No Fluff Just Stuff Boston - First Thoughts

The conference is being held at a resort hotel just outside of Boston in Danvers. The facilities seem good and being away from downtown means that it's easier to network, but the impressive part of the conference isn't the location or the organization (both of which are quite good) - it's the speakers.

Unlike most conferences, NFJS does a tour around the country. As such, the presenters really get to hone their skills and their materials, leading to some of the consistently best quality presentations I've attended in the programming community.

Today I attended presentations by Neal Ford on "Real World Refactoring" and "The Productive Programmer", Venkat Subramaniam on "Know your Groovy" and a keynote by Jared Richardson on "Career 2.0" that really should be required listening for anyone wanting to build a career in software rather than just having a job.

I'll be posting more detailed reviews of each presentation over the next few days, but if you have a chance to make a NFJS symposium, I'd strongly recommend that you give it a shot.