BKeeney Briefs

Quick update on the ARBP and REAL Software Atlanta Summit.  This is the last week to get the early adopter pricing.  Purchase seats before February 1 to get the reduced price of $350.  After that it’s the full price of $450.  ARBP paid memberships get a reduced rate (check the discounts pages for coupon codes).

As of this morning, we have confirmed attendees coming from Europe and Australia and, of course, from all over the United States.  This is an excellent opportunity to talk REALbasic with others that know REALbasic.  This is THE place to find REALbasic developers for your Macintosh, Linux, Windows and Web projects and also a good place, as a developer, to find some work.  Certainly this conference is a good way to network with the REALbasic community.

Geoff Perlmann and Thom McGrath from REAL Software are presenting several sessions which should be a lot of fun.  They’ll be presenting about the new Web Edition and upcoming features.  If I was a betting person I would bet that REAL Software will show off something very different at the conference (don’t ask because I don’t know what it is).

So there you go.  What are you waiting for?  Come join us for what promises to be a very fun time.  Get your geek-on!

More information on the conference can be found at http://arbpmembers.org/real-studio-summit-2011.  Complete session list is at http://arbpmembers.org/real-studio-summit-2011/sessionspeaker-listing.

The January/February 2011 edition of REAL Studio Developer magazine is out.  My regular column talks about the value of ‘face time’ and how, despite all of the electronic means available to us, of communicating with one another, sitting across the table with another person is a very powerful thing.

Sadly, we (BKS) meet very few of our clients face-to-face.  Those that we do have become more than just clients – they’re colleagues, partners, and sometimes even friends.

Personally, I think this is why I’m so excited about the REAL Studio conference coming up in March in Atlanta.  It’s a lot of work to put on a conference and do a presentation.  But past conferences have shown that I always come home very happy and jazzed about the things that I’ve learned and people I’ve met.  Exhausted?  Definitely!  But well worth it.
What about you?

Welcome to 2011.  I hope that you, and your family, have a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year!

If you’ve not heard about it already, THE REAL Studio event of the year is happening on March 19th and 20th in Atlanta, Georgia.  The Association of REALbasic Professionals (ARBP) and REAL Software are hosting the REAL Studio Summit 2011.

That’s just 10 weeks away!  There is still time to sign up and save some cash.  Until the end of January the cost is only $350 but after that it’s $450.

Nowhere else will you get as high a density of REALbasic developers in one location.  Currently there are REALbasic developers coming from across the United States, Europe and possibly Australia to come together to talk about our favorite development tool – REAL Studio!

This conference is shaping up nicely because there are topics that should interest many people.  If you want to learn more about the new Web Edition there’s a session on that.  Learn how to get your apps ready for the Mac App Store.  Learn about Cocoa and what’s going to be forthcoming in REAL Studio.  Learn how to manipulate PDF’s in your RB applications.  That’s just a few of the highlights.  See the complete session and speaker list at http://arbpmembers.org/real-studio-summit-2011/sessionspeaker-listing.

Some argue that conferences are a waste of time and resources and that you can do the same thing electronically.  I disagree, for many reasons.  There is something special about people coming together to discuss any particular topic.  Being able to sit across the table and look someone in the eye is an important quality that we overlook a lot of times.  I know I trust people more when I’ve met them in person than I do when I haven’t.

In years past (at REAL World events and the Colorado Summit ’09) I’ve found that the time in-between sessions is, in many ways, more valuable than the sessions themselves.  Developers that are business competitors discuss what they do to find clients.  They discuss the realities of being a business owner.  They discuss things face-to-face that they’d never do electronically.  Of course everyone gets something different out of conferences but I’ve found them invaluable as a RB consultant.

It’s also a place where work can be found.  I’ve not been to a conference where there wasn’t someone looking for a REALbasic developer.  Since there is no higher concentration of RB developers than at these conferences it’s an excellent way to find developers and find work.  Plus, you never know when another developer might have a lead and they’re too busy to work on so networking with other developers is always a good idea.

REAL Studio is made in REALbasic and it’s awesome that RS ‘eats its own dog food’ but we, as users, don’t necessarily have the same needs.  Many of todays biggest features have been discussed (ad nauseum it seems) at past conferences before they were implemented so don’t underestimate the power of cornering discussing things with an RS engineer.

I’m excited about this conference and I can’t wait to see you there.  See you in Atlanta in March!

We (BKeeney Software) updated our REALbasic Training Videos today with H.264 video as the default rather than Flash.  This allows access for iPad and iPhone users.

We have over a hundred videos and around 20 hours of training videos.  Our Journal Entry project, a simply diary application, goes through the process of creating a REALbasic database application from start to finish.  While we do all of the development on Mac OS X, we regularly go into Windows and Linux and explore the differences between controls and how to workaround those differences.

If you’ve ever wanted to see how other people use REALbasic, this is an excellent opportunity.  We have around two hours of free video (with registration).  Subscriptions are available and if you’re a student or educator, contact us to get up to 40% off full price.  ARBP paid members can get a 20% discount.

So far we’ve been getting excellent reviews!

[Updated]  Part of my motivation to moving to H.264 was to view the videos on my iPad.  The iPad is a really good medium for video training because it can run beside the desktop/laptop computer and you can do the same things in REALbasic while I’m showing it to you in the video.  Video on the iPad is gorgeous!