle developer. Please also check out the discount available via the Google LiveCycle Developers list.

Organizing a track at MAX is hard. I now have 1163 emails in my MAX 2007 folder and already almost 100 in my Adobe MAX 2008 folder. Thanks to Charlton Barreto the Enterprise and Collaboration track is on track.

Yes - we are maxed out. Puns intended....

Adobe MAX 2008

Adobe MAX 2007 has not yet happened but it will on Sept 30-Oct 3. So why a blog post about Adobe MAX 2008? Simple - I am interested in your opinions on what we should be thinking about now for this event. Here are some questions for MAX 2008:

1. What should we add that is not present for Adobe MAX 2007?

2. Which speakers/sessions would you like to see more of at MAX 2008? (Choices = technical, marketing, demos, roadmaps, other....)

3. What venue would you like to see MAX at in North America (Examples - San Francisco, Whistler, New York)?

4. What types of parties, extracurricular activities would you like to see more of? (For example - a side ski trip if in Whistler)?

Please also ping me by email dnickull at adobe dot com to let me know of any other ideas you have for MAX 2008.