Day three has come and gone, taking with it the remainder of what was 360|Flex. And what was it? It was the best of times, it was the....well it was pretty great. Here's my recap of day 3.
Really Early Morning Session: Community Keynote. During this session Tom Ortega and John Wilker, the hosts, laborers, organizers, and passionate devotees behind 360|Flex gave a "state of the conference" address to discuss how things have gone. I'm sorry to report I didn't make it to this, having wandered around a bit too much looking for breakfast and then getting stuck on a canceled light-rail train on the way in. From what I was able to gather the important announcements included some very transparent information on the financials, which are good, and 360|Flex was able to make it into "the black" this year (it seems to come close to breaking even most years.) It was probably also announced again that this was Tom Ortega's last 360|Flex as a full co-organizer, though I'd be surprised if he didn't pop-up at future events to say hello.
Morning Session: Getting Git by Sim Bateman. In this session Sim did an incredible job first making a case for why Git is a tool every software developer should use and then giving instruction on the basics of said use. I've been a passionate fan of Git since day 4 from being introduced to it, having required days 1-3 to break out of the SVN paradigms my brain was locked in, and it's safe to say that I will never willingly go back. I hear the latest versions of SVN have made great improvements but I just don't care - Git is simply the most fantastic repository system I've ever touched, and Sim did a wonderful job explaining why. I hadn't met Sim before this 360|Flex and I was really thrilled to meet him - he's a great guy and an excellent teacher, and he has and ability, rare amongst software development presenters, to make his point in a compelling manner without resorting to acting tough or arrogant or insulting anyone (be it the audience or some perceived opposition.) He simply comes across as passionate and intelligent, which is really the demeanor I think most of the rest of us are striving for. Check out Sim's presentation when they're posted if you're either not a believer or want to see some good techniques in presenting what might be otherwise boring topics.
Lunch Session: Ben Stucki on Software Development Practices. I don't know what Ben's real title was, as his session was introduced after our materials were put together, but this is not one to miss. Ben's topic focused on the importance of emphasizing good quality code and used compelling visualizations to explain why cutting corners early can lead to drastically longer development times at the end. He simply does the math, explains the logic, and leaves you feeling like the answer was so simple you should have seen it all along. Ironically (or not) this was another main focus of Ben's presentation: he took it beyond a description of why good coding practices are important into the foundation of what those principles are, focusing on simplicity and a lack of "out-of-the-box thinking" as the most important things to writing good software. He takes a prescriptive approach to the topic to be sure, but the rhetoric and logic he employs earns him the right to do so. Check this one out.
Early Afternoon Session: Flexible Games - Game Development with Stuff You Already Know by Nate Beck. Like most of the speakers at this years event Nate is an extremely smart guy and a good communicator. His talk was supposed to focus on developing games using the Push Button flash framework and Adobe Flex was but was hijacked when a cross-dressing individual hired by Doug McCune interrupted the presentation to sing Happy Birthday to Nate, whose birthday it indeed was. The hijacking was retaliation for a perceived prank played on Doug at 360|Flex Indianapolis in 2009, where Nate orchestrated a mob who threw bouncy balls at Doug while Doug was displaying his computer-augmented chest with his shirt off. You have to see the videos to really understand what this was all about, but suffice it to say I don't remember too much about game development after all of that. I'll have to watch this one again when the full recordings are posted live.
Late Afternoon Session: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love UX by Andy Powell. I'm not sure what Andy was ever really worried about in the first place, but he made a compelling case for why UX research is important and how developers can get involved. One stylistic thing I really appreciated about Andy's presentation was how he integrated so many anecdotal and / or entertaining bits of media into his presentation. The videos were particularly important - acting in the last time-slot on the last day, Andy needed to work harder than other speakers to keep the crowd engaged and he did a great job at that.
After the late session there was a panel on Flash's value in 5 years which I am sorry to say that a combination of hunger and flight plans prevented me from attending.
If you attended 360|Flex and hit any of the sessions I didn't, please hit up the comments and give us your thoughts on how the sessions went and which we should watch out for when they're all published live in the coming weeks.
All in all this was one of the best conferences I've attended and certainly a real step up from the last 360|Flex I attended (San Jose in August of 2008, which was not bad at all by itself.) Between the quality of the presentations to the knowledge of the speakers to the input from other attendees and even the improved food and logistics by the ever diligent and heroic 360|Flex team, this conference is definitely not one to miss if you do any Flex work at all. See you at the next conference.