 After a decade of working intensely with the ColdFusion server, I'm finally getting the courage to start presenting about it on the conference circuit. As a blogger, tweeter, and contributor to mailing lists I'm very confident helping others solve ColdFusion related problems because I can do that from the quiet comfort of my own desk. However, one of my greatest fears has always been public speaking. I'm the kind of person that feels like I need to know the subject matter cold, so that I can speak from the hip without relying on looking at the slides.
 Over the years, I had some opportunities to present to small groups, and I recall each time feeling the adrenalin surge and my heart pounding. That started with presenting ColdFusion for Unix and Linux as an internal training class at Macromedia. Later, while taking classes at the Harvard Extension School, I was honored to be asked to present to CSCI-253 Developing Web-Based Database Applications. Even more so, I presented twice there in one year. The first time on Building ColdFusion Web Applications with CFEclipse and Dreamweaver, and later on ColdFusion Server Administration
 I've been attending ColdFusion conferences since the days of Allaire DevCon, but had never presented at any of them including MAX. My long time friend in the local ColdFusion Community, Brian Rinaldi, continued to encourage me to present at the local Boston CFUG as a starting point, as well as the new conference that he was organizing, RIA Unleashed, held in Bentley College this past November. The members of the CFUG were kind enough to let me present a draft of a presentation that I was to later give at RIA Unleashed. My presentation topic was Adobe LiveCycle DataServices Data Management for Mere Mortals
 Fortunately at RIA Unleashed I was among the very first sessions after the keynote, so there was no time to build up butterflies that morning. If beforehand you would have told me that among the audience front row would be Ben Nadel, Simon Free, and Ray Camden with Tom Jordahl tucked way in the back then I surely would have freaked out. But they were both kind enough to chat with me before hand and even lend some technical assistance getting setup with the A/V, so that really put me at ease. With a firm limit of 50 minutes, I pushed all the way through what should have been a 90 minute talk, all the while trying to remember to speak clearly and loudly. The talk went off pretty much without a hitch as I found myself completely focused on the technical content and not at all worrying about the large room filled with people in front of me. I was delighted at the end when Tom complemented me on talk, which to me was the ultimate satisfaction.
 I chose LCDS for ColdFusion as a topic because while I was a QA Engineer on the ColdFusion team at Adobe, I was paired with Tom, a Computer Scientist at Adobe who architected the integration between the products. Heck, Tom architected much of ColdFusion itself, and was in fact the original engineer to have ported ColdFusion to run on Unix and Linux back in the day. Tom is a font of information, and I cut my teeth on the feature under his guidance, which was then known as Flex Data Services and later renamed under the LiveCycle brand. I spent many days last summer and fall revisiting all the LCDS documentation again to ensure the quality of my presentation and to mentally prepare me for the upcoming conference.
 WIth my first conference under my belt, I decided to throw my hat into the ring for the ultimate ColdFusion experience, CFObjective, which is promoted as The Only Enterprise ColdFusion Conference. I'm excited to announce that I have been selected to be a speaker at the conference, which runs from April 22-24th in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The conference is divided into three tracks for technologies related to ColdFusion. I'll be speaking the last day in the Flex track, once again on the topic of LiveCycle DataServices for ColdFusion Developers. Specifically I'll be talking about the prime feature of LCDS, the Data Management capabilities. With any luck I'll be updating my presentation to consider the benefits of working with the latest versions of Adobe software. Here's the brief description and the PDF:
Discussions of Adobe's LiveCycle Data Services are often entered with the same trepidation as those of Organic Chemistry or Quantum Mechanics, but with ColdFusion, building Web applications that manage complex data sets doesn't have to be that scary. Data Management is a pillar of LCDS that offers scalable, real-time data synchronization across very large numbers of connected clients with the benefits of conflict resolution and data pagination. Come learn how to quickly get up to speed with Data Management by letting ColdFusion do the hard work for you.
If you're seriously interested in ColdFusion, then CFObjective is the conference for you. I hope to see you there.
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