Hot Shots was a hit!
Wow... what an exhilarating experience, teaching five different courses in as many days! I loved every minute of it and had a great time. And apparently so did my students. Here are some of the wonderful comments I received from them:
"Amazing!" "Your AS3 course was amazing. Very informative, with great explanations. I got much more than I expected out of the lesson and will highly recommend this class!" "Once again, I absolutely loved this class. I'm very glad I was here for this!" Andrea Black, Moov2 Ltd. Head Start: ActionScript 3 (AS3) "Excellent course, looking forward to the next ones!" Ford Leefarr, swebtec.com Head Start: Flex 2 "It's a massive help to be guided through the jungle of complexity that is the world of OSFlash. I must have saved a couple of weeks R+D in one day!" Seb Lee-Delisle, Plug-in MediaOpen Source Flash Development
"If you consider yourself an Actionscript Developer and value your craft, you can't afford to miss the Best Practices course!" Steve Buckley, Original Image Best Practices Flash & Flex Development "What an awesome week, I thought attending the entire week would be tough to maintain attention and concentration, not at all the case. The Best Practices seminar WILL change the way we work around here some extremely insightful and useful techniques and approaches that more developers should be aware of and adopting. Head start AS3 and Flex 2 courses were fascinating, exciting and educational, I can't wait to start developing using both technologies and I now have more than enough confidence to do so. During the OSFD course it was an excellent insight into the osflash revolution and I found projects I can use to improve my productivity and also projects I was inspired to try and contribute to. You cannot teach yourself this level of knowledge in this amount of time." Dan Thomas, Moov2 Ltd.(Email testimonial; all courses)
"I'm now clear about the role of Flex + how I might start to use it" Simon Gregory, Tribal DDB Head Start: Flex 2 "Brilliant explanations and analysis" Samantha Grant, Tribal DDBFoundations of Object-Oriented AS2
"The level was just right. There was a lot to take in as it's a vast subject but I believe it has given me a good grounding to progress much further." "Very pleasant and knowledgeable." Nick Clements, Tribal DDBFoundations of Object-Oriented AS2
"Examples like RSS-Aggregator were 'real world', not too abstract; the speaker's excitement went over to me :)" "Inspiring" Jörg Müller, Berger Baader Hermes (Germany)Head Start: Flex 2
"Great lively course with well presented content." Steve Buckley, Original Image Foundations of Object-Oriented AS2 "Passionately presented, informative and inspiring further experimentation into AS3. . . fantastic information and free coffee!" Alisdair Mills, Mook Head Start: ActionScript 3 (AS3) "The enthusiasm of explaining and presenting made me want to go and write better code" Fraser Hobbs, MRM Partners Foundations of Object-Oriented AS2 "Increased my understanding greatly" "Relaxed, informal approach made information easier to take in" Jessica Love, BD-NTWKFoundations of Object-Oriented AS2
"Aral's enthusiasm is contagious. The seminars far-exceed my expectations, and I was left feeling both excited and empowered. There was a great deal of information to take in, but it was conveyed in an expert and manageable manner, and all backed up with impressive real world examples. We didn't just learn what to do, but why we were doing it. I only wished I'd signed up for all the seminars next time I will" Neil Webb, Cambridge University; nwebb.co.ukHead Start: Flex 2
"Liked the broad + comprehensive into the topic, and the enthusiastic and approachable tone the course was delivered in" Jim Hunt, BD-NTWKFoundations of Object-Oriented AS2
"Approachable instructor & the fact that IT MADE SENSE!!" Richard Atkins, Tribal DDB Head Start: ActionScript 3 (AS3) "Was solid & felt good" Wil Padley, BD-NTWKFoundations of Object-Oriented AS2
"It was a great refresher and there were some really helpful tips and tricks :)" "The presentation was great and all questions were answered patiently (even the tricky ones) :)" Regina Dowling, Berger Baader Hermes (Germany)Foundations of Object-Oriented AS2
"Very good intro. It is very difficult to learn something completely new but much easier to learn a lot from a little i.e., this intro. From this I am confident of using OOP techniques and investigating further." John Howlett, Eclipse Technology ServicesFoundations of Object-Oriented AS2
"Presenter is very passionate about his work and it is very beneficial to the students" Andrea Black, Moov2 Ltd.Foundations of Object-Oriented AS2
"Aral's presentation was very clear great speaker in my opinion :) Easy to follow actually quite entertaining." "Great value" Jörg Müller, Berger Baader Hermes (Germany)Foundations of Object-Oriented AS2
"I needed to know this stuff!" Alistair MacDonald, NubzFoundations of Object-Oriented AS2
"The course was very good; enjoyable, interesting and very inspiring." "All elements of the course were presented intelligently and concisely" Ross Christie, Tribal DDBHead Start: ActionScript 3 (AS3)
"I liked the structure I'm hoping you will run the courses again as I would like to have the chance to attend the final two days." Colin Light, Gossip MultimediaHead Start: ActionScript 3 (AS3)
"Very well educated on the topic." Andrea Black, Moov2 Ltd.Open Source Flash Development
"Excellent course on target." Fred Leefarr, swebtec.comHead Start: ActionScript 3 (AS3)
"Everything covered was valuable. . . relaxed, friendly, informative." Neil Webb, Cambridge UniversityHead Start: ActionScript 3 (AS3)
"Good course great deal to gain a running start on Flex very good value" Steve Buckley, Original ImageHead Start: Flex 2
"Once again an excellent presentation of valuable information. I'm looking forward to future sessions." Andrea Black, Moov2 Ltd.Head Start: Flex 2
"Perfect introduction to the subject. Gave enough attention to all details just enough to inform & wet the appetite." "Obviously passionate about the subject and that transfers across" "Really enjoyed the use of real(ish) examples. Allowed us to see the benefits of Flex development." Alisdair Mills, MookHead Start: Flex 2
"All five courses fulfilled my expectations. There was a lot of useful stuff in it. It was demanding at some times - but not in a bad way - and it really got me into an excited feeling about developing again (which I haven't had for a while :)) And I've also met a lot of nice people here during the week (I was expecting it to be a lot more "geeky") So thanks for all the advice + tips. Jörg Müller, Berger Baader Hermes (Germany)Open Source Flash Development
I couldn't have asked for a greater group of students to keep me on my feet with insightful questions and discussion: thank you all! Further thanks for your invaluable comments and suggestions, some of which I was able to implement even as the week progressed.
On Thursday, after a nine-hour course, I also did a talk at the London MMUG on Flex 2 Beta 1 and then proceeded to return to my hotel room and expire, thus missing the second half of the meeting and Vishal's After Effects presentation that I so wanted to attend -- not to mention the all-important socializing I was looking forward to engaging in at the pub :)
I thought I'd be dead after teaching a week of classes but, quite the opposite; I'm full of energy and rearing to go. I'm going to be teaching the next Hot Shots courses in April exact dates to be announced next week and I will, of course, be in Seattle at the end of next week to present on Open Source Flash and teach my Hot Shots: Foundations of Object-Oriented ActionScript 2 course at Flash Forward.