Five Things To Know About Into The Box 2018

Into The Box 2018 is next week in Houston, TX! Are you coming? You really should!

In 2017 I attended all of the ColdFusion conferences except for CFCamp (which I was scheduled to speak at, but had to change plans at the last minute due to a travel security issue — long story).  Into The Box 2017 was hands down the best ColdFusion conference of the year!  Most CF conferences (in my opinion) offer a mix of beginner, intermediate, and advanced/modern content. And of that, I’d say they usually lean more toward the beginner or intermediate end of things. For folks that need that information, that’s great, and we should absolutely have those resources available.  But for CFML developers wanting to learn best practices and modern CF development, Into The Box 2017 was  the best place to go.  From the looks of the schedule, the 2018 conference is going to continue that trend.  

I know all too well how difficult it can be to find the resources for a conference. There’s the conference ticket itself, the hotel, maybe an airplane and a couple days of PTO being approved by the boss.  I cannot stress enough how important it is to invest in one’s career, and attending conferences is a great way to do that.  Many times I’ve had to shell out large amounts of money to be at a conference, and every time I’ve come home from the trip, I’ve been really happy I did it!  On that note, here are five things you should know about Into The Box 2018:

1. This is a modern, cutting-edge CFML conference!

This is not your dad’s ColdFusion conference! :) Do you still have an app that’s using CFincludes and table-based HTML that you maintain? Or maybe something running a handful of custom tags but not much in terms organization? Well you won’t find sessions matching that kind of stack here. But that’s a good thing. No wait, that’s a GREAT thing!

People developing in Node.js and Ruby are always bragging about the features and abilities of those languages.  When you’re on a modern version of ColdFusion or Lucee, you’ve got access to those features too! Combine that with tools like CommandBox and there really is no difference in building modern CFML vs any other current web language.  You can learn all about these concepts at Into The Box!

2. Not all (or even most) of the sessions are ColdBox specific.

The long-running side effect of Ortus products is the large percentage of ColdFusion developers that hear the word “box” and assume the product is specific to ColdBox.  In short, that’s incorrect.  For example, WireBox is a great DI library that can be used on your legacy procedural CF codebase, or a first class MVC ColdBox 5 app, or anything in between.  And the Into The Box conference is the same way. Yes there is some content pertaining to ColdBox, but I’d say at least half of the conference sessions don’t require ColdBox in any way. Want to learn Docker? Better testing options? API Development? There are non-ColdBox sessions for all of these, plus more.  (There’s even a session on how to move your legacy CFML app into a ColdBox architecture — you could attend that and take advantage of everything both old and new.)

3. A live podcast recording on Thursday.

Remember when the CF Hour Podcast would record a show at cf.Objective? There’s a similar thing happening on Thursday night at Into The Box. It’s not CF Hour, but it’s a CFML podcast recording. How often does this happen?! The podcast will include various members of the CF community, not just the ColdBox team but also guests from Adobe and CMD.

4. Lots of Docker related info.

Docker is popping up everywhere, I can’t escape it. Without even trying, Docker has crept its way into nearly all new projects that  we’ve been doing at South of Shasta lately, and it shows no signs of going away.  Docker has become the new “you MUST learn this” technology, not just for CFML but pretty much any web development stack.  Fortunately for us, there are several sessions about using Docker and integrating it into your projects.  Yet more truly modern web development CFML content that’s available here!

5. Streaming and video tickets are available.

Can’t make it to Houston but still want to participate virtually from the comfort of your living room? There is a streaming and video ticket available so you can get the content and feel like you’re part of the event.  

Tickets are still available, but I believe they’re selling quickly (most of the pre-conference workshops are already sold out). If you’re thinking about coming, I’d highly recommend grabbing a ticket as fast as you can.

Hope to see you there!
-nolan