Flex/Flash/Actionscript

I’m sponsoring 360|Flex

360flex_sanjose_badge200.gifI’m an official sponsor of the 360|Flex conference! I think I am the first and only “just a normal guy” (not a company or independent contractor) to be a sponsor. I’m not looking for clients, I’m not looking for work… I’m just a dude who likes the conference. I like it so much that I was really sad about not being able to speak at the next 360|Flex in San Jose in August. So since I can’t be there, I figured out how to get my face in front of y’all anyway šŸ™‚ I’m sponsoring the official 360|Flex shirt that all attendees will get and all you suckas have to wear my silly face on your sleeve.

screenshot057.jpgCheck out all the sponsor logos on the 360|Flex site (screenshot on the right). You see that dumbass-looking face with the thumbs? That’s me!

Why the hell?
I owe a lot to 360|Flex. At the first one in San Jose back in March 2007 I made a ton of contacts that have helped me professionally. I happened to sit next to Tom Link and Brett Cortese from Universal Mind in the back of some session and we started talking. Now I’m a full-time employee with Universal Mind doing sweet Flex work. I got some of my work shown off in the keynote of that conference too, and people started hearing my name and wondering who I was.

Then at the second 360|Flex I did my first-ever conference presentation (on custom Flex component development). Suddenly I was somehow an authoritative Flex developer, and the main reason I actually spoke at that conference was because Tom Ortega asked me to in one of our local Flex user group meetings (in addition to planning 360|Flex, Tom also runs SilVaFug). I made a lot of friends at that conference and felt like I really became a part of the Flex community. And then I had a blast at the last 360|Flex in Atlanta, where I spoke again.

Cha-ching
I make damn good money as a Flex developer, and I owe a lot of that to the fame and connections I made at the 360|Flex conferences. So this is my little way of paying some of that back. So thank you Tom and John for all your hard work!

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9 thoughts on “I’m sponsoring 360|Flex

  1. You forgot to mention the main reason for all this great stuff happening for you: you’re a kickass developer who worked his ass off to be where he is. Without that going for you none of the UM guys would have been interested.

    What, you think they hired you because you have great hair? šŸ™‚

  2. i must quote polygeek šŸ™‚
    i’m following your blog and experiments here from italy and, man…you really rock šŸ˜€ (the right definition is “Kick.as” developer :P)

    sure 360|Flex is a great conference, i spoke in milan last april, the average session level was very high, so i hope tom n john will come back to europe soon. Here we need high quality conferences such as 360.

    Anyway, honor and respect to you, if anyone would think at their own success as you’re doing maybe this world would be better.
    i hope to get some time to hear you speaking at fotb (san jose is a little too far for me :\ )

    bye,
    Piergiorgio

  3. You forgot the best parts of the story.

    Some tidbits for the non-Silvafuggers in the world. Doug only comes to our San Francisco meetings, vowing to never show his mug at our San Jose meetings.

    While planning the first 360|Flex, this conversation took place:

    Me: You coming for the conference?
    Doug: I dunno. It’s San Jose and I don’t do San Jose.
    Me: Dude, it’s 3 days and $100. You can rent a hotel if it’s that much of a pain to travel.
    Doug: Yeah, you’re right. I guess I can come down for the conference.

    So, Mr. Web 4.0 almost missed out on a life changing event due to laziness. šŸ˜›

    Speaking of lazy, here’s my second story.

    On the morning of the first day, I see Doug stumbling around in the morning.
    Me: Wow, not only did you come, but you showed up early.
    Doug: Yeah, I was planning on sleeping in. However, Adobe told me that they’re going to show my components in the keynote and figured I should probably be here.
    Me: Yeah, that might be helpful.

    This just goes to show folks, never miss a 360|Flex keynote! LOL

    Doug debuted his logo (now on our site) at the first 360|Flex in the form of business cards. “My business cards are even Web 2.0!” he gleamed. While they’re no mullet cards (ask for one of me and John’s to see what that is), it was a pretty cool card.

    So while planning Seattle, John and I noticed Doug was gonna be an attendee. I stopped him at the next SF Silvafug meeting.

    Tom: Hey Doug, why don’t you present at 360|Flex Seattle?
    Doug: Me? What would I talk about?
    Tom: (flabbergasted) Geeze, I dunno…maybe how to build custom components?
    Doug: You think?

    Just goes to show. For all the pomp and showiness that Doug exudes, really he’s just a stubborn, lazy…err, I mean just a regular schmoe like the rest of us…with an occasional mohawk. šŸ™‚

    Thanks for supporting our show Doug. We should compile a list of cool stories like this for a book to hand out. We’ve heard a few stories that warm our hearts. John and I are just glad to be able to provide a place for things to happen.

    (Obligatory sales pitch) So everyone reading this needs to go buy their tickets asap! šŸ™‚

  4. Don Pedro says:

    Hello Doug,

    I attended the 360|Flex in Milan… and I’m sorry to to break your illusions – but there were no T-shirts there with your “silly face” on the sleeve (as you yourself put it).
    Seeing the rather slim content and thus outcome of the “festival” in Milan (I take it that the US were better), it would have been nice to at least get a T-shirt in “swag”… I for one would think more than twice before ever attending a 360|Flex in Europe again…

    Adobe actually responded when asked for swag that it was NOT an Adobe event and that it was the eventmakers and their sponsors that were responsible for that…

    anyways… to be honest… you should probably be happy that your “silly face” was not associated with the 360|Flex in Europe as almost everybody was quite dissatisfied with it and openly proclaimed that 360|Flex should think twice before doing that stunt again in Europe.

    Anyways… Thanks for always great input to the Flex-scene nevertheless.

  5. Not to hijack Doug’s blog. But I did want to respond to Don, since he never offered his feedback to Tom or I, though we welcome it.

    I’m curious if Don was a registered attendee (I don’t see him on our list) or just showed up for the free day on Monday, in which case the free attendees, received no swag.

    Don please email Tom and I, we’d love to explain the even in more detail to you so that you know what we’re all about beyond the one day exposure. Feel free to get a hold of us at info@360flex.com

    and Doug’s face is silly, but I’m glad he’ll be on the shirts.

  6. I agree with Shanimal. Thanks for the advice on blogging you gave me at the SILVAFUG meeting. I’m just getting into it, but it seems pretty cool so far. Grats on becoming so successful so fast!

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