Ever wanted to meet your favorite JavaRanch staff member?
Mark your calendars, because between March 16th and 18th of 2011, some of your favorite members of the
JavaRanch staff will be infiltrating
The Server Side Java Symposium (TSSJS) in Las Vegas.
Sadly, the early-bird discounts are done. But if you sign up for TSSJS using the JAVARANCH promotional code, you'll get $200 off the price of admission, which is twice as good as any $100 early-bird discount that was ever offered!
Bartenders will be presenting, some of your favorite sheriffs will be autographing books, everyone's favorite trail boss will be leading a panel discussion on some of the things that are closest to his heart, and
everyone will be branding cattle (in the friendliest of ways, that is). And if you're interested in meeting one of your favorite
JavaRanchers, or even hearing some of the
JavaRanch intelligencia speaking on some of the technical topics they know best, then you too can bring your green horns or ranch hands down to Las Vegas and join in on the festivities by
registering to attend TSSJS as well.
And what do you get for signing up and joining the cattle drive to Las Vegas?
Special recognition for JavaRanchers like yourself.
First of all, if you register for TSSJS and let them know that you're coming as part of the
JavaRanch cattle drive by using the special promo code
JAVARANCH, there will be a little something in your registration package that identifies you as a fellow rancher. We're not sure right now what that 'little something' will be, but there will be something in there, that's for sure.
Attend a JavaRanch author's round table and book signing.
You'll also be able to get your favorite
attending author to sign one of his or her books for you. There will be a special panel discussion about "Why Most Technical Books Suck," and various
JavaRanch staffers who have written books that don't suck will be there:
Bring a copy of Lasse Koskela's best selling book Test Driven, and he'll sign it for you. Bring a copy of Andrew Monkhouse's Sun Certified Java Developer's Study Guide and he'll inscribe it for you. Bring a copy of Hibernate Made Easy and Cameron Mc Kenzie will personally correct all of the typos.
Seriously, just imagine how popular you will be the following Monday when you walk into work with an autographed copy of Bear Bibeault's jQuery in Action? That's worth the price of admission right there!
Meet your favorite JavaRanch staffer
And along with the book signing, there will be an informal meet and greet, where all of the
JavaRanchers in attendance will be hanging around, answering questions, and just getting to know all of their fellow greenhorns and ranch hands (that's you!) who have contributed to the
JavaRanch success story.
And who is going to be there? Which of the
JavaRanch staff will you be bumping into when you join us in Las Vegas? Well, first of all, the following
JavaRanchers will actually be speaking at the conference, so you'll not only be able to meet them, but you'll be able to attend one of their sessions as well.
Attend the following JavaRancher sessions:
Paul Wheaton,
JavaRanch Owner, Trail Boss & Sheriff
Presenting: SEO in the Real World: A Panel Discussion on What Works and What Doesnt

Lasse Koskela, Author & Sheriff
Presenting: The Iterative Anti-Patterns in your Test Code

Bear Bibeault, Author, Opinionated Walrus & Sheriff
Presenting: How jQuery Made Bob a Happy Man

Jeanne Boyarsky, Internet Detective & Sheriff
Presenting: Throw Away All The Rules. Now What Process Do You Follow?

Mark Spritzler, Ranger & Sheriff
Presenting: Comparing, Contrasting and Differentiating Between Mobile Platforms

Michael Ernest, High Plains Drifter & Sheriff
Presenting: The Premier Sun Designation: Mastering the Oracle Certified Architect Exam

Andrew Monkhouse Author, Jackaroo & Sheriff
Presenting: The Myths and Realities of Testing and Deployment in the Cloud

Gregg Bolinger, Sheriff
Presenting: REST easy with Grails - How to build a secure RESTful platform that consumes JSON or XML.

Scott Selikoff, Bartender
Presenting: ''GWT Roundup: An Overview of Googles Web Toolkit Including Hybrid
Integration.''

Martijn Verburg, Dutch Born Kiwi & Bartender
Presenting: How Mega-Corp Open Sourced its Internal Software & Leveraged a Volunteer Community (And How Your Corporation Can Too!!!)

Cameron Mc Kenzie, Author,
Cow Tipper & Bartender, with Janeice Del Vecchio
Presenting: Whats New on the Persistence Side: Getting to Know JPA 2.0
And there are plenty of other JavaRanch Staff coming as well.
Although not currently scheduled for a TSSJS session, the following
JavaRanch staff will be attending, branding cattle, signing autographs and just generally being affable. Expect to see Marc Peabody, Katrina Owen, Jesper Young and Joe Ess waving the
JavaRanch flag around the conference rooms of Las Vegas' Caesar's Palace.
Oh, and we should probably mention the fact that this isn't just a
JavaRanch conference. TSSJS is the largest independent Java conference in North America. It's attended by hundreds of Java professionals, and some of the leading minds in the Java industry come to speak, keynote, and offer their insights in panel discussions and 'birds of a feather' sessions. The networking opportunities are awesome.
Last year James Gosling, the father of Java, keynoted. In this year's opening keynote we'll be hearing from the Rod Johnson, the brains behind the Spring framework. We'll also have two senior vice-presidents from Oracle, Steve Harris and Adam Messinger, keynoting and setting the record straight with regards to both the future of Java and Oracle's commitment to their stewardship of the Java platform. And there just might be a surprise keynote or two in the works as well, but we can't tell you about that right now, because, well, then it wouldn't be a surprise. But it's the best darned surprise we could think of, so we'll let you use your imagination to fill in the blanks there.
How to register.
So, if you're interested in being part of the most comprehensive roundup of
JavaRanch contributors ever to have graced this earth's fine soil, all you have to do is register for the
Java Conference, and then get yourself down to Las Vegas for March 16th through 18th. It's going to be an awesome event, and it will be even better if another fellow
JavaRancher like yourself can attend.
Join using the special promo code JAVARANCH and get a $200 discount.