An Architect's View

I'm in Denver airport with time to spare and thinking about cf.Objective() (and IM'ing with several of the folks I saw at the conference!). The location made a big difference this year - it gave the conference a much lighter feeling, much more space, so it was much more relaxed and friendly (last year was friendly but in a cramped sort of way). The food was also out of this world. I heard nothing but praise for the catering (although some grumbled at the price of beer) and that also led to a very upbeat atmosphere. That seemed to lead to a lot more laptop-based sessions in the hallways and in the bar. A lot of collaboration on projects and a lot of idea sharing. Definitely a good thing. ColdSpring and Transfer were the darling frameworks of the conference - I think eight or nine sessions covered those in some form or another. I was impressed with the new stuff coming in Mach II 1.5 - Matt and Peter (and Kurt) have been hard at work with a lot of good ideas. It was great to see so many people I only know from online discussions. We often seem to be such a close "family" in the CF community and it's hard to remember that we sometimes only see each other face to face a few times each year! Definitely a "must attend" event. Start preparing for cf.Objective() 2008. Details will be made available much earlier next year.