I’ve been taking quite a prolonged break from blogging, partly because my attention has been elsewhere. Writing several chapters for BizTalk Server 2010 Unleashed (due to be published towards the end of the year) has taken up a lot of time. I’m also involved in helping or organise Rules Fest 2010. And then there is the day job,…and four kids,…and two cats,…and management of a local youth club,…and organising my wife’s 50th, etc., etc. Anyway, this is an unashamed plug for the conference.
Rules Fest, (previously October Rules Fest) is in its third year, and has switched venue from Dallas to San Jose in the heart of Silicon Valley. It aims, simply, to be three days to solid wall-to-wall technical content for everything to do with rules, reasoning and inference. We aim the conference at the development community, although there is plenty of content for solution and enterprise architects, decision makers, etc. However, we are all about fostering and nurturing the real-world application of rules-based technologies by technical practitioners.
In previous years, we heard a fair amount about the implementation or rule engines. We realised that, appealing as this is to some, most of us are not involved in building rule engines and constraint handlers. We want to concentrate more on practical application of rules to real-world problems. However, Rules Fest continues to attract some of the best known names in the industry, including people who have been at the forefront of designing and implementing core rules technology for many years. Come, mingle with the stars.
This year, we have Professor John Laird as our keynote speaker. John is at the forefront of research into machine cognition. We are unashamedly geeks, and what he does is really exciting. After a foray into AI, we come down to earth with a range of presentations that should appeal to a wide audience. There is plenty on real-world knowledge engineering, design and implementation of rules-based systems, the impact of new standards such as W3C RIF, complex event processing, software development practices and methodology and a number of interesting case studies. Our speakers are experienced practitioners and experts with lots of wisdom to impart. If you are involved in rule-based development, or considering the impact of rules on your company or career, this is the conference for you.
The main part of the conference takes place between Monday 11th to Wednesday 13th October. Stick around for Thursday 14th. This is ‘bootcamp’ day with practical sessions for developers using a variety of mainstream technologies. The web site has more details.
For BizTalk readers, why not consider attending? This is a industry-wide conference that draws from a much wider world than some of us normally inhabit (shame on us). There is a lot to learn. If you are a BizTalk developer with a focus or interest in rules development, and want to attend, book on the web site, but also let me know via this site. If there is enough call for it, I could easily be persuaded to organise a bootcamp just for you!
Oh, and the conference venue is gorgeous, apparently. Don’t tell your boss.
The web site is at http://rulesfest.org.
Follow us on Twitter @Rules_Fest_2010
Write on our FaceBook wall at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rules-Fest-2010/108532835869540
Visit us at LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=3334438