Voices from America – 360Flex conference

Posted by Simon in Conferences, Flex, RIA on Jun 10th, 2009 | 1 comment

Having just returned from your magnificent country and gathered our breath, it was great to reflect on the truly amazing time that we had in America, the challenges ahead and the people we met on our travels.

Let me tell you – you sure have one hell of a country.

Adjectives like superb, wonderful, splendid, brilliant, outstanding, superlative spring to mind and I’m just describing your restaurants in Indianapolis, New York and Boston.

But one thing permeates throughout the people we encountered, that’s respect and a love of hard work, nothing is too much trouble.

“Wanna go to the Indianapolis Speedway” up steps David Bigelow of Nitro-LM and we were transported there.  What’s more we even drove around it, me at the wheel, pretty awesome and a dream come true. Thank you David and your sales team at Nitro-LM.

It was great meeting you and the Flex community at the 360Flex Conference and having a chance to talk, share life experiences and ideas as well. Two days traveling from Cape Town, South Africa made it all worthwhile. The guys at 360 Conferences Tom Ortega and John Wilker performed superhuman feats of endurance, organization, PR skills and still managed to keep their sanity as well as a smile, even though sleep deprivation must have been paramount in their mindsets. We thought the conference was well worth the price of admission if you take cognizance of what was on offer.

Knowledge was on tap, smart ways to utilize the source code, opportunities to educate yourself or your team. With presentation names like: Clients are stupid and other observations, The great mash up, The art of project management in large scale Flex projects, The business of a team instead of an army, The business side of Flex, The business side of selling Flex/AIR applications and Setting up your corporate library. There was something for all. Then there was the cool shit aka Doug McCune who blew us away with topics like: Steganography, Head Tracking Targets, Safe Sexting and Augmented reality demo with fake chests. . . AWESOME. You see something for everyone!

Balance, subjectivity and self education were the keys in all aspects of the other presentations whether it was  design, development or business related subjects. If I was a manager, it would be a no brainer not to attend. I would be scolding myself for not sending any representation and ensuring that I send my staff next year. We did hit Rock Bottom. . . the Brewery, every night just to clear the cobwebs and hang out! Tom and John must be congratulated for their yeomen feats in presenting an exceptional conference in Indianapolis. Congrats – Great Job!

Leaving Indianapolis and onto New York, we were made African brothers by our Nigerian taxi driver!  A visit to the new Yankee Stadium;  I was never a YANKEE FAN! But now I’m a full convert. Adjectives abound now – well only one. . . a magnificently managed extravaganza was on offer and we grabbed it with both hands, so New York. . . even Paul Simon was there for us on Memorial Weekend. The rest of weekend was spent walking around the city visiting Starbucks, the Apple store 5th Avenue. . . wandering through Central Park, it’s so big – people getting married, picnicking and playing ball. Looking out for the DAKOTA building where John Lennon lived before his untimely death in 1980. Visiting Federal Hall where New York owes so much of its history including the inauguration of George Washington, the first President of the United States. Then, finally a visit to Ground Zero and the Empire State Building. Meeting more interesting people along the way.

Picking up a hire car or truck or SUV or whatever they’ve got. . . and driving on the wrong side of the road to Boston, through Connecticut, Massachusetts, Providence and finally to Boston. Taking in the city, the historic Faneuil Hall Marketplace, the “Gateway to Boston” since 1026, Boston Harbour and surrounds, we bumped into Adam Sandler and he didn’t even recognize we were from South Africa! We managed to take a drive out to Harvard University your private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. It is also the first and oldest corporation in North America. Harvard University is made up of ten schools and the closest most of us will get to achieving a degree of that status.

Our visit to America has made us realize the extent to which both our countries face in dealing with this global recession. Can we rise to the challenge? Sure we can. . . by working together, learning from one another and supporting each other, we can create solutions using our expertise and the Adobe Flex/AIR software tools at our disposal, to enable leaders and captains of our respective countries, industries and commerce, to more easily and effectively manage our economies and their bottom lines, so that we don’t return to this Economic Nirvana.