Last night I received a TeraTech care package with a bunch of goodies to give away to the local Nashville ColdFusion user group. Many thanks to Michael Smith and company for sending the items.

The box included:

• 2 backpacks from previous CFUnited conferences. Backpack on left includes laptop sleeve (shown under hats).
• CF stickers
• CFUnited hats
• CFUnited travel coffee mug
• CFDynamics water bottle
• CFUnited presentation/slides book
• CFUnited flyers
• CFUnited mini notebook with super thin pen that is stored with the notebook

The Acrobat Connect recording for Tuesday nights ColdFusion Powered AIR meeting with Zach Stepek is now available. Zach gave an excellent talk with tons of great information on powering your AIR applications with Flex using Web Services or Flash Remoting (AMF). The recording is 1 hr and 25 minutes and includes all Q&A.

Watch it here:
http://mmusergroup.adobe.acrobat.com/p83838845/

The general CF and Flex/AIR community are invited to attend a presentation tonight broadcasting from the Nashville ColdFusion User Group. Zach Stepek, Director of Interactive Development at Crave Media Group, LLC and author of Foundation AIR: Creating Desktop Applications with the Adobe Integrated Runtime, will be presenting ColdFusion Powered AIR. Barring any technical difficulties the preso will be available via Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional at the URL listed below. If the recording turns out, I'll post it to Charlie Arehart's UG TV sometime after the event.

WHEN:
March 18, 2008 at 6:30pm CST

WHERE:
http://mmusergroup.adobe.acrobat.com/r78233552/

Last night the Nashville Flex User Group and Nashville ColdFusion User Group held a special Flex 3 and AIR launch event. We showed the exclusive user group video produced by Adobe which included an inside look at the AIR project and the team behind the release. I gave a presentation on the business case behind Flex and AIR which included info on all the new features of Flex 3 and initial features of AIR 1.0.

We had food and drink and celebrated the event with a Flex/AIR cake (pic below). Lastly, I recorded eight 30onAIR videos which have been uploaded to YouTube and will be blogged here over the next few days.

Thanks to all those who came out for a great event. Congrats to the following people for winning our giveaways:

Enrique M. - Adobe Flex 3 Professional
T Scott C. - Sony Playstation Portable
Scott L. - ActionScript 3 Cookbook by Joey Lott
Steve B., Cutter B., and J.J. M. - Limited Edition Adobe AIR 1.0 Launch poster

As you may have heard, Adobe has announced the release of Adobe Flex 3 and Adobe AIR 1.0.

Flex 3 is a feature-packed release, adding new UI components like the advanced datagrid and improved CSS capabilities; powerful tooling additions like refactoring; and extensive testing tools including memory and performance profiling, plus the addition of the automated testing framework to Flex Builder. Adobe AIR is game-changing in so many ways, delivering rich applications on the desktop, enabling access to the local file system, system tray, notifications and much more. Now you can write RIAs on the desktop using the same skills that you've been already using to create great web apps including both Flex and AJAX.

For a more in-depth look at Flex 3 and AIR 1.0, come out to our special meeting tonight at Dealerskins! Adobe is sponsoring this meeting with food, giveaways and a raffle copy of Adobe Flex Professional. We'll also be giving away some special goodies that won't be announced until tonight.

Links you should check out:

AIR Showcase
http://labs.adobe.com/showcase/air/

AIR Marketplace
http://www.adobe.com/go/marketplace

Adobe Open Source
http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/site/home

Sample AIR apps
Adobe Sample Apps: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/air/samples/
Digimix: http://www.digimix.com/
AOL Top 100: http://music.aol.com/help/syndication/desktop-widgets
eBay Desktop: http://desktop.ebay.com/
Google Analytics: http://www.aboutnico.be/index.php/google-analytics-air-beta-sign-up/
Parleys.com: http://www.parleys.com/display/PARLEYS/Parleys.com+V2+BETA+Program
twitterAIR: http://www.trajiklyhip.com/blog/index.cfm/2008/2/25/twitterAIR-v120-for-AIR-10-Released

Opensource BlazeDS
http://opensource.adobe.com/blazeds/

30onAIR
http://www.30onair.com/

Flex Showcase
http://flex.org/showcase/

Adobe's RIA technologies enable you to rapidly build and deploy the most engaging applications across browsers and on the desktop. The 615Flex user group and the Nashville CF User Group are hosting a special live event to share exciting new information on Adobe's platform tools and technologies for building RIAs. You'll see an exclusive user group video presentation by Adobe CTO, Kevin Lynch, hear some important product news, plus get your hands on some exclusive schwag and other giveaways. Be part of the fun and excitement and join the rest of the Adobe developer community by participating in this very special event.

When:
Monday, February 25 at 7:00pm CST

Where:
Dealerskins Office
404 BNA Dr.(Suite 600 (Building 200)
Nashville, TN 37217

Map and directions:
http://tinyurl.com/36gw67

Ben Forta's Flex 3 / AIR pre-release tour has already begun and the Nashville stop on the US portion of the tour is this week. Any Flash, Flex, AIR, or ColdFusion developers are encouraged to come to the event and learn more about the next major release of Flex and the new Adobe Integrated Runtime product release.

Attendees are encouraged to register for the event so we can plan appropriately for the number of folks coming. Registering will also enter you into the drawings for Flex 3 (prize awarded when Flex 3 is launched), some cool Flex/AIR schwag, an iPod Nano, and 4 iPod Shuffles.

Subs, pizza, cokes and beer will be provided. All you have to do is show up! Considering the excellent speaker, fantastic product information, and free food and goodies, you'd be crazy to miss this event.

I'm pretty much copying the below announcement from Adobe verbatim. There's little I can do to make it better, and I want to make sure to get the word out. By the way, one of the stops for this tour is Nashville where the event will be taking place in the building I work in. If you are going to be near Nashville on January 24, I'd love to meet you at this event. You can register for the Nashville tour stop here: http://www.615flex.com/special-events/.

Flex 3 and AIR are getting close to launch and in preparation, the Adobe Platform Evangelist team is traveling to select cities to show off the great new features and some brand new demos.

Flex 3 is a feature-packed release, adding new UI components like the advanced datagrid and improved CSS capabilities; powerful tooling additions like refactoring; and extensive testing tools including memory and performance profiling, plus the addition of the automated testing framework to Flex Builder.

Adobe AIR is game-changing in so many ways, extending rich applications to the desktop, enabling access to the local file system, system tray, notifications and much more. Now you can write desktop applications using the same skills that you've been already using to create great webapps including both Flex and AJAX.

Don't miss out on the opportunity to see and hear about this highly anticipated release of Flex 3 and AIR during this special pre-release tour. Plus, in addition to giving away some one of a kind Flex/AIR branded schwag, we will also be raffling off a copy of Flex Builder 3 Professional (pending availability) and a full commercial copy of CS3 Web Premium at this event!

Check out the comprehensive listing of dates at flex.org/tour to see if the tour is coming to your city!

Ben Forta is once again heading to Nashville, only this time he'll be discussing Adobe Flex and AIR. This event is sponsored by several Nashville companies and is being hosted by the Nashville Flex User Group (615Flex). Registration for this January 2008 event has been opened to the public and is FREE! Interested participants should register fast as seating may be limited.

Event Info and Registration:
http://www.615flex.com/special-events/

Tomorrow (Dec. 10) John Mason will be presenting on fundamentals of Adobe AIR to the Nashville 615Flex user group. John will be covering topics such as the File system API, the SQLite engine, clipboard drag and drop, offline/online functionality and the AIR security model. If you're in Nashville, the presentation will be at Dealerskins, where I work. If you're outside of Nashville you can attend via Adobe Acrobat Connect. Matthew Wallace, the user group manager, hasn't shared the Connect URL yet, but when I get it I will post it here. Full meeting details are here.

UPDATE:
The Acrobat Connect URL for this meeting is: http://adobechats.adobe.acrobat.com/r99106993/

The general CF and Flex community are invited to attend a Flex presentation tonight broadcasting from the Nashville ColdFusion User Group. We originally planned on doing this presentation in March of this year. Due to technical difficulties it was rescheduled for tonight. Theo Rushin Jr. will be presenting FlexTimer: A Case Study of a Flex RIA. More information can be viewed at the Nashville UG Web site. Barring any technical difficulties the preso will be available via Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional at the following URL: http://mmusergroup.adobe.acrobat.com/r69585719/. If the recording turns out, I'll post it to Charlie Arehart's UG TV.

WHEN:
August 30, 2007 at 6:30pm CDT

WHERE:
http://mmusergroup.adobe.acrobat.com/r69585719/