Meet our speaker
David
Belanger
David is a Canadian ColdFusion developer who lives in Argentina with his wife and 4 extremely active children. He's been with CF since version 4.5 and was briefly the only reseller of CF in Argentina before Adobe acquired Macromedia. He's dedicated full-time to CF development on several new and legacy projects as well as a strong CF advocate and a current member of the CFWheels Core Team.
He currently works full-time “creating things that matter” at Intoria Internet Architects, a web development company based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Tell us about...
Tell us something funny about yourself?
There's nothing funnier about me than the fact I wanted to be Vanilla Ice when I was in high school. I dressed the part, had zigzags etched into my hair and even spoke like him. Ice Ice Baby still makes me smile!
Why should companies or developers modernize?
I'm often conflicted by this question. As a business owner, I don't believe in upgrading for the sake of upgrading nor have I ever recommended it. I've always needed a solid business or security reason to do so. I believe in tools that work and using just enough technology to make life easier. I think it's important to have a good knowledge of what's out there and to make decisions based on what's best for the users, not the developers. As a developer, I believe that good ideas are good ideas no matter who comes up with them. Therefore if my tools don't have them, I look for ways to get them added!
Why is ColdFusion (CFML) still relevant?
Quite simply, because it works. I've never had a problem I couldn't solve in ColdFusion and even when we added mobile apps, we still used CF as a back-end and it's never failed us. I feel even better about sticking with CF when I see how many "new and exciting" technologies were promptly abandoned.
What would you like to experience during the conference?
I went to Into The Box last year and loved it. We didn't use any Box tech before I went and after we've dipped our toes in the water with CommandBox. I'm keen to meet new members of our community and to be able to share some of my experiences as a speaker for the first time in my career.
Which speaker at ITB do you want to sit down and ask a few questions?
I'm looking forward to speaking with Eric Peterson. We work a lot with ORM and I'd love to hear about his work with migrations.
Why should attendees go to your session?
LNo one thinks about adding another spoken language to a site until it's too late. A lot of the time, especially in legacy apps, most developers don't even know how to begin such a project. I intend to share my experiences with the attendees and I know this session will raise awareness and help them be better prepared for a more worldly site.
What is your favorite *Box Product and why?
CommandBox is by far my favourite Box! Getting new developers setup and going fast was always a challenge. Now, things are much quicker and easier. Box start!
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Meet our speaker
Lonnie
Ramirez
Lonnie Ramirez is a Software Engineer at Clango, Inc. He has 3 years experience developing web applications in Coldfusion and is currently attending Syracuse Univesity for his Masters Degree. He enjoys wildlife, dev ops, and a juicy algorithm. When you don't find him building tools to make his life better he can be found at Sci Fi Conventions mingling with Whovians and Klingons.
Tell us about...
Tell us something funny about yourself?
I am normally found dressed up in interesting costumes at various conventions throughout the year.
Why should companies or developers modernize?
Companies should modernize their work flow and processes.
Why is ColdFusion (CFML) still relevant?
Coldfusion is a great language for api and web application development that allows for quick prototyping compared to other options available.
What would you like to experience during the conference?
I would like to learn something new as well as meet someone interesting.
Which speaker at ITB do you want to sit down and ask a few questions?
Mike Callahan.
Why should attendees go to your session?
Learning language specific frameworks and code is great to improve immediate daily throughput, but learning design patterns and how to identify and use them will help improve your code throughout your career.
What is your favorite *Box Product and why?
CommandBox because it has revolutionized CF development for anyone not just those in the Box community.
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Tell us about...
Tell us something funny about yourself?
From my junior year of high school, I knew with absolute certainty that I was going to be a university professor of English literature. As you may have guessed, because my ITB session isn't a lecture on HamletBox, even best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.
Why should companies or developers modernize?
For companies, the reasons to modernize are numerous and compelling. Modern workflows and approaches to development are more efficient, less brittle, faster, more flexible, and attract better talent. The reasons for developers are similar; but I would add, not least importantly, that there's a lot of fun and excitement in what you can achieve with modern coding practices.
Why is ColdFusion (CFML) still relevant?
CFML is an actively developed language (both engines!) with a community of developers who are passionate about what they do. Developers building with CFML are using advanced tooling and modern coding practices to deliver fantastic apps. Community + Development + Results = Relevant.
What would you like to experience during the conference?
I'd like to experience advanced CFML coding, practices, and ideas that I can bring home and implement; to have interactions with really intelligent developers who can help me become a better developer myself; to have my mind blown a few times by some amazing new *Box development.
Which speaker at ITB do you want to sit down and ask a few questions?
Hard choices! I'd say Matt Gifford. His early CFML API wrappers got me interested in writing my own. He's not usually on this side of the pond, so ITB is a chance to actually meet and speak in person.
Why should attendees go to your session?
If you're looking for ways to get some real-world, hands on experience with Swarm, this is the session for you. Docker is exciting, but the roadmap to container orchestration can be downright confusing. We'll be looking at practical approaches and concrete steps to actually learning and deploying Swarm. And we'll build an awesome API mashup app along the way.
What is your favorite *Box Product and why?
CommandBox is the easiest answer here, so I'll go with what might be a less common choice: ForgeBox. It encourages open source CFML contributions and provides modular solutions to common developer problems. It's like a magic code toolbox; I can reach in and pull out all the components I need to quickly build an application, connect to an API, etc.
Meet our speaker
Matthew
Clemente
Matthew is a Founding Partner of Season 4, LLC, a team of designers, programmers, and writers working in the legal industry. After studying English, he took the road less traveled and one day realized, much to his own surprise, that he had become a developer. Perhaps because code can be poetry and applications are the built on creativity, logic, and language, he, like Alice, decided to keep going down the rabbit hole, to see where it would take him. He's been building with ColdFusion since MX 7.
He's a husband, father, and always trying to be better. You can find him on Twitter (@mjclemente84), Github (@mjclemente) and he blogs, time permitting, at the cleverly named blog.mattclemente.com.
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We are very excited to announce that Intergral will be sponsoring Into The Box this May in Houston Texas as a Silver Sponsor!
Intergral is a leading application intelligence company. Our flagship product, FusionReactor, provides real-time visibility and alerting of application performance issues. Thousands of customers trust FusionReactor to monitor their applications, enabling them to identify and respond faster to performance and stability problems. FusionReactor’s aim is to ensure applications run at peak operational and business performance.
Meet our speaker
Wil
de Bruin
When not managing his web hosting company Wil is building software, and doing some training and consultancy. He develops new parts of the Site4U customer portal and inventory system, by combining multiple database engines, queuing and all kinds of APIs while using as much Coldbox features as possible.
Wil graduated in Environmental Sciences and started off his career as a research microbiologist. It took him almost 10 years before he continued fulltime as an IT specialist. In 1994 he founded Site4U BV, at that time a company specializing in software development and web design. One of his first forays in website design was an application to find Dutch internet access providers at local area rates written in PHP/FI and Mini SQL, but soon he discovered this kind of interactive websites could easier be built with DBML (database mark-up language) using Cold Fusion by Allaire Corp.
Because decent ColdFusion webhosting was almost non-existing, Site4U decided to organize its own hosting facilities. Several years later focus of the company switched from building software to web hosting and nowadays Site4U offers cloud services at three locations in Netherlands and Switzerland.
In his spare time he bakes serious amounts of bread and pizza for co-workers, friends, neighbours and family.
Tell us about...
Tell us something funny about yourself?
In my spare time I am a quite fanatic bread and pizza baker. Of course I had to build my own woodfired oven in my backyard (http://www.lekkermelig.nl/een-dak-erop/), sorry in Dutch only...) and when it is cold and rainy I have a special bread oven indoors which allows me to bake 12 loaves in one session, so there is plenty of food for family, friends and neighbours. I am also the administrator of the Dutch bread baking forum.
Why should companies or developers modernize?
I started developing websites when Netscape Navigator was still in beta... and cfml was still called DBML. So I 've seen a lot of change. Tools are evolving, javascript and css frameworks are getting better and better and also in many server side languages life is getting a lot easier by using all kind of frameworks and toolkits. But it is not easy to stay current on all developments. CFML has lagged behind for quite some time, but with all tools like commandbox, coldbox and supporting libraries development is quite simular now (or even better :-) ) compared to other popular languages. Legacy code is a nightmare to maintain, so we should try to get rid of that. Modernization motivates developers to learn new skills and in the end the maintenance costs will be lower.
Why is ColdFusion (CFML) still relevant?
I don't think CFML is better or worse compared to other languages. I am quite experienced with CFML and coldbox, so for me it is an easy choice. There are still a lot of companies using CFML although it never became real popular in NL. We are moving to using CFML for backend API development mainly. I think for frontend development there are better tools out there, but they all have their learning curve, so for smaller project it still makes sense to do frontends in CFML.
What would you like to experience during the conference?
Last year I got very inspired from many sessions, and heard about a lot of new tools. This year I am expecting the same, and I also hope I can share some of my experiences with other people. This is not limited to the conference of course, there's also slack for daily communication.
Which speaker at ITB do you want to sit down and ask a few questions?
Eric Peterson. I liked his presentations last year and started investigating a lot of modules which he created. I already gave a lot of feedback, but it will be nice to talk in person without an ocean between us.
And Luis of course, because he's the only other person I know who likes CF ORM.
Why should attendees go to your session?
My session on RabbitMQ will show them how they can communicate with almost any other system with relative ease. It is really flexible and RabbitMQ solved a lot of problems for our company. I hope I can inspire others and lower some barriers for people who might think RabbitMQ is complicated.
What is your favorite *Box Product and why?
There are many. I really love coldbox itself, I am using it for like 10 years now, and the simplicity of wirebox injections although it can be difficult to understand when I teach other people how to use it. And I like many of the modules, such as cbvalidation, cbsecurity, cborm, quick and qb, in no special order.
Tell us about...
Tell us something funny about yourself?
Good question, no answer ATM!
Why should companies or developers modernize?
Because technology goes out of usefulness as fast as the average work vehicle.
Why is ColdFusion (CFML) still relevant?
It's more relevant. The technology is growing with tools like commandbox, written deeply with CFML. The reach is growing with container concepts like Docker. More function, more reach, less obstacles.
What would you like to experience during the conference?
Connect with others building similar skills, learn existing technology from Ortus I have not yet mastered like the Quick and Elixir. Engage with others to help build the future even brighter around CFML solutions.
Which speaker at ITB do you want to sit down and ask a few questions?
George Murphy, his CI/CD experience is something we want to have in place also.
Why should attendees go to your session?
We make API development too hard because we don't know how to make it simpler. We don't know where the boundaries are and what can be done better within those boundaries.
What is your favorite *Box Product and why?
Commandbox, because it moves CFML development from a personal preference to a technically preferred solution.
Meet our speaker
John
Farrar
John Farrar started programming in the late 70's on a Commodore PET. He served in the U.S.Navy and then met his wife during his reservist years. This was when the Amiga drove his computer interest for several years. Eventually he became a web developer and in the later 90's he started using ColdFusion building dynamic web sites.
With about twenty years of web development John has become known for his work with jQuery, Knockout and Vue AJAX libraries. Sustainable and profitable come together when the right technology is applied to the correct challenges. John enjoys focusing on strategy that will bring impact without getting delayed by over engineering.
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Tell us about...
Tell us something funny about yourself?
I can do the floss (thanks kids!)
Why should companies or developers modernize?
As a business owner and a developer, the biggest advantage I see to modernizing is reducing burdens. It could be administrative burdens (simplify server admin by using docker or lambda), cognitive burdens (organized workflows, reduce manual steps), etc. It is not about following the latest fads, you still have to weed out what is a fad, and what actually adds value and improves your process.
Why is ColdFusion (CFML) still relevant?
Because (1+1 == 2) in CFML. Unless that statement becomes false in CFML it will continue to work, and get the job done for many many years to come.
What would you like to experience during the conference?
II'm always looking to learn something new at conferences. It is a good way window shop various techniques and technologies without actually having to invest in fully learning it. Then after the conference I eventually start learning and implementing those techniques and technologies that resonated well with me.
Which speaker at ITB do you want to sit down and ask a few questions?
George Murphy, besides talking to him about Terraform, I would probably also ask him about fishing. George is always fun to chat with.
Why should attendees go to your session?
It doesn't get much more cutting edge than running CFML on AWS Lambda. Whether you have used Lambda before or not, there should be quite a bit to learn for anyone willing to attend. Also this is one of the few opportunities you may have to hear me talk about something besides security ;-)
What is your favorite *Box Product and why?
CommandBox - it is the swiss army knife that every CFML developer should have on their belt. I use it every day.
Meet our speaker
Pete
Freitag
Pete Freitag has nearly 20 years of experience building web applications with ColdFusion. In 2006 he started Foundeo Inc (foundeo.com), a ColdFusion consulting and products company. Pete helps clients develop and architect custom ColdFusion applications, as well as review an improve the performance and security of existing applications. He has also built several products and services for ColdFusion including a Web Application Firewall for ColdFusion called FuseGuard (fuseguard.com) and a ColdFusion server security scanning service called HackMyCF (hackmycf.com). Pete holds a BS in Software Engineering from Clarkson University.
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Meet our speaker
Brian
Klaas
Brian Klaas is the Senior Technology Officer at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for Teaching and Learning. As the architect for eLearning technology at the School, he leads a team that designs and delivers custom online courseware to students and members of the public health workforce around the globe. In addition to designing software and delivering courses, Brian heads up University technology accessibility initiatives, teaches "Introduction to Online Learning," and leads faculty training and development courses. Brian has presented on software development and eLearning at conferences throughout the country, including jQuery US, dev.Objective(), CF Summit, NCDevCon, and Adobe MAX.
Tell us about...
Tell us something funny about yourself?
I have serious impostor’s syndrome. Hilarious, right?
People in the CFML community know me as “the AWS guy,” which is great. But I know so little — so very little — compared to some of the real AWS gurus out there. If you ask me about CloudFormation, I’ll break into a cold sweat, shout “look over there!,” and bolt from the room.
I try to learn something new every day. Whenever AWS comes out with a new service (which feels like a weekly event), I try to figure out how I can add it to my AWS Playbox app. Between teaching at the graduate level, maintaining a huge CFML app, and trying to turn my three boys into responsible young men, I don’t always get to adding new services to the playbox right away. When I do find the time, though, I pull up the AWS SDK JavaDocs and stumble my way to success. I love that I get to learn, and try new things — sometimes things that I can use in my real production apps at work. All the while I’m learning to be less of an impostor and more of a pro — at least until the next Re:Invent conference.
Why should companies or developers modernize?
If you’re in technology, your skills became outdated today. It’s a brutal, ever-changing landscape. Keeping up isn’t a “nice to do,” it’s a “must do.” I’m not saying that you have to know every new JavaScript framework, or be able to spin up Kubernetes clusters in your sleep. Just be aware. Take small steps. Get better every day. Doing that will have a profound impact on your ability to work smarter and remain relevant in this industry.
Why is ColdFusion (CFML) still relevant?
CFML is Java, but better. It lets you develop quickly, while having at your fingertips literally tens of thousands of battle-tested libraries which can do just about anything you need them to do. CFML isn’t perfect. It doesn’t need to be. It just needs to make you productive right away, every day, which it does for me and my team.
What would you like to experience during the conference?
One of those moments where your brain has been completely fried by the sheer intelligence and smart work of one of the presenters. That feeling of “damn, I just got better as a developer by listening to this.”
Which speaker at ITB do you want to sit down and ask a few questions?
Pete Frietag — he’s so darn smart!
Why should attendees go to your session?
CFML can only do so much. There’s no reason you shouldn’t be tapping into the incredible power that infrastructure and software-as-a-service providers give you. Let’s be frank: AWS is the biggest player in that space, and it’s only getting bigger. If you really want to use AWS (or Azure, or GCP for that matter) in a meaningfully secure way, you have to master access permissions. If you can even get a quarter of the way to mastery of that topic, and learn how to automate some of that from within your CFML app, that’s a big win. And that’s what I hope to provide to people who go to my session.
What is your favorite *Box Product and why?
CommandBox - it empowers me to be a better developer every day.
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Meet our speaker
Nolan
Erck
Nolan Erck has been developing software professionally for more than 19 years, starting in the video game industry as a Tools Programmer advancing to web development in 1999. He has worked on high profile projects for LucasArts, Maxis, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, Schools Credit Union, and Alive N Kicking Magazine among others. His list of credits includes Grim Fandango, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, SimPark, and SimSafari, as well as high-traffic websites for a variety of technology based companies.
Tell us about...
Why should companies or developers modernize?
To stay ahead of the competition, to take advantage of recent innovations and make their lives easier, to stay relevant, to give your customers and teammates the best experience possible.
Why is ColdFusion (CFML) still relevant?
CFML has all the fun language and ecosystem benefits that the JavaScript/Node community rave about. Plus it has several baked-in features that make it THE tool for integrating with other systems. I run a consulting business; we try to be objective and pick the right tool for the given project. 9 times out of 10 we pick CFML first.
What would you like to experience during the conference?
Into The Box is always a great place to learn the truly cutting edge things being done in the CFML space. I expect to attend several great sessions and learn more modern techniques for using CFML in 2019
Which speaker at ITB do you want to sit down and ask a few questions?
Brian Klaas always does a fantastic job; I learn a lot from his presentations. I'm also a big fan of talks by Eric Peterson and Matthew Clemente. Looking forward to seeing all of them.
Why should attendees go to your session?
There is so much promo about how the Node ecosystem has made JavaScript a "run anywhere" language. The truth is, we a very similar set of functionality in the CFML space with CommandBox. My session will help shed some light on how easy it is to use CommandBox to get a lot of the same benefits one gets from Node and npm. The CFML community really can get those same benefits with the tools already available to them!
What is your favorite *Box Product and why?
CommandBox. As part of my consulting business we often flip between several projects in a given week. Being able to spin up servers that match my client specifications with a simple command line tool saves us tons of work
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Check Out Our Featured Sessions
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CBStreams : Accelerate your Functional Programming with the power of Java Streams
This session will introduce the cbStreams module. It will discuss what Java streams are, each of the available methods and options, and how to implement cbStreams into their applications.
CommandBox vs Node.js
JavaScript is everywhere, and with that so is Node.js. Developers feel they have to have Node installed for a modern development workflow. Did you know that all the core features of Node now exist in a pure CFML workflow?
CommandBox vs Node.js
JavaScript is everywhere, and with that so is Node.js. Developers feel they have to have Node installed for a modern development workflow. Did you know that all the core features of Node now exist in a pure CFML workflow?
Try This At Home: Building a Personal Docker Swarm
Looking for some real-world knowledge and hands-on experience with Docker Swarm? What are you waiting for? In this session, we’ll walk through containerizing and deploying a personal CFML project to Swarm. The best way to learn is by doing, and it’s also the most fun
ITB2019 - Meet David Belanger
