360|Flex is Coming in April
If you're scared that Flash is dead; I can understand the fears. Adobe has been stomping us into the ground as if were the ashes of a freshly smoke cigarette.
I expect 2012 will be a year of transition for Flash Platform Developers. It may be because we have bitterness towards Adobe, or that we want to "follow the jobs", or just because we love learning new stuff. We'll spend a lot of time learning new technologies, such as Objective C, Java, and HTML5.
Learning all that new stuff will make us smarter, and better, developers all around. The 360|Flex schedule is full of sessions on these alternate technologies. If you're a Flex Developer and are looking for your next steps, this is a great conference to go to.
I'll be speaking on building games with Flex, and explaining why that is probably a bad idea. There will be tons of good info you can take with you back to Enterprise apps, especially in the mobile space.
I think there is a good chance that I'll be paying the bills by Flexing long beyond 2012; but that won't stop me from learning new stuff. Swing by 360|Flex in Denver this April 15th-18th and say Hi to me.
I haven't been keeping close eye on the full schedule, but I encouraged the 360|Flex folks to have a full track on other technologies.
With the fear of Flash dying or stagnating, this allows attendees to pitch the conference to their boss as a "future proof" training conference.
That said, I see a whole lot of Flex/Flash related content on the schedule.
Yes there are many session on alternatives to Flex, though I think of them more as additional toolsets vs. replacement ones. We think there's huge value in the Flex community being aware of other technologies that directly relate to them.
Plus there is a reality at play that Flex is in a weird spot. Some one could look at the conference the exact opposite way you did and say, "Why a conference on a dead technology?"
We'll work on making it clear that the theme of 360|Flex 2012 IS NOT alternatives to Flex.
Thanks!
Honestly though, it feels to me very undesirable to go to that conference since your post gives me the feeling that you are saying flex/flash technologies are being abandoned, and will most likely be by you as well. You mention a session about building games with flex and will be talking about why that's a bad idea (banging my head into a wall isn't a good idea either and so I wouldn't talk to people about banging my head into a wall).
Anyhow, I'm just a bit disappointed to see that someone who will be speaking on a certain technology, is also inferring that they will be ,moving away from it asap because it's quickly going down the toilet.
The move by Adobe to open source flex is actually a brilliant one in my opinion and I by no means see that as a bad thing. I can explain if there is interest.
John never said that 1/4 of the sessions would be alternatives to Flex. He said 75% of the topics relate directly to Flex/AIR. There is a difference. There are a ton of "non-Flex/AIR" specific topics that do not focus on learning alternatives.
As some examples, the Arduino session, the streaming media session, the OAuth session, Dev Patterns, Intro to Design for Devs, Maven by Example, and UI Design for Developers. All of those are "non-Flex" focused sessions, but none of them would be considered alternatives to Flex. Check out the full schedule if you haven't already: http://www.360flex.com/schedule/