BFusion/BFlex has been over for a month and I realized I had not blogged any comments on the event. Several folks have already blogged their thoughts with Dan Wilson's being nearly an identical mirror of my own. And while much of the below is repeating Dan I think its worth it. General Organization I was thoroughly impressed with BFusion/BFlex from the moment Bob Flynn asked me to speak to leaving Bloomington for home.

I'm excited to report that my wife and I have booked our spot on the RIAdventure cruise to the Bahamas taking place February 9-13, 2009. If you don't know what this cruise is all about I encourage you to check out the site. Or, read my previous blog post which includes 12 reasons YOU should go on this cruise.

I've uploaded the supporting application files for my presentation at BFlex yesterday (link below). The download includes a Flex Builder project archive which has all the Flex/AS, ColdFusion, JavaScript, and HTML that are needed to create the AIR messaging application. The zip also includes a PDF with all the steps needed to get up and running with the application. In other words, everything you'd need to build the application from start to finish is included in the download.

In preparation for my talk at BFlex I've created an Adobe Connect recording that illustrates how to install the binary distribution of BlazeDS on an existing ColdFusion 8 multi-server instance. If you're planning on attending my hands-on talk I would highly recommend you watch this recording and get everything configured properly. If you're just looking for help on BlazeDS and CF8 integration, the demo should help you as well. Click here to view the 15 minute recording: http://adobechats.adobe.

I've firmed up the details of my talk at BFlex (in two weeks) and the information should be appearing on the site soon. My talk will be part of the advanced Flex track alongside sessions from Simon Free, Zach Stepek, Mike Labriola, and Kevin Schmidt. Here's the title and description for my session. AIR Messaging: Integrating AIR, BlazeDS, and ColdFusion In this session I'll show you how to integrate AIR, BlazeDS, and ColdFusion 8 to create a real-world messaging service.

Last year was the first BFlex event held in Bloomington, Indiana. The folks at the Bloomington Flex User Group, the Indiana University Flash User Group, and the Indiana University Multimedia User Group (all Adobe affiliated) held a fantastic hands-on training event on Adobe Flex. This year they are expanding the training opportunities and including content on ColdFusion. I'll be attending the event this year as a speaker and assistant.

A little over a month ago Joshua Cyr announced the RIAdventure event, a Bahamas cruise designed for fans of ColdFusion, Flex, AIR and other technologies. The idea is get folks together who may only see each other at conferences or user groups to enjoy the sun, open sea, some island hopping, and of course tech talk! My wife and I have been on several cruises and we're gonna venture out on this one as well.