No Fluff, Just Stuff

I attended the No Fluff Just Stuff conference this past weekend in Bloomington, MN. I'm not sure if the conference itself was sold out, but it seemed to be very well attended. It started on Friday at noon and concluded on Sunday evening around 6:00. I had a great time seeing some familiar faces and catching up with a few people that I hadn't seen in a number of years. A few things that I took away from the conference.

• Dynamic languages are hot and are only going to get hotter. Frameworks like Ruby on Rails and Grails are going to continue to grow in popularity, even for larger organizations. This was a great reality check for me. Working in Rails and Grails is where I have been focusing my business efforts for this past year. It's good to see that I am somewhat ahead of the curve on thee awesome technologies.

• There were a great number of people who are managers at this conference - read: the people who make the decisions on the software to use. The fact that there were so many sessions on groovy and grails and the people that actually make the decisions on the software technology to use in their organization were there and were listening, means that we will most likely see tangible projects and needs from business asking for people with Groovy and Grails skills.
  

Overall I'd recommend checking out the No Fluff Just Stuff Conference when it comes to your town. It usually comes through Minneapolis every 6 months or so. While I wouldn't go every time it comes through, probably one a year to 18 months is worth the cost for admission.