Several conferences have been officially announced, most notably:
- MX Europe 2005 (www.mxeurope.org): Formerly known as "CF-Europe" the conference now spans three days and includes Macromedia client and server technology session topics. It is the largest conference for Macromedia product users in Europe, and will be held in London at the end of January 2005.
- Powered By Detroit (www.poweredbydetroit.org/): This is the inaugural year for this two-day conference that focuses on ColdFusion/Flash integration. The conference is scheduled to be held in Detroit the beginning of April 2005.
- CFUnderground VI (www.cfconf.org/cf_underground6/): This is the sixth CFUnderground Conference, and as usual it promises to be a good way to start the conference season. Every year, Michael Smith and the folks at TeraTech host this fun and informal one-day conference on the eve of the "big CF conference." This year it's in New Orleans on Halloween!
Of course, what really makes conference season is Macromedia's big annual conference. Every year, designers and developers from all over the world come together for MAX (www.macromedia.com/go/max/). MAX offers attendees and exhibitors the ability to learn from presenters who are the best in their field; the chance to have fun socializing and talking shop with each other and with leading experts in the industry; and the chance to see sneak-peeks of Macromedia products and initiatives yet to be released.
This year's speaker and topic lineups look to be the best yet, so for the benefit of the attendees at this year's MAX conference, I thought I'd offer some advice about choosing sessions to attend, as well as my thoughts on sessions and speakers not to be missed. I'm sure all of the presentations are going to be fantastic - my apologies to all of the presenters who, due to space limitations, are not listed here. If you were unable to attend MAX, this will serve as a guide for choosing your sessions at next year's conference and as a reminder of why you should do everything in your power to attend.
In selecting sessions at MAX (and most any conference) there are a few rules of thumb that I've found very good to follow (in order of priority):
- There are certain speakers who, because of their presenting style and/or thoroughness, are worth seeing no matter what the subject matter of their session. Often but not always, these are well-known speakers.
- Try to see Macromedia employees speak. These folks not only have expertise but also have inside information. It is not uncommon for them to discuss or show hidden gems in the products as well as provide insight about what the future may hold for a product.
- If you don't know whether or not the speaker is a good presenter, read his or her bio. People who have had interesting careers or who hold interesting jobs are often good speakers. The other thing to look at is the presentation topic - sometimes a session topic and/or description is so interesting (or I have a practical interest in the topic) that I want to attend.
