ColdFusion Summit East 2023

The ColdFusion Summit East 2023 Conference is a gathering of professionals who use or are interested in Adobe ColdFusion, a rapid application development platform built on the power of Java and used for building fast, secure, and scalable web applications. The conference typically features keynote speeches and technical sessions. I have always appreciated how the CFSummits regularly highlight and demonstrate utilizing ColdFusion as part of our development stack by demonstrating other technologies that work well with and complement ColdFusion (see Alpine.js item below as an example).

Given the chance to attend a ColdFusion Summit, I jump at the opportunity.  I always look forward to the CF Summits in Las Vegas and was glad when they announced that the ColdFusion Summit East was back this year. I attended the last one before the pandemic and had a great time. It was no surprise that this year's Summit was just as rewarding and educational. Here are the sessions I was able to attend:

• Alpine.js Declare & React by Luis Majano
  https://alpinejs.dev/
  Luis gave us an introduction and overview of Alpine.js, a lightweight, powerful, and minimal tool for composing behavior directly in your markup. I already have numerous ideas of where I can start using it.
• Taming the Top 25 Most Dangerous Software Weaknesses by Pete Freitag
  https://cwe.mitre.org/top25/archive/2022/2022_cwe_top25.html
  Pete reviewed the Top 25 list, how each applies to ColdFusion, and how best to avoid them. This entire session had me reviewing my own code in my head and making a list of things to check on my older legacy apps as well as new ones. 
• Codes, Ciphers & Adobe ColdFusion - What They Don't Want You to Know by Brian Reilly
  Brian reviewed the ins and outs of encrypt() and decrypt() functions, best practices when using them, and much more. I had two big takeaways from Brians's session. One, I need to not just rely on default options sometimes (algorithm in this case), and two, Adi Shamir's Three Laws of Computer Security really stuck with me.
• Hidden Gems in Adobe CF2023 by Charlie Arehart
  Charlie presented his Hidden Gems in CF2023 (View PDF) giving us a very good idea of what to expect as well as all the new features and updates. Now I am even more excited about migrating to 2023 when it's available and after a brief period of letting everyone be the initial adopters first of course! I will no doubt be testing 2023 and learning the ins and out, especially since we can fire a 2023 Beta server up with CommandBox now but to be honest, I won't be doing any migrating of production apps until after Hostek starts offering it as a CF option ;-) 
• Building an AI System with Adobe ColdFusion by Minh Vo
  Minh gave everyone a great overview of AI and how we can leverage the power of AI in our ColdFusion applications. It really got me thinking about all the projects I could utilize AI to deal with large datasets and predictions. He did a great job of explaining things in a way that was easy to grasp. I am hoping he will update his ColdFusion Presentations page on DraftStudios.com with the info and links from his latest presentation however for the time being take a look at his previous presentations here!

Attending the ColdFusion Summit East 2023 was a valuable experience and would be worthwhile for anyone interested in ColdFusion and web development. The conference provides a unique opportunity to learn from industry experts and network with other professionals. All the sessions I attended were top notch and I took away valuable lessons and knowledge from each one. I want to thank Adobe, all the Presenters, the Sponsors (especially for all the free swag), and everyone attending for such a rewarding Summit. See you in Las Vegas in October!