Rushing to Judgement

This was my second MAX.  I attended the event in Anaheim in 2005 in the pre-Adobe days, and really enjoyed it (especially the great party at California Experience on Tuesday).  Because I was transitioning into consulting work about this time last year, I had to miss MAX 2006 Vegas.  I decided early this year that I would not make the same mistake again!  So, last Sunday after driving back from a demoralizing time watching Texas get railed by K-State 41-21, it was off to MAX 2007 Chicago style.

Some of you know that I used to work for Unitrin, with several cool cats including well-known blogger Adrian Moreno.  I was able to hook up with some of those folks at this year's MAX, which made for a fun time as I was able to catch up with people I don't see every day anymore (sniff).  Its weird sometimes how it takes an out-of-town trip to reconnect with people who only live across town .. but I digress.

As Sean mentioned, MAX was really huge this year, in the massive West wing of the McCormick center.  This is a great facility and was definitely up to the task of accommodating ~4000 Adobe fanatics.  There were a ton of sessions and I had an opportunity to be exposed to some things that I wouldn't otherwise see .. and isn't that the point of going to an event like MAX?

As usual, I can't strongly recommend the ColdFusion sessions as they seem to be targeted at more beginner-level folks.  Dave Watts of Fig Leaf did his best to turn a talk about new features of ColdFusion 8 into an "optimizing CF8 applications" presentation, but it didn't work out despite his best efforts.  The other CF presentations I went to were generally not much better ..

The most enjoyable session I attended had to do with a CF/Flex app launched by the interactive learning technology team at the Wharton Business School that provides a "fast twitch" trading interface similar to what traders at top Wall Street equity trading firms use.  This session was interesting because the presenters did a good job hitting all the business and technology points quickly and succinctly, and also because the topic ties together some of my favorite subjects - technology, finance, and game theory.  A common use of the application is to put 40-50 students into a mock "trading room", each with a little bit of information as a hint about future possibilities with a particular equity (or market).  Subsequently, trading begins and the students must use their knowledge of future likely market events along with their understanding of trading patterns to develop a profitable trading strategy - and are then graded on it!  Wharton has also made this platform available to several other universities, both to enhance the prestige of the Wharton brand and to provide better learning tools to students elsewhere.  The developers from Wharton were visibly enthusiastic about what they are doing, which was very cool - it is inspiring to see people love what they do, and something we don't get to see enough of these days.

My second-favorite session was Dave Bowers' presentation on Far Cry Core.  I looked into Far Cry as a CMS solution a couple of years ago, but was intimidated by what seemed like a steep learning curve, so I sort of shelfed that effort and never came back.  Boy am I missing out!  Far Cry is not just a CMS, it is a full-stack application framework providing everything from generated administrative consoles to security model to ORM layer .. really neat stuff.  As a seasoned Mach-II pro I am a little hesitant to switch to a "kitchen sink" package like this but seeing what Dave was able to crank out in just a few minutes was truly amazing, and its obvious to me that I need to find some time to invest in this thing.  The Far Cry team has put together a 120-page developer course to get new developers up to speed quickly, so I will probably start there.

Finally, the MAX party was a blast this year.  The company always seems to pull out the stops and do something unexpected.  At this year's party, one huge room at the convention center was converted into a party area, and split into several sections.  The featured entertainment included breakdancers on a big graffiti-painted stage, professional skateboarders and freestyle bikers performing stunts on a giant half pipe, and a lounge act that specialized in performing numbers you'd never expect to hear from a lounge band .. hearing the singer belt out classics from Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails and Sir Mix-A-Lot caused waves of laughter in the crowd .. these guys were really good.  

I've already decided to attend MAX again next year - its just too good of an opportunity to see some great new technology and visit with people I don't get to see often enough.  Hope to see you there!