Macromedia MAX 2004

Greetings from Macromedia MAX 2004 in New Orleans. The conference is almost over, and we've seen some wonderful things. We saw glimpses of the new version of Dreamweaver, code-named "Coltrane", which among other things will integrate some of the great functionality previously found in Homesite like expanding and collapsing lined groups of code. The new Flash player version 8, code-named "Maelstrom", will feature a new codec with faster, clearer video, a new improved clear type font code-named "Saffron" and the ability to do transparency overlays or "alpha-channeling". We also saw a sneak peek of the next version of Flash code-named "8Ball", and we saw some cool things like automatic shadowing and advanced manipulation of gradiants.

A great deal of the conference was spent touting the next version of ColdFusion code-named "Blackstone". Last year at Macromedia MAX 2003 in Salt Lake City we saw Blackstone for the first time as a sneak peek, but this year everyone at MAX was given a disk and the opportunity to be a part of the Blackstone Beta2. I attended a session this morning on the next generation of reporting and charting in ColdFusion, and frankly I'm really, really looking forward to using this. ColdFusion will feature a Report Builder that will be able to generate report templates that can be called by the or tags. These tags will build reports or can be wrapped around HTML content to generate FlashPaper or PDF files. Flash Paper is a new portable document type that runs in the Flash player...it's pretty cool.

Monday morning was spent travelling from Chicago to New Orleans. After checking into the MAX hotel, the Hilton Riverside, I asked the hotel concierge how to get to the Convention Center. I was told it was the next building down beyond the hotel's parking garage. While this is true, it is worth noting at this time that the Convention Center is the length of 3 football fields, and MAX was at the opposite end of the building! After a 15 or 20 minute walk, I arrived at the check-in/registration area and made my way to "Community College", which was already underway. "Community College" is an event for User Group Managers (of which I'm one) and Team Macromedia members. Thanks to Ed Sullivan and Amy Brooks of Macromedia for another great event!

I had dinner Monday night at Mother's here in New Orleans. Mother's (see http://www.tailgating.com/NewOrleans.htm) was recommended to me by one of the shuttle bus drivers that took us back to the Hilton Riverside from the Convention Center. I had the best catfish I've ever had with sides of red beans & rice and collared greens. For dessert I had a slice of sweet potato pie. All of this for $19.00...very good and authentic. At lunchtime there was a line into the restaurant that stretched down the block. I spent Monday getting settled into New Orleans and watching the ferry boat and tugboat/barge traffic out my 15th floor window overlooking the Mississippi River (and raiding the honor bar in my room).

I spent a good portion of the afternoon at The Riverwalk (http://www.riverwalkmarketplace.com) not far from the Hilton Riverside. I had planned to duck in and grab a snack as well as look for some souveniers for my sons. Perhaps it was my nose that directed to my first stop--it was Cafe du Monde (http://www.cafedumonde.com), a chain/outlet in the mall that serves the same coffee and beignets (pronounced "ben-yays") as the French Quarter restaurant/cafe. I dined on some beignets and watch a thunderstorm begin outside the window overlooking the mighty Mississippi River. Staying inside and avoiding the thundershowers, I bought the typical tourist gifts of alligator tee-shirts, black-faced jazz player refrigerator magnets, sweet New Orleans praline pecans and bottles of hot sauce and Tabisco branded paraphenalia.

Tuesday evening we had the annual User Group event/giveaway at the Community Pit. This was very well attended this year, and I enjoyed meeting a lot of conference attendees and talking about User Groups. I had a nice conversation with Angela Buraglia (author of Dreamweaver MX Killer Tips) and Daniel Short who run the very popular Dreamweaver FAQ Web site (http://www.dwfaq.com). You need to check out this book and this Web site if you're a DHTML developer as you will find so many good resources in both. It was also very nice to talk with Macromedia engineers and product personnel who were on hand to chat and answer questions. The `Pit...where there is wired and wireless Internet access along with couches and bean bag chairs...it a popular gathering spot for various notables.

Tuesday dinner was spent with new and old friends at Mulate's (http://www.mulates.com) about halfway between the Convention Center and the Hilton Riverside. There was a good band playing mostly country music, and we dined on mostly seafood. I had half fried crawfish and half crawfish etouffe with fried alligator as an appetizer. It was a nice atmosphere and good food for $28.00 a piece. Tuesday evening was spent on my Project Management class for my Master's degree and watching election returns. Hopefully I end up with a better grade in my class than we ended up with as a choice for president!

Wednesday evening after "Sneak Peeks" was spent at a cocktail party thrown by Macromedia and then on to the conference-wide event at "Mardi Gras World" (see this link for more). There was a band in one room and a DJ in another. We were treated to good food, lots of drinks and a real Mardi Gras parade. A couple of the highlights in the room with the band were the sexy "Mustang Sally" women of Macromedia and the never-ending conga line. In addition to the band and the lots of drinks....did I mention there were lots of drinks?...there were also paper maché heads/floats to look at (pictures to come here soon).

Needless to say that turnout for the Thursday morning sessions was spotty. Wednesday night was a lot of fun! I attended some great sessions on Thursday, and it's always sad to see the day wind down as it is right now and people trickling away to catch their flights home. I'm not leaving until Friday morning, luckily, so I have one more night in New Orleans. The plan is to see Big Al Carson who is playing blues at a joint down on Bourbon Street. I haven't been to the French Quarter or Bourbon Street yet, so I'm looking forward to saying I've been there.

The word is that next year's MAX conference will be held in a major city on the Left coast. Hopefully I'll see some familar faces again next year like Todd, Cory, Sutton, Michael and others, and it will be nice to make some new friends, too. If you get a chance to attend MAX, it's well worth it for the info on new products, the learning from workshops and the friends you make.