The Groovy And Grails Communities Continue To Buzz Thursday, February 07, 2008

A lot of things are going on right now in the Groovy and Grails communities. I have been really busy myself and have a lot of exciting things coming up. I am very excited about my role as Director of North American Operations with G2One and that is really keeping me busy.

I spent the first part of this week out in Silicon Valley with Graeme Rocher and Peter Ledbrook working on some really exciting Grails stuff. It was great to be out there with Graeme on the day that Grails 1.0 was released. The whole development team and user community have done an incredible amount of work on Grails to get to this point but I think Graeme himself deserves the props. Graeme conceived the thing and has been driving it very hard from the beginning with the focus and vision necessary to get the framework to this point. Well done Graeme!

Later this month I am going to have the pleasure of speaking at The New York Java SIG about Groovy. I speak at JUGs all the time but this one in particular I am looking forward to. A few months ago I was on the schedule to speak out there and due to an incredible string of bad luck, I wasn't able to make it. My flight was cancelled. My replacement flight was delayed. Once my delayed flight took off we ended up circling in the air for a long time waiting for some weather to settle down. Once I got to New York we found it near impossible to get in to Manhattan because it just happened this was the day of the huge water main explosion. I ended up spending the entire day on airplanes and in terminals just so I could get to my hotel, sleep and then fly home the next day. This time, things will no doubt go much more smoothly. I can't wait to get out there.

When I leave the New York Java SIG I will be heading straight to the airport to get to the event that I am even more excited about. That is The Groovy Grails Experience in Reston VA beginning on Feb. 21. The event is being put on by the same folks who have been putting on the hugely successful No Fluff Just Stuff symposiums for years now so I know it is going to be a great event. This is 3 days packed with talks all about Groovy and Grails. Of all the shows I do this year, this is probably going to end up being the one that is most exciting for me personally. All of my friends from the Groovy and Grails communities are going to be there and I know everyone is going to have a great time. This is the biggest Groovy/Grails event ever to be put together. It isn't often that we get an opportunity like this to get together so many players in the Groovy/Grails communities to talk about the technology. For folks who are interested in the power of Groovy and Grails and the vast possibilities that dynamic languages bring to the JVM, I can't think of a better way to spend 3 days. I am completely pumped about this event.