SWFox 2012 was a blast

Hi folks – I am just back at work from my 4-day trip to Arizona for the Southwest Fox 2012 conference, Oct 18-21, 2012 .  All I can saw is WOW!!!  Ok, I can say a few more things that just that…

I had an absolute blast at the conference, saw many great sessions (as in *every one of them*), and, most of all, I spent as much time as I could engaging anyone and everyone who was walking around with a SWFox name tag hanging around their neck. Heck, I even cornered a few of the hotel staff members in the hallway and asked them if *they* wanted to know anything about FoxPro. (No takers, but I did get a visit from hotel security later in the day.)

This was my third time to attended the conference. If God still has me breathing air this time next year, I will be back for number 4.

I know there are some circumstances which absolutely prevent some of you from attending developer conferences, but, I strongly encourage you if there is any way possible that you can be at SWFox 2013, PLEASE, PLEASE, work hard during this next year to allow yourself to be there. You will not regret it!! 

If I could send off my employees to a conference and they come back this excited about doing their job, I’d do it. So, show this message to your boss so he or she will see how excited *you* will be after attending attending SWFox 2013.

The 2013 conference dates are:  Oct 17-20, 2013.

FAQ

Did I meet Jun Tangunan, the 2012 Ceil Silverman Ambassador?

  • Yes I did. I had several opportunities to chat with him, and he is a very interesting and enthusiastic developer. We’ve already swapped a few emails, and I hope to explore his VFP tools a lot more in the coming months. Read more about him here: http://swfox.net/ambassador.aspx

How many people attended the ‘Show Us Your’ App session?

  • I did a quick table and body count… There were at least 60 people present, and 7 presenters (myself included) who did 10-minute presentations.

What did I do for dinner on Saturday night?

  • Walked 1.7 miles (each way) to a cool burger joint named Joe’s Farm Grill with about 12 other FoxPro devs… Bill, Bill’s (wife)?, Joel, Barbara, Eric, Todd, Randy, Michael, Phil, Stein, Art,  and maybe a few others I can’t recall right now. (If you were there, or can add to this list, please let me know so I can add everyone’s name.)

Did I wear a custom-printed GoFish T-shirt one day?

  • Yes. (Photo coming soon.)

Did I fart around on my laptop during any of the sessions?

  • Nope! I purposely left my laptop in the hotel room, so as not to be distracted.

How many session did I attend? 

  • I attended 16 total sessions, 23 total hours.

What were my favorite sessions (in no particular order)?

  • Sql Server 2012
  • Sql Server Mgmt Studio Tips and Tricks
  • Amazon EC2
  • OutFoxThe Fox Report writer
  • .Net COM Interop with VFP
  • Calling .Net Components from VFP

Lifetime Achievement Awards

Congratulations to Cathy Knight and Craig Boyd for receiving FoxPro Lifetime Achievement awards. Thanks to both of for your many years of invaluable contributions to the FoxPro community.

VFPx Administrators Awards

Jim Nelson and I received a VFPx Administrators Award. It’s nice to be recognized for the work, but the people who use it and communicate with me about it are where the real joy comes from. Congratulations Jim!

Sessions I attended

In most sessions I sat on the front row, as I prefer to do any time I am watching anyone present material of any sort. It helps me focus, and not be distracted by others. (Okay, I did send a few FoxPro related tweets from my iPhone.)

Thurs

  • Intro to C# – Doug Hennig

Fri

  • jQuery 101 – Rod Paddock
  • Amazon Elastic Cloud computing (Host a Windows Server in the cloud)
  • ASP.Net COM Interop with VFP – Rick Strahl
  • Chit-chatted  with Andrew MacNeill and FoxFire Reports
  • Unit Testing with FoxMock – Cristof
  • Calling .Net Components from VFP – Rick Strahl
  • Show Us Your App (I presented my Dynamic Forms class)

Sat

  • Office Automation without Office (via Google Docs) – Cristof
  • Advanced Topics in Mercurial – Rick Borup
  • More Fox on the Run – Eric Selje
  • HTML5 – Steve Bodnar
  • Sql Server Mgmt Studio – Eric Selje
  • The Dangers of Accessing Sql Data – Kevin Cully

Sun

  • Give Me Some Skin – Tuvia Vinitsky
  • SQL Server 2012 – Manachem Bazin
  • OutFox the VFP Report Writer – Cathy Knight

 

I hope to see a lot of new faces there next year!

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