Adobe MAX, the annual showcase conference for all things Adobe takes place October 23-23 in Los Angeles, California.

Registration for the conference is already open, and this week the official Session Scheduler has been released.

I'm delighted to announce that Matt Gifford and myself will not only be there, but we'll also be delivering a BYOL (Bring Your Own Laptop) lab on "Search made Easy: Full-Text Document Search with ColdFusion".

In this lab, we'll be getting hands on and demonstrating ColdFusion and Solr; how to configure Solr, it's advantages over Verity, how to manage Collections, how to index files and query objects, and ultimate how to build a slick search interface.

You're going to love Solr once we're finished.

The Lab description says Windows, but we can guarantee it also works on the Mac as that's what we've built the code on. And there's no reason for it not to work on Linux as well, so not matter what operating system you're running, you'll be able to join in.

Scotch on the Rocks is now less than 5 days away.

If you haven't confirmed your place or purchased your ticket for the event yet, don't hesitate and secure one now from the official SOTR site: www.scotch-on-the-rocks.co.uk

We <3 our sessions

Covering two days, with two tracks per day, there are currently a total of 22 sessions, bringing to you a wide range of content and topics covering ColdFusion, frameworks, working methodologies, Flex, AIR and HTML5.

We <3 our speakers

No conference would be complete without the experts and 'purveyors of knowledge' standing up and providing the content for the sessions. This year is no exception, and we are really excited about the 19 speakers we have lined up.

We <3 our badgers

moving on..

We <3 our Reachies

For the first time in SOTR history, we are holding what we hope to be an annual awards ceremony, 'The Reachies'.

The large number of EMEA developers work hard at what they do, and provide fantastic content, open source or not. The ColdFusion community across the globe is one of (if not) the best, open sharing communities, and we wanted to take the opportunity to highlight that fact and reward developers for their efforts.

There are five categories in this year's awards, and if you haven't voted, or are still unaware the awards even exist ( shame on you ), head over to the nominations page on the SOTR website to view the categories and place your nominations.

There ARE prizes for each category winner.

We <3 our sponsors

The Scotch on the Rocks events rely on the input and support from other companies and organisations in various formats.

It is with this important support that the conference has been able to grow and progress year after year, and attendees have been able to enjoy the wealth of knowledge and fun of the event. A massive thank you to the sponsors of the 2010 event.

We <3 the attendees

Most importantly, a conference simply would not be a conference without people turning up, and we're very lucky to have a fantastic group of developers and attendees who join us for each event.

Ultimately, SOTR has always been undertaken with the attendees in mind, and it will continue to cater for you/them at every turn, every year.

We <3 doing it again

I'm really excited about this years conference. A lot of work and planning has gone into the event this year ( whether the attendee's realise it or not :) ) and we've already started planning the event for SOTR2011. We must be mad, so why do it?

Simple. We love it.

Ever since SOTR was brought to life by Andy Allan and Fuzzy Orange in 2005, it's been a boost for the RIA and ColdFusion community in the UK and Europe. Bringing together like-minded individuals and developers is essentially what the conference is about.

Whether you are there for business reasons, development ideas, educational purposes, networking, or purely as a chance to catch up with old friends and colleagues and to enjoy a beer or five, Scotch on the Rocks has always been and will always be happy to have you.

We <3 choice

On a final note, yes, the bar at SOTR 2010 is open and drinks provided for you. There's nothing better than relaxing with a beer or two afterwards and networking, chatting, catching up with mates and having some fun. The only choice is what drink to order from the bar. :)

2009 is most definitely a year of conferences and events for us.

The latest event to be thrown into the mix is the Future of Web Design (FOWD). I've been lined up to speak at the Glasgow event on September 14th, and will present on "Getting Started with Adobe AIR".

There are still a few early bird tickets left, as well as student tickets. So, what are you waiting for?

2009 is already shaping up to be a hugely busy year for Fuzzy Orange.

Project wise we're extremely busy, but as I've posted before, one of the objectives for 2009 was to get out on the road and speak more.

Well, we've added another event to the list for 2009, and I'm delighted to say I'll be jetting out to Minneapolis in May to speak at cf.Objective().

I'll be posting more in the not too distant future about the different topics I'm presenting on.

We've been working with Adobe to bring the ColdFusion Insider Workshop to Scotland, and I'm glad to say that we've managed just that.

On March 16, the workshop will come to Edinburgh, and it will be hosted at Adobe's Edinburgh office.

Head over to http://www.englebert.be/blog/index.cfm/2009/1/18/ColdFusion-workshops-tour-2009 to see the full list, and for details on who to contact for more information.

Fuzzy Orange will obviously be presenting at the Edinburgh workshop (in addition to the previously announced London workshop).

I'll be heading to London at the start of February to present at a half day workshop laid on by Adobe covering ColdFusion.

I'll be presenting on:

• Beyond HTML: Using Ajax, PDF, and More to Create Engaging Applications with ColdFusion 8
• The ColdFusion 8 Server Monitor

These workshops normally have an entry fee, but if you fill in the attached PDF provided by Adobe, you will receive a voucher entitling you to free entry.

One of our company objectives for 2009 was to get out on the road and speak at more events.

With Scotch on the Rocks I've been reluctant to give a session for a variety of reasons but 2009 will see that change, and in addition to speaking at Scotch on the Road, I'll also be speaking at CFUnited.

I'll be giving an updated version of my 'ColdFusion and PDF: Improving Your Workflow' session, which I presented at ColdFusionCamp in November last year.

I've attended CFUnited before, back in 2006, but this will be my first time presenting. Really looking forward to it!

Web Designer Mag has featured a number of ColdFusion tutorials by myself, and Issue 144 and 145 have the fourth and fifth tutorials in the series.

Issue 144 covered how to build an administrative interface using the CF8 Ajax Datagrid, whilst issue 145 takes the Ajax integration that bit further by showing how we can us FCKEditor (which is included in CF8), and how we can implement our own "Autosave" feature, ultimately leading to a basic Web mail interface.

The 5 tutorials so far have really focused on targeting those new to ColdFusion, or those who are just a tad intrigued by what the fuss is all about. Hopefully I'll be writing some new tutorials for Web Designer that will take our focus that bit deeper.

Issue 146 of Web Designer Mag features a review of this years Scotch on the Rocks.

Go pick up a copy!