cf.Objective(): Focused and All Grown Up

Jan 14, 2008

by Judith Dinowitz

A father and son team, Steven Hauer and Jared Rypka-Hauer share many things: family, a web development business that they have worked on for over five years, and now a conference that takes ColdFusion to the high end: cf.Objective(). When I interviewed them about cf.Objective() and what makes it unique among ColdFusion conferences, they agreed that the essential difference could be summed up in one word: Focus.

"What differentiates us is our sole focus on high-end content," Jared said. "You don't find a single entry-level session at cf.Objective()... but you'll find the greatest concentration of expert-level professionals presenting on Enterprise-class topics."

"Content is the key word there," Steven agreed. "The content of 90% of the sessions is specifically directed at the intermediate and advanced ColdFusion programmer. If you're a newbie, you should take a class or study WACK, because you're not going to understand what's being talked about. The content is focused on the intermediate and advanced developer."

This year, cf.Objective()'s content committee has been working hard on the tracks and sessions for the conference, and recently posted a full schedule on the website. In a recent thread on CF-Talk, 2008 Conferences of Interest, Sean Corfield, head of the content committee, commented that "in 2007 [cf.Objective()] was *the* conference to learn about the new features of ColdFusion 8 before its release. This year cf.Objective() has formal tracks, including an RIA track (that is still mostly focused on ColdFusion). There are also some two hour in-depth sessions, three of which will be hands on (Advanced ColdBox, Advanced ColdSpring, Agile Development)."

The Advantages of cf.Objective()

Steven and Jared point out that cf.Objective()'s narrow band of focus makes the conference more intimate, and more effective for its intended audience. "It isn't a trade show; it isn't a recruiting mechanism for companies, it isn't 'let's go have fun.' Although that's part of it, it's not the purpose of the event. The purpose is to bring necessary information to intermediate and advanced programmers.", said Steven. "We have a smaller group, and it is a peer group. The people attending this conference have a central common interest pulling them together: ColdFusion, its methodologies and its associated tools, whatever they may be. In addition, [many of] the people who attend this conference already know each other; we actually give them an opportunity to meet face to face. cf.Objective() has a level of intimacy that you just don't find anywhere else."

"We've been telling people for years not to come to cf.Objective() unless they're already skilled enough at ColdFusion to be doing professional development," said Jared. "You don't have to know object-oriented programming lingo (though it's helpful), and you don't have to be an expert on design patterns (though it's also helpful), but you're not going to learn how to use CFSET, and you should already know about CFOUTPUT... Our attendees need to be serious programmers looking to move their work to the next level. This isn't the conference for people who picked up ColdFusion a few weeks ago to build a home page for their new lawn-mowing business." Jared envisions cf.Objective() giving people the tools they need to create sites that rival Amazon.com and eBay.

Another great advantage is cf.Objective()'s price. While higher than last year's, Steven notes, "we are offering substantially more for considerably less than most other conferences."

Sponsorships

We've looked at the benefits for attendees, but what benefits do sponsors get compared to other conferences? Jared noted that cf.Objective() serves one of the fastest-growing segments of the ColdFusion user base - advanced users - and gives sponsors the opportunity to present themselves to "the best and brightest talent in the industry. I think that prospective employers, contracting houses and product vendors (anything from CMS to programming tools) should all take a serious look at sponsoring this conference."

"The people that actually sign the checks to buy products and services probably don't attend this conference. But the influencers are here," said Steven. "So although it's not a direct approach to those decision makers, their choices are impacted because the developers who influence their decisions quite strongly are at this conference."

Rapid Growth and the Challenges Thereof

According to Jared, the conference grew by 200% last year, and this year, the organizers expect to attract attendance of between 250 and 400 people, perhaps even as high as 500. This begs the question: How will cf.Objective() keep its intimate feeling as it grows? Would the organizers consider holding a cf.Objective() for as many as 1,000 developers?

Jared said he does not see any problems in maintaining the informal and intimate feel of the conference. "We don't need to maintain the informal and intimate feel because it's a natural by-product of the folks that come... There's a natural affinity between those who attend our conference... It's less than 1000 people out of almost a half-million users; there can't help but be a sense of intimacy. Add to that the fact that they're the cream of the crop when it comes to ColdFusion's user base, surrounded by the thought leaders in the technology, and you have a recipe for a natural sort of affinity between people."

Steven added, "Because of their level of proficiency, many of those that come to the conference could actually be presenters. I have heard that quote repeatedly from people: 'If I wasn't presenting, I'd come anyway.' Because we're focused on a particular slice of the programming community, the intermediate to advanced programmer, it's a peer group. They tend to have the same focus on their work; they tend to have the same knowledge base; they are connected through the blogosphere, the community and social networking sites."

Steven also said that the focus of the content is what keeps it more intimate. "We're looking at the single thread here... at ColdFusion as the thing that brings this all together." He said that the conference would never dilute that by bringing in hardware manufacturers, such as Dell Computer and Apple Computer, to do sessions. "They may be represented as sponsors (this is not a leak, but an example) but they will never be there hawking their products in a session."

cf.Objective()'s Third Year: Bigger and Better

Among the improvements noted by the organizers are:

a much improved website.
a much earlier start on the planning of the conference.
the registration process works smoothly and the venue, topics, speakers and schedule are already up on the website.
a better opening night activity than at last year's conference.
scheduled birds of a feather sessions.
at least one off-site activity for the off hours; the activity will be shown on the website, and people will have the opportunity to show up and sign up on the website.
the location has been moved to beautiful downtown St. Paul, Minneapolis' sister city, and a bigger hotel overlooking the historic Mississippi river within walking distance of historic buildings, cultural activities, the science museum and miles of beautiful river-walk paths ... truly right at the heart of things.
Some of the sessions will actually be longer sessions that will run two hours instead of the fifty minutes.

Jared expanded on the preparedness of this year's committee. "Our steering committee has been working on this since shortly after last year's conference, and we're 4 months ahead of schedule. We've revamped our procedures, we've created very effective committees, and we've done a much better job of organizing and coordinating than we've done before... I guess, in short, this is the year that cf.Objective() has grown up... it's a serious conference attracting serious numbers of serious users of the technology."

This year, cf.Objective() is also offering a pre-conference opportunity in conjunction with the conference. Great BizTools has recently acquired the copyright to Mach-II and they are presenting a one-day and a two-day training session, immediately before the conference, in the same venue. Great BizTools' training runs from April 30th - May 1st, and attendees can sign up on the cf.Objective() website.

The Reasons Behind cf.Objective() and Its Location

Jared explained that he started cf.Objective() because it was the conference he needed. "I had a need and there was no conference to fill it. Other languages and platforms had them, but not the technology with which I work. So I got my friends and associates to come to my first conference... It's been a grassroots effort from the beginning, and I'm really pleased to see that I wasn't the only one with the need... apparently there are lots of people that were looking for the same information I was."

But why Minneapolis/St. Paul? Does the conference's location add anything special over the more usual conference cities, like Washington, DC, New York, Orlando, or San Diego?

Steven said that its unusual location actually adds to the appeal of the conference. "First of all, I love Minnesota; it's my home. The conference is held in the spring, a beautiful time of year here. And the Twin Cities is a great place to live, to be entertained, and to learn. One of the biggest reasons for me to keep the event here is the uniqueness of the location. It makes it very special."

Jared had his own series of reasons for choosing the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St.Paul:

He's from the Twin Cities area, so it makes sense to hold the conference where he lives.
ColdFusion was born there, so it's only appropriate to take it to the next level here.
The Twin Cities have, in the past, been referred to as the "Silicon Valley of the Midwest"... the area is home to companies like Seagate, BestBuy, Mayo Clinic, IBM (the AS400 was engineered in the area), and many others. A big part of the motivation to have the conference here is to highlight the technological nature of the area.

Mostly, he put the choice of location to number 1.

Goals for the future

We ended our interview by looking to the future. What do the conference organizers see in store for cf.Objective()?

Ideas for expansion have been considered, like Europe, Asia, or multiple locations in the United States, but the organizers have no specific plans as of yet. "What we end up doing will be very much based on the final number of attendees this year, what venues we can find that will support our growth, and whether it looks like we'll be able to maintain our growth and position while offering alternatives," said Jared. "I wouldn't mind seeing mini-conferences, workshops, and so on, across the country or around the world, all coordinated and organized by the cf.Objective() crew. It really depends on how things go in the next couple of years. I'd rather do multiple conferences in different places than one huge event to keep the costs manageable, but also to provide more to the attendees."

Steven also would not mind seeing additional pre- and post-conference events. Whatever the conference does in the future, Steven emphasized that the organizers will remain true to their mission: "Our long term goals are to continue to provide the same rich, wonderful content that the advanced ColdFusion community has come to expect from cf.Objective."

You can register for cf.Objective() at https://www.bestmeetings.com/registration/cfobjective/cfobjective.cfm. The early bird price for the conference, $499.00, ends on Sunday, January 20th.

Copy This Article's Url To Clipboard