REAL World 2006: That’s All, Folks

And we’re outta here… that’s all she wrote, folks. REAL World 2006 is is over and done.

I started off this morning by attending RBScript 101 by David Grogono. I must make a confession: this was the third time I attended a REAL World session on RBScript. In 2004, it went right over my head. In 2005, I figured a repeat of the session would cause it to sink into my head, but instead, it went right over again. This year was the first I’ve heard David present it, and it finally clicked. And it’s way cool.

The second session I attended was Database Reporting by Burke Squires. Burke did a nice job with the presentation, but I guess I was hoping for something more in-depth. But then again, I’ve been using On-Target Reports and rolling my own for a couple years now, so this session probably wasn’t aimed at me.

The morning wrapped up with Aaron Ballman’s Windows User Interface Design, which isn’t as much of an oxymoron as some might think. The session was very detailed and informative, and the participants were asking some great questions, which led the session to run over by a fair amount. But it was lunchtime, so that was cool, and most of us stayed quite willingly.

Following another great meal (not BBQ, but oh well), I finished up with REALbasic Fundamentals 201 with William Yu. A lot of was review for me, but I got some good ideas for exception handling.

Most of us sat in on the Feedback Session at the end of the conference. One of the things I really love about REAL Software is how open and responsive they are. Geoff Perlman and most of the REAL Software team gather in front of everyone to listen to what we all had to say about the conference. There were some good suggestions, like a day of hands-on pre-conference workshops next year, but all in all, the suggestions were for pretty small things, which I think speaks to high quality of the conference. We also got to watch the results of the code competitions and the impromptu bridge-building competition.

After the Feedback Session, a bunch of us (and I mean a bunch!) went to Stubb’s for some BBQ. Finally! We all managed to squeeze around four or five tables. I sat with Geoff, Dave, Dave, Christian, Gerard, and Will, and I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we had great food and a great time.

Thanks to REAL Software, especially Janet, for another great conference. It’s nice to be part of such a friendly and helpful community, and I think a large part of that can be attributed to REAL Software and their team.

I’m looking forward to REAL World 2007.

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