On October 23-25, 2006 Andrew and I attended The Ajax Experience 2006 Conference in Boston, Massachusetts. This is the second occurrence of the Conference (the first was in San Francisco in May 2006). The three day event was hosted in Boston?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s brand new and beautiful Westin Hotel and attracted more than 450 attendees. The speaker list read like the "who?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s who" of the Internet industry, including Brendan Eich (creator of Javascript), Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer (guys behind Ajaxian.com), Douglas Crockford (creator of JSON) and many others. All together more than 40 speakers shared their knowledge on topics ranging from general design concepts to specific framework and toolkit examples.

The conference started with a keynote address by Ben and Dion from Ajaxian.com, presenters of the event. They talked about what the conference would be called if the acronym "Ajax" was never coined. A few terms were thrown out, including DHTML, but if I had to suggest one more it would be "Web 2.0 Technologies." Truly, the topics were much broader than any specific technology, toolkit or an API.

The information was presented in a number of 90 minute technical sessions. The sessions were accessible through 6 parallel tracks. Every hour and a half we would pick a different presentation to attend. The format also allowed for short breaks between presentations, which was perfect for connecting with speakers and vendors. Everyone was extremely receptive and welcoming. It was great to catch up with Aaron Gustafson and ask him about future emerging technologies or grab lunch with Alex Russell and get more information about Dojo, an Open Source toolkit or find out about the Ajax application server from Helmi's VP, Kevin Deutsch.


For us, the best times were the Expert Panel Discussions. These fun, daily closing events pit the industry experts and product vendors against the audience in a barrage of questions. Imagine the main guys from Mozilla and Microsoft IE sitting at the same table answering questions about security, functionality and compatibility. My personal favorite "panel expert" was Doug Crockford, currently with Yahoo Corp. Doug, "The man that requires no introduction," is extremely knowledgeable and equally opinionated. This, combined with controversial questions, proved to be quite entertaining.

Overall, the conference was amazing - one of the most informative and eye opening experiences that a web technologist can have. The awesome organization and the beautiful venue made the three-day learning event even more exciting. The choice of subjects were well rounded, and catered to both beginners and experts. Another major part of this experience was connecting with other industry professionals. We met many people who are working on similar projects, using different tools and technologies. The ability to see different approaches to solving the same problem was priceless.

A word to the future attendees:

The conference is pretty intense and will keep you busy from 7:30am to 9:00pm (yes, you get food in the middle). The 90 minute sessions are all business, but won't teach you the entire subject matter, as one should expect. I suggest coming prepared and with topics researched. You can also email the speakers to find out more about the topics covered. This will help you select appropriate sessions based on your level of expertise.

That's it! I know you will have fun and learn A LOT. See you at the next Ajax Experience 2007 Conference.