Well, I must say, I didn’t bust so i must have made it to cf.objective(). I flew in the afternoon before, saw a little of the area around the hotel, ate some awesome chicken and waited for the start of the learning fiesta.
There are several different people that have posted already on most of the things that happened at the cf.objective() conference so you can definitely check them out to get more info on the sessions. Here I will note my overall feelings about the conference after I have been back from the conference for a week or two.
After things have had a chance to settle in my mind I still have a very positive attitude about the conference. There was just an amazing atmosphere of sharing and growth present. One of the things that I really enjoyed was the interaction with the people that you quite literally only read about. Going to each of the sessions I was able to not only listen to some very well prepared presentations but also talk with the presenter and ask questions. One of the things that bugged me going to a larger conference last year was that it felt too institutionalized. At cf.objective() the only barrier to talking to the presenters were the standard personal barriers of approaching unfamiliar people.
In addition to the speakers, the conference was an excellent time to rethink some of the things that I have been learning and implementing. One of the nights after the sessions were over I was talking with a co-worker about some of the design patterns that had been touched on and how we are implementing them. During that discussion we decided that we have been calling a couple of our code the incorrect names. To me that was one of the awesome things about conferences: the ability to rethink your position and put together the things that have been previously decided.
I found the introspection to be almost as valuable as the actual content that was discussed… almost. I was definately impressed by the topics that were chosen. Every session I had a class that I wanted to attend, even more than one most times, and all but 1 or 2 of them were excellent sessions. Coming back I have more information about automating processes, testing code, and design patterns than previously. It has been awesome to learn and question, but the best part is the stimulus to the cranium that comes as an afterthought. Coming back from the conference has given me extra incentive to be creative and try new things.
Ultimately that is the best part of programming: the ability to analyze projects and come up with creative and/or innovative sollutions to them. I strongly believe that is one of the things I love most about developing applications. To me the ability to discover creative solutions is what makes it worth it.