It's seven weeks until Matt Gifford and myself give our Hands on Lab at this years Adobe MAX conference. We're delivering a 90 minute lab on Search Made Easy: Using ColdFusion and Solr.

We're putting the final touches to the material and we're hoping to get a full house for our lab (it's at 62% capacity right now). For anyone who attended my ColdFusion and PDF session last year, you know it will be worth it.

As an added incentive we're going to offer one lucky attendee a free ticket to Scotch on the Rocks 2011 and 3 nights accommodation at the conference venue, the Apex International Hotel.

All you need to do is attend our lab and provide Matt and and myself with a bag of donuts.

We'll then decide whose donuts were best. Simple.

Best of luck.

"Painting the Forth Bridge". This phrase was used to identify the fact that painting one of Edinburgh's iconic structures was a never ending job. The current painting of the bridge however, is slightly different in that a new approach has been taken that will see the paint work have an expected life of anywhere between 25 and 40 years, thereby eliminating the need to repaint continuously.

Organising Scotch on the Rocks (and I would imagine any conference) is somewhat similar to Painting the Forth Bridge. As soon as you're done, you start organising for the next year.

Now, we wouldn't persist in running the conference every year if we didn't enjoy it, but with anything in life, we're looking to streamline our approach so that we can spend less time on ... well, the time consuming areas. This was made a tad more difficult the last two years due to the economy and the fact we had to adapt or die.

I'm delighted to say that our 5 year plan, which was conceived in 2008 after things headed south, has proved to be fruitful.

Scotch on the Rocks 2011: March 3-4, 2011

2011 will see the conference head home to Edinburgh after 2 years traveling. Taking place at the Apex International hotel, in the Edinburgh Grassmarket, underneath the skyline dominating Edinburgh Castle, Europe's longest running ColdFusion conference will bring the best of the best from the world of ColdFusion, Flex, AIR, HTML5 and more to Edinburgh on March 3rd and 4th.

Tickets are already on sale, and in fact are already 50% sold out after just two weeks. For more information on the 2011 conference, and to purchase your ticket, head over to http://www.sotr.eu.

Our 3 year paint

Just like the painting of the bridge, we've managed to reduce some of the repetitiveness. One of the biggest tasks with organising a conference is finding a venue. For the next 3 years (2011-2013) we will be at the Apex International Hotel and this reduces our workload considerably. It also allows us to build up a good relationship with the hotel, and with that comes the opportunity to provide better deals with our delegates and sponsors.

Here's to a long and illustrious life, for both the Bridge and Scotch on the Rocks.

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. :)

We've been staying kinda quiet about Scotch on the Rocks through the FuzzyO blog for a couple of reasons, but with the conference only being a month away, I thought it was time we gave it a little love.

The Fuzzy team will be at SOTR in full force - we are the organisers after all - and our very own Matt Gifford will be speaking along side the likes of; Ray Camden, Ben Nadel, Luis Majano, Terry Ryan, Chris Mills, etc, etc and so on and so forth. Seriously, it's a really great line up.

Joining us on the sponsor shelf are; Adobe, Railo, Prisma-IT, Centinated, Hostelbookers.com, Academy Class, Intergral and Flint Hosts... this really is a great sponsor line up.

Tickets are still on sale, at a very affordable £165+vat so if you haven't got yours yet, why not head over to the SOTR site and get yourself signed up for the annual SOTR fix.

Also, don't forget to vote in the "Reachies", our new award ceremony where we honour the best of EMEA.

Oh... and did I mention there will be a free bar on both Monday and Tuesday? Well I have now.

See you in London at the end of May.

A few new items to highlight regarding the uber-event that is Scotch on the Rocks 2010 - The Movie.

Award Nominations

This year at SOTR we want to honour, showcase and acknowledge the talent within the European ColdFusion community. Our EMEA developers work hard, play hard and give a lot to the community. Welcome to 'The Reachies' This year, we have created our first official award ceremony. 'The Reachie' awards consists of five categories, the winners of which will be revealed on Tuesday 25th May, the final day of SOTR2010. As it's a community-focussed event, who better to nominate the entrants than the community themselves. The five categories and the accompanying prizes are:

• Best ColdFusion blog: 16GB iPod Nano
• Best ColdFusion developer to follow on social media: Nintendo DSi
• Best ColdFusion site: Flip Ultra II Camera
• Best open-source ColdFusion application: ColdFusion Builder
• Best all-round ColdFusion community member: Flash Builder 4 Professional

The awards are now open, so please make sure you head over to the awards page and submit your nominations for the categories. Entries will close on Monday 24th May 2010.

Promo video

We have released the first of our SOTR 2010 promotional videos, which you can enjoy in full modern colour here: Feel free to post it, blog it, love it and pass it around.

We're just about a month away from this years Scotch on the Rocks conference. Unlike previous years, we're taking 2009 on the road with stops in London (June 1st), Manchester (June 3rd) and Edinburgh (June 5th).

One of the major highlights of this year will be our sessions on Centaur; aka ColdFusion 9, and Bolt; the ColdFusion IDE that Adobe are working on.

ColdFusion Product Manager Adam Lehman will be covering Advanced ORM, and Evangelist Terry Ryan will be covering Bolt. Terry will also be giving the keynote at each location though Adobe are playing their cards close to their chests on what Terry will actually cover.

So, make sure you get your ticket for Scotch if you want the lowdown on ColdFusion 9 and Bolt.

www.scotch-n-the-rocks.co.uk

Fuzzy Orange are running a Scotch on the Road promotion as part of the upcoming ColdFusion Insider Workshops.

If you register for either the London or Edinburgh ColdFusion Insider Workshops, and purchase an upgrade from ColdFusion 6 or 7 to ColdFusion 8 either before the workshop or within 30 days of attending the workshop, receive one free ticket to your local Scotch on the Road event for each license upgraded.

Conditions

1. You must attend the workshop
2. You must purchase your ColdFusion upgrade via Fuzzy Orange
3. Offer only open to UK

We hate country specific competitions and promotions, so for those in mainland Europe, if you can provide the necessary proof of upgrade (from your local Adobe reseller), as well as confirmation of attending your local ColdFusion workshop, then we will honour the promotion when we bring Scotch on the Road to Brussels and Munich.

For the full list of dates for the ColdFusion Insider Workshops, head over to Claude Englebert (of Adobe)'s blog
http://www.englebert.be/blog/index.cfm/2009/1/18/ColdFusion-workshops-tour-2009

To purchase your ColdFusion upgrades, contact Fuzzy Orange using the information provided on our Contact page, or email me directly on andy[.]allan[@]fuzzyorange.co.uk

I'll be heading south on the 24th of this month to do a couple of quick client visits before partaking in a Wee Dram of Scotch.

A Wee Dram of Scotch is a one day ColdFusion event taking place in London on the 25th of September.

• Keynote - Adam Lehman/Claude Englebert
• ColdSpring - Mark Drew
• RAD Object Orientated CF Development - Peter Bell
• High Availability: Clustering ColdFusion Applications - Mike Brunt
• Subversion: Better Living Through Branches - Sean Corfield
• Setting up a Solid Level Local Dev Environment - Kurt Wiersma
• Railo 3.1: The Open Source Story - Gert Franz

A Wee Dram costs £10 to get in (cash only) and that gets you two drinks, plus 10% off the price of Scotch on the Rocks 2009.

And on that topic, we will be announcing the venue, dates and prices for Scotch 09 at A Wee Dram.

So, what are you waiting for ... Go Sign Up Now!

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

Go pick up a copy!