Getting ready to sip a Wee Dram of Scotch in London

Coming up this Thursday 25th of September, the "a Wee Dram of Scotch" one day conference is taking place in London.

This is a great replacement to the cancelled CFDevCon that was meant to be happening over in Brighton, but alas didn't for various reasons. Which brings to mind whether we should have more conferences like this, one day, very cheap (at £10 for entry its surely the cheapest conference there is!) but with still some awesome speakers such as Sean Corfield, Peter Bell and Mike Brunt, not to mention Adam Lehman from Adobe doing the keynote!

So what do you think? Should there be more one day conferences? Would you like your CFUG to cover this instead? More cheap (or free) training in your locality?

Also, how would we expand the use of CF? Is this a good medium for this?

Would love to hear people's opinions on this.

1 comments - Posted by Mark Drew at 7:13 AM - Categories: scotch on the rocks | frameworks | coldfusion | coldspring | CFConferences

CFUnited! What a busy conference!

Next week, CFUnited DC gets on the way, and what a busy conference it will be! Having checked my schedule it looks like it will be a real marathon for me. Here is my schedule: Wed 1:30 - 2:30 : ColdSpring: Better living through configuration Wed 8:30pm - 9:30pm : Improving quality through code reviews and mentoring Thurs 9:30 - 10:30: Fresh Air: Getting to grips with Aptana and AIR applications Fri 9:45-10:45: CFEclipse Reloaded Fri 11:00 - 12:00: Jing Demo (5 mins) Fri 11:00 - 12:00: Railo Demo (10 mins) Sat 9:45-10:45: CFEclipse Reloaded Sat 2:45-3:45: ColdSpring: Better living through configuration You might ask what the Jing and Railo Demo's are about, well, you are just going to have to turn up and find out! :) Hope to see you all there!

2 comments - Posted by Mark Drew at 3:04 AM - Categories: railo | frameworks | cfunited | cfeclipse | coldfusion | coldspring | CFConferences | AIR

Want me to present at your CFUG or meeting?

Do you need someone to present at your CFUG? Well, I have been doing a lot of presentations lately, which can be seen over in my Presentations page, which means I have a lot of content I can present on. If you have a specific topic (including CFEclipse of course!) Why not email me with your proposal and I shall see what I can do. I am based in London, England so unless there is a nice budget to fly me out, I can also do remote presentations using Adobe Connect. I am available in the evenings mostly so let me know if you ever need an extra presenter at your CFUG or company.

4 comments - Posted by Mark Drew at 7:21 AM - Categories: frameworks | model-glue | cfeclipse | coldfusion | ukcfug | coldspring | presentations | ajax

CF Guru wanted to work with Mark Drew

Yep, I am looking for a talented ColdFusion developer to come and work for/with me at Design UK's offices in the centre of London. If you want more information about the role, head over to the Design UK Careers section of the website and apply via there. You don't have to use CFEclipse, just be damn good... are you that good? Apply now! (the obvious bits...)

• You need a valid EU working permit
• This is an on-site role, sorry
• No agencies, how many times??? NO AGENCIES!
• Experience in frameworks is a must

UPDATE: this role has now been filled! Woohoo!

6 comments - Posted by Mark Drew at 12:02 PM - Categories: frameworks | model-glue | personal | coldfusion | reactor | coldspring | jobs

CF Frameworks Explorer presentation to cfframeworks.com Tonight!

How is that for a mouthful of a title? I shall be speaking tonight at 7pm GMT (2pm EST) with Nick Tong from cfframeworks.com about the newly released CF Frameworks Explorer for CFEclipse. Its one of these new fangled Adobe Connect rooms, you can join in by going here: http://adobechats.adobe.acrobat.com/frameworksexplorer/ (hopefully it will be recorded so if you cant make it tonight, you can watch it in your own time)

Read more...

6 comments - Posted by Mark Drew at 1:13 PM - Categories: scotch on the rocks | frameworks | cfeclipse | donations | presentations

cfObjective, CF Frameworks and a Drop of Scotch

I have been back from the cfObjective conference in Minnesota for a few days and it has allowed me to reflect a bit on how awesome a conference it was. Everything was spot on, the speakers, the venue, the food, the Jack Daniels (thanks to the ColdFusion Weekly guys for the bottle of Gentleman Jack!)! The CFEclipse presentation had a great turn out too, so much so that Jared had to move us into the main presentation room. I was astounded when I asked how many people used CFEclipse and nearly everyone put up their hands! Finally being able to show the world the CF Frameworks Explorer was the highlight of my presentation. I am over the moon with the positive feedback, and for those that are experiencing bugs with it, don't worry, its in VERY active development! You can download it from the CFEclipse Update Site (http://www.cfeclipse.org/update) but also remember that you need to update your copy of CFEclipse too. If you are just getting started with it, I have updated the CFEclipse TV section of the CFEclipse website with a quick introduction to the frameworks explorer. With Scotch on the Rocks round the corner, I wanted to announce that Project:X will be demonstrated at Scotch on the Rocks. This is the only place that you will be able to see the unveiling of what I must say is going to be a fantastic addition to the CFEclipse project. It will REALLY speed up your development and is a perfect companion to the CF Frameworks Explorer. If that wasn't enough, I have just been informed by Andy Allan that there will be FREE Beer ("free as in beer" beer) at a conference that is a must if you are anywhere near Europe. It is very inexpensive for a conference with the quality of speakers that you would get at something double the size. If you haven't booked a place yet, get to it! I cannot stress enough about how much a conference of this quality goes to make you a better developer. If you think a couple of days away from work is too much to gain this kind of knowledge, then you don't deserve a pay raise.

0 comments - Posted by Mark Drew at 11:32 AM - Categories: cfObjective | scotch on the rocks | frameworks | cfeclipse | CFConferences

cfObjective - here I come!

I have just booked my flight to cfObjective in May. I am both full of trepidation as this will be my first time speaking at a US conference but overly excited at unveiling the results of the top secret, Project:U. I am still working on this, and probably will be working on it non-stop till the eve of the conference but even in its current (broken? err.. feature incomplete?) state I still think it will cause quite a hit (hopefully not a hit of rotten tomatoes hitting me!) Does anybody else get nervous when they spend ?379.31 ($744.889) on a flight and check and re-check everything like 100 times? This also brings me to hotel bookings, why is the world mad on Visa cards? I don't posses one and I am happy with that. It just makes me nervous to think that a foreign government (yes Mr Bush, I am looking at you) is allowed to get all my private details including being able to look into my bank accounts just when I visit their country! Illegal? I think so! (rant over, sorry, back to normal service)

1 comments - Posted by Mark Drew at 9:28 AM - Categories: cfObjective | frameworks | cfeclipse | coldfusion