Andrew Shorten @ Adobe

There is a two-day training workshop taking place on the 24th and 25th of September in London covering some of the more advanced topics relating to Flex development.

If you’ve been working with Flex for a while and are interested in the differences between MVC Flex frameworks, design patterns, application builds and continuous integration, portals, modularization of Flex applications, unit, stress & functional testing, as well as a host of other topics, then I’d encourage you to check out this workshop.

More details and pricing information is here. You can use the code ‘ebd’ to get a 20% discount on the course fee.

As part of my learning process with the beta releases of Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder I created a simple version of the Employee Directory application that we use inside Adobe to find information about employees.

I’ve written up the process of building this application and it’s now available on the Adobe Developer Connection site as a tutorial. If you’re interested in walking through the process of importing a design into Flash Catalyst, converting graphics to components, creating states and transitions, adding interactivity and then moving to Flash Builder, to connect to a ColdFusion or PHP back-end to retrieve and display data using the new DCD (Data Centric Development) features then I’d recommend it to you.

This is the application that you will build by following the tutorial:

You can access the tutorial and download the sample files here.

If you have any feedback or suggestions for future tutorials then please let me know.

Following on from the success of the previous Flash and Flex Camp events held in London, it’s great to see that the forthcoming event, to be held on the 16th June, is happening outside of the capital, in Birmingham.

Flash Camp is a community run event, supported by Adobe and a number of other sponsors. It is a great opportunity to hear talks from respected designers and developers, get up to speed on the latest developments around the Flash Platform and network with fellow Flash/Flex professionals – and the best thing is that Flash Camp is totally FREE!

The agenda is shaping up nicely; there will be plenty of coverage on Flex 4, Flash Builder and Flash Catalyst, as well as sessions on component development, skinning components, Pure MVC and Away 3D, plus a panel discussion on contracting/freelancing.

The event starts at 1pm, so you don’t have to take a full day off work, and runs into the evening – the full schedule is on the Flash Camp website here and you can register for a place on the Eventbrite site.

Note that whilst the event is outside London, Virgin Trains are offering tickets from London -> Birmingham from £7, so Londoners are most definitely welcome

At the LFUG meet-up last week it was clear that not everyone was 100% sure about what goes on at MAX and why they should go, especially given the current economic situation. So, here is your 5 minute guide to what’s happening at MAX, who’s going from the UK and how YOU can go for less…

What is MAX?

From wikipedia… “Adobe MAX is a large annual event held by Adobe in North America, Europe and Japan. The purpose of the event to provide unique opportunities for those in the computer design and development industries to connect and learn the latest cutting-edge technologies that Adobe releases.”

This year’s European event is taking place December 1st – 3rd in Milan, Italy. If you’re interested in Adobe’s technology roadmap, new product announcements or want to learn more about the Flash Platform and Flex through hands-on labs and over 50 Flex developer sessions then MAX Europe is for you. Use the session browser to explore all the sessions at MAX.

Who is going to MAX Europe from the UK?

This year, there are a host of speakers travelling from the UK to speak at MAX, alongside Adobe product managers, evangelists and designers & developers from all around the world. Here are some of the sessions from UK speakers:

• James Whittaker (RefreshingApps.com), “Perfecting the user experience in Adobe AIR”
• Samuel Williams (LBi), “Building Flex applications with PureMVC”
• Neil Middleton (Monochrome), “Structuring your development team and getting the work done”
• Mike Jones (FlashGen), “Debugging and profiling with Flex Builder”
• Rob Bateman (Away3D), “Finding Away3D”
• Stefan Richter (FlashComGuru), “Building collaborative applications with Flash Media Server”
• Carlos Ulloa (Papervision3D), “Advanced Papervision3D”-
• Rick Williams (AKQA), “Anatomy of a seriously sophisticated AIR application”
• Dom O’Brien (Glue London), “Interactive Video Campaigns”

We’re planning to hold a get together dinner on Sunday night in Milan, in conjunction with the LFUG, for all attendees travelling from the UK – come and network with UK Flex developers before the event starts, pick up your exclusive MAX T-Shirt and plan out your agenda for the conference. There is a rumour that Adobe are sponsoring some drinks

How do I justify the cost?

In the current economic climate, it can be challenging to justify the cost attending conferences – if you do need to sell it to your boss, then I think MAX is better positioned as 3 days of intensive training; in which case, at around £400 (book using discount code UKI816) it’s pretty good value. Travelling to MAX in Milan from the UK doesn’t need to be expensive – I’ve listed some low cost options for flights and hotels below; and you could always consider room sharing to reduce the cost further… why not post over on the LFUG forums for a room mate?

EasyJet have return Gatwick<->Milan flights from around £50.
BA have return Heathrow<->Milan flights from around £100.
Hotels – there are hotels on Expedia from around £45 a night staying near the Central Station. A map of recommended hotels is available here.

Why else should I go?

Well, keep an eye on Ryan Stewart’s blog for another BIG reason to attend MAX Europe…

We’re gearing up for MAX Europe which is happening December 1st – 3rd in Milan and I’m pleased to say that we’ve got some great speakers travelling (under their own steam ) from the UK to Italy to present at the conference.

The MAX Europe session finder is not quite up to date yet, so here’s a list of the UK speakers and their sessions, each of which is exclusive to the European version of MAX 2008…

• James Whittaker (RefreshingApps.com), “Perfecting the user experience in Adobe AIR”
• Samuel Williams (LBi), “Building Flex applications with PureMVC”
• Neil Middleton (Monochrome), “Structuring your development team and getting the work done”
• Mike Jones (FlashGen), “Debugging and profiling with Flex Builder”
• Rob Bateman (Away3D), “Finding Away3D”
• Stefan Richter (FlashComGuru), “Building collaborative applications with Flash Media Server” 
• Carlos Ulloa (Papervision3D), “Advanced Papervision3D”
• Andy Hood (AKQA), “Anatomy of a seriously sophisticated AIR application”

With all these great sessions confirmed, alongside other speakers from across Europe, including Marco Casario, Nicolas Leirmann & Mario Klingermann, and of course, presentations from Adobe Evangelists, Product Managers and Engineers, it should be even bigger and better than last year’s event in Barcelona.

MAX Europe early-bird pricing has been extended until 19th October, so a full conference pass currently costs 720 Euros (inc VAT). Flights from London to Milan with Easyjet are currently around £50 return, including taxes.