cf.Objective 2012 Wishlist


Since the ending of CFUnited, cf.Objective() seems to have stepped up to become the premiere ColdFusion conference. It's held each May in Minneapolis, has many of the same sponsors, and seems to be continuing to grow and expand each year. The cost is about comparable as well, at $949 for the three day event (with the usual early registration and various discounts available). Flights there will be about the same cost as it was to CFUnited's Maryland location, at least for us since we are in Texas. The venue, the Hyatt Regency, has a negotiated room rate of $169.

Unlike with the CFUnited folks, cf.Objective()'s organized have negotiated with the venue hotel to also have government rates for applicable attendees. For those not in state/federal jobs, the government rate is basically the max a state or federal entity will pay per night for a hotel room in that particular city/region. In this case, its $121 a night. So if the venue's rates are higher and they won't honor government rates, you either have to stay elsewhere or pay out of your own pocket. When my partner and I attended CFUnited, we had to stay at a cheaper hotel nearby, though the event sponsors did have shuttles going back and forth around the hotels which helped. Still, being able to stay in the venue hotel is nicer, especially if there are after session events. But I digress a bit.

I have yet to attend cf.Objective() myself. Before the end of CFUnited, it was too small, too focused, and honestly gave off a bit of a snobbish vibe. Since then it has really upped its game and showing itself to be more open to all levels, filling the gap CFUnited left behind. So I'd rather like to go. Last year, however, we only had the funds to send one person, after the scholarship program we used to cover the actual cost of the conference changed their policy to only cover one person per unit per event. After lots of discussion, we decided my partner would be the one to go. This year, I'm hoping we can both go, particularly as we will finally be moving to ColdFusion 9 in 2012.

Which brings us by long prosy degrees to my actual post topic: cf.Objective() has released their session and speaker list for 2012! This year they have 65 sessions spanning five tracks (nice!): Architecture & Design in Software, Integration & Tools, Process & Performance, Security & Front-End Development, and JavaScript (cutely named js.Objective()). No word yet on whether they will be holding any pre-conference events. Some of the usual names seen in ColdFusion conferences will be there, as will some new folks.

So if I do get to go to cf.Objective(), what tracks would I want to attend (the point!), not taking into account what the actual room schedules will be?

There was also an ORM deep dive, but I don't feel ready for that yet. What about you? Going to cf.Objective() this year? What sessions have you interested?