EJB 3.1 Talk at the NYC JUG

I gave a preview of EJB 3.1 at the NYC JUG on the 6th of November. I have to say this was one of the best speaking experiences I've had in a while. True to the intent of the talk, the crowd was very interactive and asked a number of excellent questions. The feedback on the EJB 3.1 changes was very positive and there were a number of EJB 3 in Action readers there. It was clear this was a crowd of people with a much deeper level of professionalism than the run-of-the-mill "just a paycheck" types. It was great to see and I look forward to my next talk for the JUG on Java EE 6!

EJB 3 Primer at the Charleston JUG

On October 28th, I traveled all the way south to beautiful Charleston, SC to give a slightly belated EJB 3 primer! JUG leader Jason McDonald is trying hard to grow the fledgling Charleston JUG. The turnout was less than what we were expecting, but it was a pleasure to speak to the small group nonetheless.

Since this was my first time in the "deep south" I didn't quite know what to expect. As it turns out, the folks in Charleston are true to the image of southern hospitality. And Charleston really is "the last bastion of southern charm and elegance". I definitely look forward to speaking in Charleston again and wish the JUG the best of luck.

Java EE 6 and EJB 3/Spring 2.5 Integration Talks in Connecticut

On October 21st, the CT JUG lead by Ryan Cuprak helds its first ever Java Conference. The conference was a very good success and I think met an important need for the large number of Java developers in the greater Connecticut area.

I gave my Java EE 6 preview talk, as well as my brand new talk about integrating EJB 3 and Spring 2.5. Both talks were very well received and the EJB 3/Spring 2.5 integration talk generated a lot of lively discussion. Since the talk, a number of people asked for the source code for the very hand-on talk. It is downloadable from the CT JUG website here.

There were a number of other excellent talks given at the conference. Doug Clark from Oracle spoke on Coherence support for their open source JPA implementations (TopLink, EclipseLink) and Rossen Stoyanchev from SpringSource talked about Spring 2.5 as well as 3.0. JUG leader Ryan Cuprak himself gave a Seam talk to a full-house crowd.