Phew! Sorry about the lack of posts while REAL World was happening, but I was rather busy. Now that things have calmed down a bit, I figured I'd continue my series post.
Day 1 was a blast -- there was Geoff's keynote (which I find boring, since I already know the information in it). But this year we had keynotes from others aside from just Geoff, and that was really cool. We got to see applications from REALbasic users, and they're pretty freakin awesome. After the keynote was over, I had to give my Deep Look at Threads talk, and I think it went rather well. It certainly had more people at it than I thought there would be (standing room only). After the talk, I spent the rest of the day milling around and talking to users. I also got the chance to meet Bill face-to-face, which was fun. I don't think I made it to bed until around 1am, but the lack of sleep was worth it.
Day 2 came a lot sooner than I was anticipating due to lack of sleep. I spent the morning answering more questions and just generally being helpful. But after lunch it was time to give my designing for Windows talk. That went reasonably well, even with Matt trying to throw me off with a second presentation clicker-dealio. :-P After the talk was done, you'll never guess what happened next. Yup, I answered more questions. :-) Yet another day, I was in bed late. This time it was about 2am. The unfortunate part was that my third talk was the very first one in the morning.
So I got up and did my design patterns talk, which was interesting. It was another full crowd, and to be honest, I was worried that the talk sucked. People seemed to already know a lot of the material and I thought perhaps I was going to bore people. However, the last topic I covered (how to get "friend" support in REALbasic) turned out to be a really good topic that generated a lot of interest from the crowd. So all-in-all, I thought that talk went well. The other problem with the third day was the fact that I was sick. I could barely talk because I lost my voice and my throat hurt. Needless to say, I tried my hardest to help people with their questions, but since I was so quiet, I wasn't able to do as much as I'd like.
Once the conference ended on Friday, I went back to my hotel room and promptly went to sleep. That was at about 4pm. I'm feeling more well-rested today, and my voice is starting to come back. Yay!
My favorite thing about the conference was getting to talk to customers. I really love hearing what sort of fun things people use REALbasic for, and I also really enjoy helping people out. There were a lot of new faces this year, as well as many familiar faces. So there was a good mix of interesting projects. I helped people out with medical software, computer forensics, vertical market database applications, and all sorts of other amazing things. It was great!
The thing I liked the least about REAL World this year was the fact that I lost my voice on the last day, and it was so short! Personally, I would love a week-long event. Especially if I had vocal cords made out of steel. ;-)
For those of you who went this year, what was your favorite thing? For those of you who missed out -- I'm sorry. You really did miss out. REAL World is easily the best REALbasic community event for professional software developers. It's a great time socially, as well as educationally. Honestly, if you use REALbasic to make professional grade software, you need to come to REAL World.
Any plans on coming to Europe with "REAL World"? I'm sure you would like some Swedish beer, but to be honest I think Denmark makes the best beer. Anyway if u come I will be able to let you try both of them so you can decide for yourself...
Favorite? The burritos. Hands down.
Of course putting faces to the names is always entertaining, and I found out that Norman Parlardy is not the dick I thought he was, in person, he was worse LOL. Love you Norman! Asher is a cool person, and about two dozen people whom I really enjoyed spending alot of time with. Problem was, some of the people whom I talk alot with, I felt like I was just picking up from a continuing conversation, so there was no earth moving, hey, your so cool moments. To the dude I got tossed out of Stubbs with, hey! I didn't know her mother was sitting right behind us either! Brad and Dave, two cool guys who needed more time and I had to leave early, sorry! Tony, and Doug, stick with it, your ideas are great! Kevin, I just placed an order for a Seven set top box DVR. Had a great time with you in the airport. The users were great, the real folks, well, I enjoyed talking with William, Marco and of course my dear little Aaron. Oh, and Mars too! He is a wild man, I could see doing some damage in any city he and I were in. I do believe the word in Mar's case is, understated. Dax, coolest thing I have ever seen is lightspeed2, I would have bought you a beer, but everyone else had that covered. I am really happy that every single person I talked to was really happy with RBLibrary, and lots of them had ideas for articles. Now getting some of them to write them up. Jeff, Guyren, Joe, Jerry Lee, Asher, Kevin, Tony, Paul, Mars, and about a dozen others, this means you.
Aaron,
I've suggested this before, and I still think it's a good idea:
RS should make the conference CD-ROM available for sale to those who missed the meeting. While it would help offset the cost of holding the meeting, it would (more importantly) also provide information for the large number of RB users who can't afford to pay for the travel, hotel, food, etc., but still need technical information to be successful RB programmers.
@Anonymous -- I don't know of any plans to do RW in Europe, but if there is one, you better believe I'll be there if I can help it! ;-)
@Bill -- sorry we didn't get to chat more, but I did love the burritos!
@Scott -- as always, it's a good idea.
Favorite part? Trish Murphy @ Stubbs! :D Purchased the "CD" via iTunes this evening, back home.
I had a great time talking to people and really tried to talk to people whom I hadn't met in previous years. Doing that is really out of my comfort zone. Speaking wasn't as bad as l feared it might be. I actually received a couple of compliments, which made me feel good.
Hands down, the best part is geeking out and getting to talk to the REAL Software developers.
I think that the only down side was that there were many sessions that I'd already seen the past few years.
Thank God I'm back in the proper time zone! ;)
By speaking, I meant leading a session.
The socializing with a lot of really smart folks is great. I always come away with a lot of good ideas and better ways of doing things.
Bite me Bill :)
Great meeting you Aaron!
We came down with 3 employees with the main goal to get some answers to questions (the VB converter being one of them) and essentially we got all of them answered and came back with about a dozen new questions.
For me, it was a rough 3 days because of all the questions *I* got asked. I can't imagine how rough it is on you guys (and gals) at REAL.
Keep up the great work and I look forward to future versions of RB and to RW '08.
Bob K.
Can you believe I actually got an email from someone who wanted to know if Norman was a real prick? I laughed out loud. I have to say, over the course of the entire REALworld conference, Norman and I got along like old friends, even though we have only had an email relationship. He was great company and a true gentleman. Of course, having known him via email, I expected something else, and was floored when I spent so much time with him.
Very cool dude, who was alot of fun to hang around with.
So lay off people, ok? He has the Bill vote of approval!
Gee , thaks Bill :)
now about the donkey :)
I keep telling you Norman, I don't kiss and tell.
Design Pattern session was good. Its great when they are explained with RB examples. Also, I learned more of other technologies in RB in the DP session than DP itself :-)
Thanks for your time Aaron.