Earlier this year a new conference for Flash/Flex developers has been born. The father of this event is Elad Elrom, but it “s not clear who “s the mother. Actually, in the software world people are accustomed to single parents ndash; Father of Java, Father of AJAX, Father of Ruby on Rails et al. Are you aware of any Mother of a software product? I ‘m not.

The first Flash And The City (#FATC) conference attracted about 300 people, and I hope the next year “s version of this event will bring even more enthusiasts. While presenting at FATC in 2010, and realized that this was an event for different crowd ndash; flashers overweighed flexers. Still, I liked this local for me event and have submitted a talk proposal for the next year. Below is the text of my proposal (word for word):

Session Name

Java For Blondes

Session Description

In Java community, Flashers are considered second league. While Java developers build highly-available scalable multi-threaded systems for Wall Street, Flashers are fooling around with animations, effects and bending pixels. This is a four-hour hands on workshop. The first part will be spent explaining basics of Java development. In the second part, attendees will develop Flex/BlazeDS/Java/DBMS application, which is their to keep. There is a limited number of seats for brunettes too.

After pressing the button Submit, I twitted about my “Java for Blondes rdquo; proposal. The reaction was pretty interesting. Here “s my twitter chat with several people:

Someone: Change your submission title

Me: Why?

Someone:It might be considered as sexist, unless I missing the meaning

Me: In my title blondes are not necessarily women. There “s always a risk, but I prefer to take it ☺

Someone:I think that title does run that risk, but on the other hand, you can never be sure you won “t offend someone

Someone:Not sexist, but definitely casting out people by hair color

Someone: May not specifically stated, but unfortunately I can see it interfered. Wouldn “t gamble. Plenty of titles.

Pretty interesting dialog, isn “t it? The corporate culture in the USA teaches us to be careful – someone may not like the wording or even get offended hellip; Than how would you explain why people purchase the books titled “iPhone For Dummies rdquo; or “The Complete Idiot “s Guide to Microsoft Windows 7 rdquo;? Are only dummies and idiots buy them?

I didn “t change the title. And guess what, my “Java for Blondes rdquo; workshop has been approved…but with a twist. I was asked to condense it into a one hour session. Won ‘t work…You can do only so much with the blondes. Will try to find another conference interested in hosting such a workshop. I promise that every blonde that will enter my room will be released four hour later in a good mood, with smiles on his/her face, and armed with the knowledge of what Flex/Java applications are about. From zero to hero in 4 hours. Do you have any doubts I can pull it off? I don “t.