For some reason, the ColdFusion Team is going on a tour in March and April, to spread the word about ColdFusion Builder, which is currently in public beta 3 on labs.adobe.com.

I'm hitting two cities for now; some other dates are still in talks:

Dallas
March 24, 2010 7:30PM - 10:00PM
To RSVP

Philadelphia
March 30, 2010 6:00PM - 7:00PM
To RSVP

I'm extremely excited about both of these events. I hit Dallas on the last year's User Group and they did a completely kick ass event with the Flex Group. As for Philly, it's where I live, and I haven't been to an event here since I've worked for Adobe. I'm always somewhere else, but not this time.

I've got some cool stuff to show, and I can't wait to see you all.

I'm doing an eSeminar on Flash Builder and ColdFusion 9 on Wednesday February 24th at 11:00AM -12:00PM PST (2:00PM – 3:00PM EST.)

I'm going to show off the features that the ColdFusion team have added to make ColdFusion work easier with Flex as well as the features in Flash Builder that make working with ColdFusion ridiculously easy.

You have to register in advance so head on over to the Online Events page and register.

Due to some last minute CFUnited speaker withdrawals (unfortunate ones at that) I have picked up another session. So my sessions are as follows:

Thursday

• 2:00-3:00 PM ColdFusion 9: An Introduction to ORM
• 4:45- 5:45 PM Selling Professional Development Techniques at a Resistant Shop

Friday

• 10:15 - 11:15 AM ColdFusion 9: Working w/ MS Office, SharePoint and Exchange
• 4:15 - 5:15 PM How to Teach ColdFusion

I'm excited about all of the topics, but I'd like to point out two of them to you.

For Working with MS Office, SharePoint, and Exchange I'm teaming up with Dipanwita Sarkar from the Indian team. It should be great to see the SharePoint features in more detail.

Dipanwita has been working hard on this and on her other session: ColdFusion Builder: Getting Started (Bring Your Laptop). She'd like everyone who's going to that to try and have ColdFusion 9 Beta and ColdFusion Builder Beta installed ahead of time if you can. They're going to have a special pre-session workshop to help with that.

The second session I'd like to highlight is new one that got added, Selling Professional Development Techniques at a Resistant Shop. I've added a few things to it over the past few months, so if you have seen it before, it's still much the same content but updated. If you haven't seen it before, it basically is designed to help you sell all the things you learn at CFUnited to your co-workers when you get back to the office.

I can't wait to see all of you down at the resort. There will be cigars if anyone is up for them.

The mainland Europe leg of Scotch on the Road is a go. Adam Lehman, ColdFusion Product Manager, and I are splitting up the dates. We'll be teaming up with Andy Allan and Kevin McCabe of Fuzzy Orange, Claude Englebert ColdFusion EMEA Specialist, and Serge Jespers Platform Evangelist from Adobe to bring some ColdFusion goodness to the continent.

• October 19: Munich
• October 21: Zurich
• October 23: Milan
• October 26: Amsterdam
• October 27: Brussels
• October 29: London

The best part is it's free. Yep, no cost, one day sessions in various cities in Europe, completely free. Now you have no excuse to stay at work.

I can't wait to team back up with Fuzzy Orange, Serge, and Claude for this. I'll be taking the first week of events in Munich, Zurich, and Milan.

I'm doing a special session of Charlie Arehart's Online ColdFusion Meetup this coming Monday. The idea is to do consolidate all of the information that we've been giving out about Centaur and Bolt during the User Group Tour, and perhaps go a little further.

Anyway, it's online, at 12:00 PM EDT Monday July 13.

Hope you can make it.

Next week I hit the road for my first leg of the Adobe User Group Tour.

I'll be talking about Flex, Flash Builder, Flash Catalyst, and of course ColdFusion. My content varies depending on the mix of the particular user group, and I try to make each session different.

My schedule is:

• ColdFusion/Flex UG Tour - Albany, NY
  • June 16, 2009 6:00PM - 9:00PM at Albany, NY
• ColdFusion User Group Tour in Hartford CT
  • June 17, 2009 7:00PM - 9:00PM at Manchester, CT
• ColdFusion, Bolt, Flex and Flash Catalyst
  • June 18, 2009 7:00PM - 9:00PM at East Lansing, MI

I can't wait to get out there and meet everyone.

So if you haven't heard Adobe is having a tour of its ColdFusion User Groups to talk about the next versions of Flex and ColdFusion. In the past we've spread it out over something like six weeks. We're doing it in three weeks. In order to accomplish that we've had to expand the speaker list a bit beyond me, Adam and Ben. I thought it might be helpful if I give you all some background on all of them.

One thing I like about this list is that it includes some internal converts, people who didn't traditionally use ColdFusion, but who have started using ColdFusion over the past year or so and found that they liked it. I'm not going to single out the converts, but I figured that I would mention it, because even here at Adobe, we're still gaining users.

If you're an Adobe presenter and I didn't list you, it's because I didn't know you were presenting. Drop me a line and I'll add you. If I got something wrong in your blurb, let me know.

Josh Adams

As the ColdFusion Sales Engineer, you may have met Josh over the past two years or so. He's a great resource for deep technical issues with ColdFusion.

Mihai Corlan

Mihai is a fellow Platform Evangelist based out of Bucharest, Hungary. He's an old hand at ColdFusion, who was also part of the Flex Builder team at one point.

Claude Englebert

Claude, based in Belgium, is the ColdFusion Specialist for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Long time community member, he's been at Adobe for about a year, and wears many hats (many of them quite festive). If you're in EMEA, and need any help with ColdFusion, Claude's your go-to-guy.

Ben Forta

Who's Ben Forta - a riddle, wrapped in an enigma, shrouded in mystery and topped off with a crazy, giant, beard. No one knows where he comes from but it's been said... c'mon, if you're reading this you know who Ben is.

Kevin Hoyt

Kevin is a member of the Platform Evangelism team, and my boss. (So say nice things about me if you can.) He's been around since the Allaire days. He's worked with ColdFusion from the earliest versions, and many of you have seen him at User group events in the past.

Serge Jespers

Serge is also a member of the Platform Evangelism team. He's based in Belgium, but insists that he and Claude have nothing in common. He comes to CF with tons of front end experience, and can show you some things about Catalyst that will knock your socks off.

Tomas Krcha

Tomas is surprisingly another member of the Platform Evangelism team. He's got a ton of experience with Flash, and has a really good designer's eye. (Check out his site.)

Adam Lehman

Adam's the former ColdFusion Evangelist, and current Product Manager for ColdFusion. He's a long member of the community. Like Zoolander he's plagued by his inability to turn (and look) left.

Andrew Spaulding

Andrew is a Systems Engineer down in Australia. I got a chance to meet him when I was down for webDU. He's a great ambassador for Adobe, and I think you'll be in good hands if you get him for a session.

Ryan Stewart

Ryan is yet another member of the Platform Evangelism group. He does a lot of Catalyst and Flex these days, but way back in the day he a was bright eyed and annoyingly enthusiastic ColdFusion developer with me at the Wharton School.

Mark Szulc

Mark is the Technical Director for Australia and New Zealand. I also got a chance to meet with during webDU, and was impressed by his take on CF in relation to other products at Adobe.

Piotr Walczyszyn

Another Platform Evangelist, Piotr is based in Warsaw. He's got a very strong background in Java, and should have a great take on CF from that perspective.

Greg Wilson

Greg Wilson is a Platform Evangelist. He's a LiveCycle guy who embraced the power of ColdFusion when he saw how easy it made to talk to Adobe's internal MS Exchange server.

I'm pleased to announce that there will be a ColdFusion Birds of a Feather session at webDU. Come by and feel free to ping Hemant and I about all things ColdFusion.

Details:

• BOF: ColdFusioneers
• Thursday 5:30 PM

Please stop by.

A few people have asked me about the tour and the status of their city.

Allow me to explain a little more. Adobe is doing a whirlwind tour of 119 cities over two weeks. We will be talking about both Flex 4 and ColdFusion 9. Since we are going for a short intense tour, there are many of us doing our own unique tour agendas. Tours are being done by more people than I can name. If your city is not on my list, it may very well be on someone else's list.

Luckily there is a reference of all of the stops, check out Ted Patrick's blog entry on the tour.

Ben blogged it so I guess I'm free to now.

We're doing a multi-city tour of ColdFusion and Flex user groups. I'll be talking about the next version of both products, currently code named Centaur and Gumbo respectively. Here's the schedule:

• Albany, NY - 6/16
• Hartford, CT - 6/17
• East Lansing, MI - 6/18
• Bloomington, IN - 6/22
• San Antonio, TX - 6/23
• Houston, TX - 6/24
• Austin, TX - 6/25
• Dallas, TX - 6/26