First, let me apologize for being so derelict in my blogging duties. It’s been almost 8 months since my last post. After last years convention season, work and life in general have both been crazy busy. I am going to attempt to pick up writing on this blog again (and reading other people’s blogs), starting now!
This morning, RIACON returns for its second year and is being held right outside of DC. RIACON is billed as a technical conference that focuses on 3 major tracks: Mobile, HTML 5, and Enterprise Architecture. I love what the folks behind RIACON are doing. I do, however, have one minor complaint. So begins my rant. <RANT> Most (if not all) of the sessions in the “Enterprise Architecture” track are somehow related to ColdFusion development. But, when you peruse the conference website you get no hint that this is at least in part a ColdFusion conference. Sure, with sponsors like Adobe and Railo it is hard not to put 2 and 2 together. When you look at the session tracks, the CF nature of this conference becomes obvious. Yet on the front page (or any other conference description page) the term ColdFusion is glaringly absent. Granted, only 45% of the conference is directly related to ColdFusion but that is a big percentage for them not to make any mention of it on their website. Not to mention many of the non-CF sessions are being led by well-known CF developers. </RANT>
Now that I am done ranting, I am very excited about RIACON. Last year, RIACON was a small technical conference at a small venue that was trying to fill a void left by a very large but defunct conference, CFUNITED. RIACON in its first year, was very regional in its feel and size. It was also held on the weekend, which although appeals to employers does not appeal to the employees who would want to attend. Most attendees like going during the week, so that they may still spend time with their families on the weekend (or for the single developers – keep their “social calendars” open). This year, RIACON feels much larger. It has some big name speakers, it has a bigger venue, and even the weekday schedule makes it feel like a bigger conference. I say all of that but RIACON hasn’t even started yet. So its size remains to be seen, the excitement level for me and some of my developer friends in the DC area is very high.
I am not a mobile developer, nor do I play one on TV. But some of the mobile and HTML5 sessions do look impressive. All in all, I can’t wait for the sessions to start this morning. But I better stop typing or I won’t make the drive in!