You can listen to the podcast and read the show notes here.
Michaela: Welcome back to the show. Today, we're looking to talk about the Adobe C.F. Summit East. And I'm here with Kishore Balakrishnan. And we're gonna learn all about this band it's in its fourth year as a lot of exciting changes. So if you haven't heard of the CF Summit East, we're gonna learn what that is, and why all ColdFusion developers on the East Coast see if they can get there. And we also will reveal who the speakers and topics are this year, and the location, and also what is new with the event. And we'll also talk about Kishore’s background. You may not know this; he's the senior marketing manager for ColdFusion Adobe. But he also programs in ColdFusion. So we'll talk about his background later in the show. So welcome Kishore.
Kishore: Thanks Michael for having me on the show, have a lot of good things.
Michael: So… oh great! Yeah I mean we did over 50 episodes last year, and planning to do a similar number this year. So people may not have being, or heard of C.F. Summit East. What exactly is it?
Kishore: So this started couple of three years back when the ColdFusion Summit that we have was in Vegas was in it's second day of… that's been we came to know that lot of people from the East Coast, they're not able to travel to our main event in Vegas. One because some of them are not able to travel down south other things were like they were not allowed to travel to Vegas. So what we did was we started having this event in D.C. This is a third year that we’re having this event in. D.C. Last year we had around 100 attendees coming for the event, and the attendance kept on increasing.
Like the first year we were there, we just had like 50 people. Because even we don't know how big the event was gonna become so we just we had to close down the restrictions on that event. And the second day also we had a fuller house. We had to close our registrations again last year. So this year, we are trying to make it bigger. We have planned for 200 people, and already told a hotel that, “You know what? We might come back and increase the attendance again because we have planned for 200 people and right now we have 160 registrations already, and we are still two months away from the event.
Michael: Wow! So it's nearly full already. If you're hearing this, you better get registered soon. So why is this event so important for the ColdFusion community, and everyone using ColdFusion?
Kishore: So this is one place where it's not like other events. It’s practically the only event which Adobe has which talks about ColdFusion. And as far as I know, it's the largest developer event on the East Coast focusing just on ColdFusion. So this is one place better and people could come and learn about the new features that are coming up in the product. More importantly take a good network with a good number of co-developers who go through the same challenges that they go through, and see how Adobe help them. And it's a chance for us as Adobe to know about what are the challenges that all of us are facing, and try to solve them, and and it would be.
Michael: And that sounds like a good thing and I know there's a… we're gonna talk in a moment about all the exciting talks that are happening. But also just being able to meet you and some of the other key Adobe people in ColdFusion is a really great opportunity. So and networking with other ColdFusion developers in the breaks between the talks. So I definitely echo that. So if someone's not sure whether they should go, why should they go?
Kishore: The one of the reasons of the look of the line of the speakers. Most of the speakers have been with the product for as long as it has it. And people like Chadly, people like [inaudible] [04:39], people like Eric, Kevin. They have been with this product for long, and they know what are the problems the customers typically face. And they bring them a wealth of knowledge about… talk to them about any issue, and they could give you at least two or three workarounds, or two or three solutions to the problem. If that's not one of them, I don't know what else will be.
Michael: I think that's a great reason. I think it's also to learn what new things are coming up in ColdFusion.
Kishore: Other thing is also to talk about Adobe’s commitment towards the product. [Inaudible] [5:26]. This also gives you a chance to learn about other [inaudible] that is coming up in the next release also one of the mentioned which Adobe or the product. We will always have a road map. At least we plan to support the product till 2025 at least with the current release. And Rakshith our product manager already have vision for the next release and business nice place there will developers to learn about what our plans Adobe has for ColdFusion.
Michael: That's great! And just a bit make clear that 2025 date is the commitment through then it probably will continue past then.
Kishore: It will keep going on, what Adobe does is what every release we have final course according to your extended support and that's how it reaches up to 2015. But with every release that number keeps increasing and it's a release [inaudible] 2027.
Michael: I… that's great! I did an interview with Rakshith about the road map. So I’ll put a link to that in the show notes in case anyone missed that. But he gave a lot of details on where ColdFusion is going. So let's reveal who the… what the speakers and topics are because the sounds like some exciting speakers, and topics gonna be covered. So who is gonna be speaking at the C.F. Summit East this year.
Kishore: So we have from the product team we have Rakshith, and Alicia. Rakshith is gonna be talking about what are the new features that's gonna come out in ColdFusion 2018. And Alicia who's gonna be talking about one of the new features announcements we are not on the API management platform.
Michael: So just for people who don’t know Rakshith’s role with ColdFusion is?
Kishore: He’s the product manager of Adobe ColdFusion.
Michael: Okay, and Alicia is the technical product manager. If I remember that correctly.
Kishore: yes
Michael: right
Kishore: [Inaudible] [07:56] who's the Senior Director of products and the G.M. of e-learning, he'll be doing the keynote about Adobe’s plans towards ColdFusion and you know state like [inaudible] state of affairs of ColdFusion state of [inaudible] of ColdFusion and then we might probably bring in some customers who will be talking about their experience with ColdFusion, why they are continuing to stick onto the platform, and that would be a good reason for people to come to learn about how others are using ColdFusion as well. And we have [inaudible] will be talking about what's new in ColdFusion 10, 11, and 2016 that people might have missed.
And [inaudible] he’d be talking about how we could secure [inaudible] basis. And Eric [inaudible] you know, who … than him to talk about how to build better sequence … and learned in a business. He has his sessions if you have not heard of sessions that's one session which you should never miss. And Marcia …, she’ll be talking about the simplicity of Adobe 1 framework. And … and Kevin Smith, he’ll be talking about P.B.S. and he’ll be talking about analysts and ColdFusion. Mike … be talking about distributed caching and they want [inaudible]. They’ll be talking about how you can upgrade your legacy ColdFusion [inaudible] for the new one.
Michael: Wow! That's like a… That's an awesome cast of ColdFusion speakers you've got there. So are you gonna be speaking too or?
Kishore: Looking at the lineup, I don't think so I fit in anywhere. I would love to talk about ColdFusion. Looking at the lineup, I think I need to at least not with three more years of experience or even [inaudible] [10:14] this line up.
Michael: Well maybe you'd be talking in the hallway track in between topics to customers, so. So for people who don't know, when is the C.F. Summit East?
Kishore: This is on April 25th. It's a Wednesday.
Michael: And it is all day or what, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm?
Kishore: It's from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. You know 8:00 am, the breakfast starts at 8:00 am.
Michael: Oh! You get breakfast if you go?
Kishore: Breakfast, lunch, and breaks.
Michael: Wow! This must cost a lot to attend. How much does it cost to go to this?
Kishore: Nope, nothing.
Michael: No, you're kidding. This is in downtown Washington D.C. at a fancy hotel, includes breakfast, lunch, and breaks, ten amazing speakers, and it's completely free.
Kishore: yes
Michael: Wow! I don't think anyone has an excuse not to go to this event who lives anywhere near Washington D.C.
Kishore: We try to make it like that, people should come.
Michael: So yeah, and it's pretty…, where is it located this year?
Kishore: This is at Renaissance in our downtown Washington D.C.; Renaissance Hotel.
Michael: Yes, on Ninth Street. So it's pretty close to where last year's event was; the Marriott you had.
Kishore: Yes, it’s two blocks from there. It’s three minutes walking down from last year's venue.
Michael: And that's near I think several Metro stops, so.
Kishore: The Marriott is right exactly next to the Metro. It's condors Marriott or… Sorry, I don't know the name, but it has Metro in its name. So it’s very close to the location, yeah.
Michael: So it's easy to get to this if you're coming from the suburbs of D.C. or if you were coming from somewhere else you could either stay in D.C., or you could stay in the suburbs and take the Metro any either way.
Kishore: yes
Michael: Well that’s great! So what's new in this year’s C.F. Summit East from previous years.
Kishore: So previous years as I told you the attendance we are planning on having a large number of attendees this year. Last year we had around 110 attendees. This year we're planning to get around 200 attendees, and I think we're on the right track. And beyond that, if you look at on our sessions we are planning on having you know we just had ten sessions, and we’re planning on going all the features of the sessions. And hopefully we get the sessions recorded, so that these recordings might become available later.
Michael: That would be great if you can do that.
Kishore: yes
Michael: [Crosstalk] [13:46] last year's, or is that… that's new.
Kishore: sorry?
Michael: Did you record last year's sessions or [crosstalk]
Kishore: … and that's why we want to do something this year.
Michael: Great! And then I remember last year was cool like the C.F. Summit government; C.F. Summit East, or something like that. But I don't notice the word government in the Summit here. Is it not for government people this year or?
Kishore: It’s for both. What happened was last year we promoted it as government Summit. And most of the people who are contractors and government agencies, they figured that it was not for them.
Michael: oh!
Kishore: But that was never the intention of not getting the contractors also. So this year we said like it's open for everyone who's there in that area to come and join us. We would like to…
Michael: Right, so you could [crosstalk] [14:50]
Kishore: … possible [crosstalk]
Michael: Anyone who uses ColdFusion is welcome to come.
Kishore: Yes, also anyone who wants to learn ColdFusion is also more than welcome to come.
Michael: Yeah that would be great to get fresh people into ColdFusion, so.
Kishore: yes
Michael: So have you noticed ColdFusion growing over the last year, or what have you from Adobe's point of view have you seen from that?
Kishore: We have seen ColdFusion grow. That during the last in order C.F. Summit had shown the growth trajectory which we are not allowed to talk about the absolute numbers. But the numbers have grown both in terms of dollar value as well as in terms of the number of customers. Also, in terms of the number of units that we sold to customers. So we have seen a growth.
Michael: That's great to hear that. So yeah because one of the themes of this podcast is ColdFusion is alive, and it's a modern growing language.
Kishore: yes
Michael: So exciting to hear that from you. So if people are thinking, “Oh should I go to Washington D.C.?” Is there anything interesting to do in D.C. apart from learning about all the amazing stuff about ColdFusion on the C.F. Summit East or?
Kishore: The venue isn't downtown. So there are a lot of attractions which I think of the walking distance from the venue; The National Mall, and things like that. So if you want to make it [inaudible] it’s than D.C.
Michael: Right there's a bunch of… there’s the Smithsonian Museums, there’s other museums, there’s the White House Congress, Washington Monument.
Kishore: exactly
Michael: You know lots of great things to see. And April is a really nice time to be in Washington D.C. I used to live in that area and you know typically it's spring weather, and it's not too hot in here, and all the snow has gone away. So great time of year to have an event in D.C.
Kishore: Exactly [inaudible] [17:21].
Michael: Last year was a good weather for the event as well. Is that what you're saying?
Kishore: yes
Michael: Yeah, just in case people have an opinion of Washington D.C. that it's hot and humid which it is in July and August. But this time a year it's very pleasant to be in. And I think also depending on the exact date is the whole cherry blossom thing that happens. I don't know if that's exactly at this time, or I think it depends on how the cherry trees are doing. But that's a big festival in D.C. around that time of year as well down at the waterfront. So anything else you wanna share about C.F. Summit East?
Kishore: No, nothing much. So hopefully we get to see the customers from the D.C. area and anywhere on the East Coast.
Michael: Fabulous! So let's turn to why you’re proud to use ColdFusion because I know you’re the marketing manager for the ColdFusion product. But you’re actually coding ColdFusion too which I think you're the first marketing manager I've met who also codes in product. So how come you code in ColdFusion? Did you use to be… you know did you start off as a ColdFusion developer or?
Kishore: I started off as a developer. Not exactly a ColdFusion developer, but I started off as a Java developer. Then spent some time investing and became a QA manager. Actually I joined Adobe as a QA manager. Then program management, then become marketing manager. So all about always kept in touch with my programming side. So even in my team which is the marketing team, I code a lot. So and ColdFusion I had… I think the first time I used ColdFusion was in my college days, and this was way back long time back.
So I started using ColdFusion there. At that time, I realized how easy it was. Obviously then my [inaudible] didn't have a ColdFusion license at that time. But it also easy to play for database, and put up the research, and the database. And all of a QA activity you know this to them to a lot of reports quick Adobe reports. I shouldn't be saying that; quick Adobe [laughing]. What I mean, people want to see those reports. How it worked, what worked, what then worked? So one of the tool that ColdFusion deals to fetch, and generate some [inaudible].
Michael: Now it's a great use for ColdFusion. And you know nowadays if you were at university you know, any student can get a copy of ColdFusion it's my understanding. Is that right or?
Kishore: Oh now, it is very easy for them to get ColdFusion license.
Michael: Right because there's like an education program where you can get a student use. You can get a free license.
Kishore: Yes, and also if you’re a startup, you could reach out to us, and then we’ll see what we could do.
Michael: Oh okay! I didn't know that, so. [Inaudible] [20:53] at the end if that's okay for anyone in a startup who wants to explore that. And also anyone college or university who doesn't know about the education program who’s interested in how to get that. Is there a U.R.L. for the education program we can share with people?
Kishore: Previously, we used to have a U.R.L. Now the site has been brought down and we are coming up with a new form which we are putting it out very soon. So by next week you should have it in the implement someone wants to… free license. [Inaudible] they can always reach out to me.
Michael: All right, great! Well when you have that new form available, let me know the address, and we’ll update the show notes to include that. Yeah, so you’ve been in Adobe for how many years now?
Kishore: It’s been 13 years since I've been working.
Michael: Wow! All right, that’s great. So let's just turn to a last few questions which is… You know I'm on a mission here to make ColdFusion more alive, and for people to recognize it is a modern language that you can develop great apps in. What do you think? What would it take to make ColdFusion more alive this year?
Kishore: Participation in the community and you know [inaudible] [22:24] ColdFusion is still alive. I don't know why that thought came that ColdFusion is dead. ColdFusion is alive and doing better and better what I've gone all a part of a lot more people who are building applications. There are still people who create some amazing applications that people… Until the time people asked them, “What language is that?” People always assume it to be something else. Then the moment they realize it’s still ColdFusion, you should see the reaction of the [inaudible]. I thought ColdFusion is dead. Is that still a [inaudible] that's the negative attitude which people ideally like to remove from the ecosystem.
Otherwise, ColdFusion as a language is still doing good. There are still people who are developing some amazing applications in ColdFusion. And Adobe is so committed to the platform that a lot of partners open some cool applications, and solutions on top of the platform. I think it's just [inaudible] people still are not able to get to the point that language is just 23 years old, and still doing good.
Michael: Yeah, I'm always amazed by all the cool apps people are making using ColdFusion. And there are more and more sites using ColdFusion. And I think what people forget is that ColdFusion is not just used on public sites, but a lot of the use is on intranets, or internal sites you don't even find. You can't find them through Google. So that's been one of its strengths is tying together corporate data from different systems, or interconnecting with different legacy systems. And you're never gonna find those private applications on the public web.
Kishore: Exactly according to one of our [crosstalk] [24:40]. There’s like for every one external phasing of site, there’s at least four interfacing websites. I think that should [inaudible].
Michael: Wow! Really? That's so you know when we see these statistics. Oh yeah, here’s ColdFusion with this many websites compared to P.H.P. Really you should multiply those numbers by four to get the true number of ColdFusion sites including Internet sites.
Kishore: yes
Michael: I'm gonna share that around the ColdFusion community on the slack channel because I'm not sure people really realize that. So, what do you personally look forward to at this year's C.F. Summit East?
Kishore: A lot of participation I would ideally like to meet lot of our customers and partners and developers at that event. That’s one place that we get to see a lot of government customers, and government typically forms a huge chunk of our installed base. Not a huge chunk out of 30 percent of our installed base is government. And this is one place to get to meet our government customers just to see what they're doing.
Michael: And that's not just federal government; that’s state government, and local government too.
Kishore: exactly
Michael: Great! Well if people want to find you on line, what are the best ways to do that?
Kishore: There’s my Facebook account. They can get in touch with me directly at kishoreadobe.com, or my Twitter account. These are the ways of getting in touch with me.
Michael: All right, well we’ll put all those in the show notes, so people can find you. And I really appreciate you coming on the podcast to tell us about C.F. Summit East 2018.
Kishore: Thanks Michael, thanks for staying up getting up so early for this call.
Michael: You’re welcome, okay.
Kishore: thank you
Michael: All right, so I've stopped.
