In a little over two weeks I’ll be speaking at Flash Camp Manchester, which is a first for me as I’ve never been to Manchester so I’m really looking forward to it. For those who are considering attending there are some great speakers and sessions.

I will be presenting a session entitled “Developing with your inner designer” where I’ll be looking at how you can harness Flash Professional CS5, Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder 4 to improve your designer / developer workflow. There will be some code, but for the first time in a very long time I’ll be focusing on the abilities of each of these products and where you can leverage their core strengths.

My friend and colleague Mark Doherty will be there talking about Flash and AIR on mobile and devices, Edwin van Rijkom will be giving an introduction to OSMF (the Open Source media Framework). Michael Plank from Powerflasher will also be there showing you how to improve your coding workflow with FDT. Anthony and Jeremy Ribot will be discussing the current state of mobile UX and Seb Lee-Delisle rounds the day out with a ‘space busting’ Papervision 3D session.

The overall session shapes up as follows:

12:00 Registration
13:00 Keynote
13:45 Break
14:00 Introducing the Open Source Media Framework – >Edwin van Rijkom 
14:45 Break
15:00 Developing with your inner designer – Mike Jones
15:45 Break
16:00 Set your code on fire – Michael Plank
16:45 Break
17:00 The current state of mobile UX – Anthony & Jeremy Ribot
17:45 Break
18:00 Mobile Flash and AIR 2 on mobile – Mark Doherty
18:45 Break
19:00 Space Invading – Seb Lee-Delisle
19:45 Prize Draw
20:00 To the pub…

So don’t delay register now and we’ll see you there. Plus if you’re around Friday morning Mark and myself will be holding a Flash Coffee event near Manchester Oxford Road railway station – sign up if you wish to attend as places are limited

For those who are interested in learning more about working with the Flex framework and Java, you’d be crazy not to attend the Flex on Java Exchange one day conference in London next week. There are plenty of great speakers and the programme includes a few panel style sessions so you can pose those questions you’ve been itching to know the answers to for a while.

Entrance isn’t free, but given the wealth of information in the sessions and the opportunity to network with such a high calibre of likeminded individuals the admission price of £95 seems well worth it.

Topics include:

• What can Grails do for me? Building Flex applications with Grails
• An introduction to the Spring ActionScript framework
• Flex & Java Communications
• Enterprise Flex applications with the Parsley framework
• An introduction to the Cocoa AMF framework

As well as the “park bench” open discussion sessions. Combine this with tea, coffee, biscuits (personal favourites of mine) and a free raffle for some great prizes; and this is a great looking event.

My friend and fellow Adobe Evangelist Michael Chaize, will be presenting the Flex & Java Communications session.

…you’ll see the new features in Flex 4, the integration of interactive designs produced in Flash Catalyst, advanced communications with Java using LiveCycle Data Services, Model-driven development, and Live collaboration services. Join Adobe for the opportunity to discover how when Flex meets Java you can revolutionize Enterprise applications development.

I will also be at the event, so please feel free to come up to either of us if you want to know more about the Flash Platform, be that the Flex framework, Flash Builder, Flash Professional, Flash Catalyst or our runtimes – Flash Player and AIR. You never know we may also have some stuff to give away at our booth…

If that’s piqued your interest, here are the details so you can block it in your diary…

Wednesday 16th June 9:30am – 6:45pm
Admission is £95 for the day
You can read more about the event on the Skills Matter site here.

We look forward to meeting you all. :)

Still not sure if you can afford to go to Flash on the Beach this year? Missed out on the “Early Bird” ticket prices? Perhaps this can help you make a decision…

My good friend John Davey, who organizes and runs Flash on the Beach has kindly given me a discount code for those of you who still want to come but missed out of the earlier ticket offers. This code is only valid for a few weeks so you’ll still have to get your skates on, but hopefully it’ll help you convince the boss / partner that it would be madness not to get a ticket.

The code is: FG038 and is 15% off of the Standard ticket price, which is roughly £305 a saving of nearly £45!!!

To get your discount Standard ticket(s) just head over to the Flash on the Beach ticket page and enter the code in the promotion code box. It’s that easy. Fill in the rest of your details and pay for the tickets. I believe the discount is taken off at checkout. ‘Simples’ :p

I’ve just heard that Flash on the Beach will sell out before the conference. So if you haven’t got a ticket yet don’t hang around as they’ll all be gone VERY soon! It seems that the popularity of Flash on the Beach increases every year and give the speed at which the tickets are going this year you might be forgiven for thinking that the recession is over :p.

Regardless, like previous years, Flash on the Beach will be an absolute blast – so make sure you don’t miss out by not buying a ticket :D. Below is part of the email I received along with the link through to the tickets page at the end of it. I hope to see you all there :)

FOTB09 TICKET SALES WILL END EARLY

FOTB09 tickets sales will end way before the conference starts. Because of the phenomenal speed of sales this year, we are looking at a 3rd year in a row being sold out way before the event! We have never seen tickets go so fast!

Standard ticket prices end on September 4th – however, we believe that we will have sold out around that date and most probably before then. We are already 92% sold compared to the total tickets sold last year!

If you haven’t got your tickets yet, don’t hang around! Get your tickets here.

For those not in the know, Flash Camp is a FREE community run one day event covering the Flash Platform. It’s on Thursday February 26th from 1pm-8pm. The speaker line up so far looks impressive, Mike Chambers (Adobe), Lee Brimelow (Adobe), Serge Jespers (Adobe), Seb Lee-Delisle (Plug-in Media) and James Whittaker (RefreshingApps); with the promise of more speaker announcements shortly.

Registration is now open so head over to the Flash Camp UK site and register to avoid disappointment, (if FlexCamp London ’08 was anything to go by places will fill up fast).

You can also follow the Flash Camp UK announcements on twitter by following the event through their twitter feed here

Spread the word and I’ll see you there :D

Today is a bit of a sad day. I’ve just received an email from John Davey (organiser of Flash on the Beach), informing me that Flash on the Beach Miami has been cancelled. It’s a real shame, but I can’t disagree with his reasons. The global recession is a concern for everyone and couple that with poor ticket sales, John says he doesn’t feel he can deliver the high calibre conference that us Europeans know and love.

I just hope that people don’t think that this decision was taken lightly, I know John, both professionally and as a close personal friend, and I know he will have had many sleepless nights trying to work his “Davey magic” to pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat

Below is his email in it’s entirety, for those who are interested.

It is with huge regret that I have taken the decision to cancel FOTB Miami. My intention was to take FOTB with its awesome speaker line up, fantastic networking opportunities and of course terrific FOTB vibe to the USA, but low registration numbers have meant that I would not be able to deliver the high calibre event that Flash on the Beach has become well known for.

It seems that the recession has really hit harder than anyone expected. Even reducing tickets to an incredible $99 did not increase the registration numbers enough to be able to deliver an event which is as good as the European conference.

For your information, I have given every registrant a 100% refund PLUS a complimentary ticket to FOTB Brighton.

Flash on the Beach Brighton will go ahead as scheduled, and already has some very big names, and exciting topics lined up. It is being held September 20-23rd.

I’m sure there will be a Flash on the Beach in the US next year, so for those of you who have missed out this time around don’t worry; and don’t forget Flash on the Beach Brighton in September :D

Now this is a nice touch. For those of you who are still wondering if you can afford to go to Flash on the Beach, South Beach, Miami in April this is for you. For the next 48 hours a three day conference pass with only cost $99. How’s that for a recession buster! Hat’s off to John for yet again raising the bar in conference promotion :D

For the next 48 hours only – ending at midnight PST on Wednesday 14th January. A full 3 day pass for $99! Are we mad? Nuts? Loco? Doolally? Yes – for 48 hours only, we are! Use the following code when booking: RSKNUTS1

Before I head off for a welcome break and festive cheer, I wanted to make sure I’d uploaded my session slides from my talk at MAX in Milan. If you attended and would like the code examples too, then please send me an email via my contact form.

MAX Milan was fun but it was very cold and wet, which put a dampener (no pun intended) on the whole event. Plus I was a bit fed up of cheese and ham by the end of it (those who went will know what I mean :p; but I digress, you can view the slides below or download a PDF version via the link at the bottom of the post.

Download Files

• Slide Deck

If you’ve been waiting to get your hands on tickets for Flash on the Beach Miami then the wait is over. For 199 lucky people you can get Flash on the Beach Miami tickets for only $299. Once those are sold out it moves to the next price band. I’ve included the breakdowns below. So to get the best deal hit the link below and get your ticket now.

After all will the current economic crisis it’ll always nice to have something to look forward to (and this will be a blast). I’ve also been told that South Beach in April is superb :D

Flash on the Beach Miami Ticket price breakdown (3-Day Pass)

• Super Early Bird Pricing (first 199 attendees) – $299
• Double Early Bird Pricing (ends December 19th) – $359
• Early Bird Pricing (ends January 30th) – $429
• Standard Pricing (ends February 27th) – $499
• Door Pricing (from March 27th) – $649

Order your tickets here

With a little over 12 hours until I head to the airport I thought I’d post up the sessions I’ll be attending while I’m in San Francisco (see below). I’m really looking forward to MAX this year, firstly because it gives me a business excuse to head to San Francisco (a city I adore). Secondly because it gives me the chance to catch up with some old and make new friends while I’m over there. And finally it’s because I’m going to be there with two of my favourite geeks and good friends Dave Williamson and John Davey

If you recognise any of us feel free to come say hi and if we’re in a bar we’re always happy to have company to chat about all things Flex, AIR, Flash and, well you get the point.

See you all at MAX :D