CFObjective is touted as *THE* ColdFusion conference that covers more advanced topics — not just by the people that put it on, but also by its alumni. If you want to do a little less networking and a lot more learning, I have it on good authority that you want to go to Minneapolis, MN, to CFObjective.

Their early bird pricing ends this Friday, the 29th, so if you'd like to go and haven't convinced your boss to pay for it yet, now is the time! In addition to early-bird pricing, they offer group discounts as well as alumni and government discounts.

I've never been, and I probably won't be able to make it out this year, but this conference is at the top of my list for next year.

Ideally I'd like to have presentations lined up several months in advance. So far, I've been pretty lucky to have a topic, speaker, and date nailed down by a few days prior to the meeting preceding the one being planned (January's as of November, February's as of January, etc). What might make this process easier would be to get a list of topics and speakers you would like to see at meetings in 2010.

So consider this post an open call for topics and speakers. I can't promise anything except that I will consider every request and try to make as many of them happen as possible.

Do you want to learn more about CFBuilder? Writing REST APIs in ColdFusion? Learn Selenium? ColdFire? MXUnit? The sky is the limit, as long as it's relevant to ColdFusion development. In addition, are there any specific presenters you'd like to have present to us? Since we operate on zero budget we can't afford to fly people in from all over creation, but sometimes we can take advantage of someone coincidentally being in town or nearby.

And of course, if you have something you'd like to present, I'd be happy to talk it over with you.

I welcome your input. You can comment on this post, email me at manager@phillycfug.org, or bring it up on the discussion group.

I've taken the liberty of creating a Philly CFUG discussion group on Google Groups. You can join it here. (Your first post will be moderated so that we can keep spammers out of the group.)

I considered posting here on the blog to ask if there was any interest, but I figured that was a little too-meta. I know there are at least a few people who would use it, because it's been requested more than once.

What would it be useful for? It would be a great place to organize carpools and hotel room sharing for conferences, for example — in fact, I've already posted a thread for doing just that. I'm sure there other things that it could be useful for, too — perhaps discussions searching for candidates for open positions in your company or discussing places you're considering applying or accepting a position.

So if you're interested in things like that, join the group.

Date: Thursday, February 25th
Time: 6:00pm – 7:00pm EST
Location: UPenn, Jon M. Huntsman Steinberg Dietrich Hall. 3730 Walnut Street, near 37th st Trolley
Room: 211
Speaker: Simon Free, E-Bim

With the introduction of ColdFusion builder, more control of the IDE is being given to the developers. No longer are we tied down to pre packaged functionality but with the use of ColdFusion Builder Extensions we can now expand our IDE to do what we need it to do. In this session we will review everything you need to know about extensions and will go through the process of creating and packaging one. By the end of the session you will no longer be grumbling about the lack of functionality you have access to, instead you will be adding everything you need.

Simon is currently working with E-Bim, and is a regular attendee at the NYCFUG and NYFLEX meetings and will be attending some of the conferences held throughout the year. His hope is that once he has gained a good understanding of Flex and AIR that he will be able to help others to develop their skills and help them see the endless possibilities that these technologies have to offer them. "I am on my journey to gain more knowledge, a journey that will never end. I just hope I brought enough snacks."

Simon can also be found at simonfree.com and on twitter as @simonfree.

Please register for this meeting so that we know how much food to order. If you or your organization would like to sponsor a meeting please get in touch with me. It's very inexpensive and we can offer you face time to make your sales pitch or recruit for open positions in return.

How cool would it be to get to attend CFUnited for free?

You've got a chance: Fill out their State of the CF Union Survey and you could win a free ticket. The survey only takes a couple of minutes to complete, so it's worth a shot.

Just a quick reminder that this month's meeting is tomorrow, Thursday January 14th, at 6:00. We will be meeting in the same room as last time: Room F90, in the "Forum" / Basement level of Jon M. Hunstman Hall at UPenn. If you're planning to attend, please register so we can get an accurate head count for food.

Also, don't forget that afterwards we have a happy hour at the American Pub. Free knowledge at the meeting, and cheap booze at happy hour. What more can you ask for? See you there!

Urban Outfitters is looking for a Senior ColdFusion Engineer to do both web development and coordinate both internal and external development teams for their Free People and Leifsdottir brands.

Qualifications are:

• BS in Computer Science or equivalent
• 7+ years experience in technical development

A few of the highlights from the requirements are:

• Expertise with ColdFusion, Java, and SQL Server
• Experience developing e-commerce solutions
• 5+ years experience as project lead for software projects
• Ability to thrive in and manage a dual-development environment

For more details, or to apply online, view the full job listing.

An interesting tangent: It looks like OpenHire.com, or at least their job listings, use ColdFusion. I always enjoy stumbling on sites with .cfm in the url.

Myself and a few others from Philly CFUG attended the PANMA holiday party back in December, and (along with everyone else on the PANMA mailing list) we "won" a happy hour at the American Pub, in Center City (the clothespin building, across the street from Suburban Station).  The only catch is that we have to hold it by the 28th of January.

Since we'll be meeting on the 14th, I figured we could head over afterwards for a few drinks.  The regular meeting is from 6:00 to 7:00, and our happy hour will officially be from 7:00 to 9:00, so even if you can't make it to the meeting, it would be great to see you at the bar afterwards. Drink specials include "Select $3 Drafts, $4 Imported bottles, $5 Call Mixed Drinks and $6 Premium cocktails and $6 Specialty Drinks (such as Martini's, Cosmos, Long Island Iced Teas, etc);" and I have it on good authority that the food there is excellent too.

Also, just a quick reminder that you can — and I would very much appreciate it if you did — register for next Thursday's meeting.  As always, attendance costs you nothing; but registering will help us determine how much pizza and soda we need.

You've only got 3 days left to get the lowest possible price for CFUnited 2010!

I didn't have the pleasure of attending last year, so I'm not familiar with the Landsdowne Resort, but I've been to CFUnited a few times prior to that and always found it to be beneficial for training, researching what I should learn next, and of course networking. It also doesn't hurt that you get to spend a few days hanging out with a bunch of like-minded geeks in such a fun and diverse location as Washington D.C.

I'll be there, and I hope you will too. Early Bird registration prices end on January 8th, so today is the day to prod your boss and let him or her know how much you want to go! And don't forget, as a member of our user group, you get $50 off of the registration fee!

Date: Thursday, January 14th
Time: 6:00pm – 7:30pm EST
Location: UPenn, Jon M. Huntsman Hall. 3730 Walnut Street, or near 36th/37th st Trolleys
Room: F90 (Basement/"Forum" Level)
Speaker: Steve Rittler, CounterMarch Systems

We all know that no matter how awesomely relational your database is, all they ever want from us is one spreadsheet after another. ColdFusion 9 has a new tag and a whole boatload of functions to make reading and writing fully Microsoft Office— and Open Office—compatible spreadsheets a piece of cake. It's now simple to take the data directly from their "too big to fail, yet too complex to understand" spreadsheet and use it in your applications — and likewise to build a stylish, functional (formulas too!) and up-to-date spreadsheet directly from ColdFusion. Come out and learn how to make use of this awesome new functionality!

Steve Rittler is an unabashed Adobe fanboy primarily dedicated to the promotion of ColdFusion as one of the most productive web application development tools ever made. His company, CounterMarch Systems, specializes in ColdFusion and Flex consulting for a variety of industries, but primarily higher education.  He's been developing with ColdFusion for 10 years and served as the manager of the Philadelphia CFUG for about 7 years.  He's also an Adobe Community Expert for ColdFusion, so feel free to send questions, trick questions or fun challenges his way at srittler@countermarch.com or on Twitter: @scrittler.

So that we can get an accurate head-count for food, please register for this meeting. As always, there is no charge.