Orange and Bronze, Sponsoring GR8 US!

We're excited to announce that Orange and Bronze Software Labs is a Gold sponsor for GR8 US!

Orange and Bronze Software Labs is the first Philippine-based SpringSource [by vmWare] partner, with over one hundred seasoned software engineers and architects specializing in Spring, Grails, Spring Roo and Hibernate. The company was founded on the simple belief that realistic software development practices using Agile and decoupling dependencies using the Spring and Hibernate frameworks, would lead to successful projects and maintainable codebases.

They have a long history of building high-performance enterprise applications, some handling tens of millions of users a day. Besides software development, they provide training and coaching for software development organizations on Agile software development, enterprise design, SpringSource technologies and other tools and practices in software engineering.

You can find out more about Orange and Bronze Software Labs at http;//orangeandbronze.com.  Thank you Orange and Bronze for your support!

Check out the GR8 US 2012 Agenda

We've had a bunch of changes to the GR8 US website lately.  Søren Glasius, founder of GR8Conf, put together a nice weceem plugin for speakers and presentations which allowed us to link more easily between the agenda, speakers and presentations.  We owe him a big thanks for making our jobs that much easier.

We now have our tentative agenda online!  There are a few more talks to come and we may still move things around here or there, but the basic schedule is there.  Go check it out today and let us know what you think in the comments or via twitter (@GR8ConfUS).   Since the schedule is still flexible at this point, we may be able to shift some talks around if there is enough demand.

Don't forget, registration is open now!  If you missed the Door Buster pricing, don't worry.  Our Early Bird pricing is still a great deal for a GR8 conference.

Refactr, Sponsoring GR8 US!

We're excited to announce Refactr is a Silver sponsor for GR8 US!

Refactr is a leading software development company. We deliver products for both startups and Fortune 500 companies. We were the first company in the Twin Cities to use and promote the Groovy and Grails community and started the Minnesota Groovy User Group in 2006. We invest in our communities in other ways by hosting, coordinating, or otherwise being involved in several user groups and conferences in the Twin Cities.  

We founded the company based on the idea that there had to be a better way to develop innovative software products. We utilize an innovative process incorporating concepts form lean, agile and XP that delivers software better and faster. We’re always tweaking the process to get the most done in the least amount of time. 

Our engagement model is also different, we work together at our offices. We don't do IT staffing, so if you want three Java developers to maintain your J2EE project, we aren't the firm for you. Our developers and designers work side-by-side, frequently with the product champions or stakeholders, to make every app functional, usable, and engaging. By having an integrated design and development team, we can respond to changes much quicker and delivery a successful product to market earlier.

You can read more about Refactr at http://refactr.com.  

Thank you Refactr for your support!

Entagen sponsoring GR8 US!

We're excited to announce that Entagen is a Gold sponsor for GR8 US!

Entagen provides innovative software, custom development and strategic consulting for biomedical, healthcare & Big Data applications. Their focus is the development of tools for the new class of knowledge workers and data scientists whose task it is to derive knowledge and insight from the massive amounts of data currently available across many sectors. Their specialities include semantic technologies, high-performance search systems and architectures for use in Big Data environments.

You can find out more about Entagen at entagen.com.  Thank you Entagen for your support!

  

Object Partners Inc, Sponsoring GR8 US

We're excited to announce that Object Partners, Inc is a platinum sponsor for GR8 US 2012!

Object Partners, Inc is an IT consulting firm specializing in enterprise application development services since 1996. Their success is based on a model of full-time employees with a strategic focus on utilizing both emerging and mature open source technologies to help clients deliver high quality software on time and within budget. Most recently, OPI has successfully built and deployed numerous large-scale consumer facing Grails applications, as well as several enterprise applications for various Android and iOS devices.

Their deep roots in the JEE stack translate into open source expertise and a fundamental knowledge of how to build applications that are scalable, reliable, and can be easily maintained. Their services include project outsourcing, co-development, staff augmentation, and technology and process mentoring.

OPI has supported GR8 US every year and there will once again be presentations conducted by OPI employees at GR8 US 2012.

You can check out the Object Partners Inc website at objectpartners.com.

Ramping up for 2012

We're well into 2012, so I thought we should give a quick up date on where we are in organizing GR8 US 2012.  We've been busy getting things ready for for GR8 US 2012.

Website update
We owe a big thanks to Søren Glasius and EasySpeedy.com for getting our new website up and running.  If you haven't already, check out http://gr8conf.us to see conference information, view or blog and to signup for our mailing list.  Be sure to let us know what you think.

Presentations
Our call for presentations is still open, so don't forget to submit yours by 2/15.  Thank you for all of the great submissions so far.  For those that have already submitted talks, we will respond by 3/1 with details.

Sponsors
We're looking for sponsors for GR8 US 2012.  Information on sponsorship levels is on our website.  If you know of anyone who is interested in sponsoring our conference, we can be contacted at contact@gr8conf.us.

Social media updates
We're making an effort to better communicate information about the conference this year.  You can follow us on twitter, facebook or linkedin.  We also have a conference page on lanyrd, so be sure to share your interest in GR8 US!

Call for Presentations

GR8 US is excited to announce our call for presentations!  We're looking for the best and brightest presenters to submit talks about Groovy, Grails, Griffon or their other favorite GR8 technology.

We are ramping things up this year to include two full days with four concurrent tracks.  We think this will open things up to a better variety of talks aimed at everyone from newbies to experts.  If you've got a talk that you'd like to present at GR8 2012, please visit gr8conf.us to submit your proposal!

This year we're also incorporating a day dedicated to workshops.  Workshop blocks will be 4 hours and we have room for up to 4 workshops.  We definitely want some that are 'intro' courses, but we have two open slots for other topics as well.  If you feel up to the challenge, please indicate that you are interested in doing a workshop.

In other news...
We've been quiet for awhile, bet rest assured, we've been working hard to make GR8 US better than ever.  In addition to expanding the number of tracks, we're also moving to a new location in downtown Minneapolis.  This year's conference will take place at the Minnepolis Convention Center, which has some great facilities located near many of Minnepolis' restaurants, bars and attractions.

Our conference dates are set for July 30-31, a beautiful time of year here in Minneapolis. Workshops will be July 29 at an additional cost.  We'll have an off site happy hour on Monday night for conference attendees.  Early bird registration will open on March 1st.

We'll be reaching out to sponsors shortly.  If you or your company are interested in sponsoring GR8 US, please contact us at contact@gr8conf.us.

The website...
We're in the process of merging our website with our sister conference: GR8 EU, so for now we have a temporary site on Google Sites.  It should serve to get our information out there, but we're aware that it's not very pretty.  We'll have something more substantial out there before registration opens.

If you have any questions or comments about GR8 US, please contact us at contact@gr8conf.us, or on twitter at @GR8ConfUS.