Welcome to the 2008 JavaOne conference! Or for the majority of you, welcome back to the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco for the 13th annual JavaOne conference. This year brings into focus how Java technology impacts developers, businesses, consumers, and most importantly, you.
A few standard housekeeping notes: There are over 350 sessions, Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) sessions, and labs, so this year we will again attempt to prevent hundreds of people from torturing their ankles in the back of overflowing sessions by encouraging you to use the Schedule Builder tool. If you haven't set up your schedule online yet, you can use your Conference badge and one of a number of terminals placed throughout the Conference halls to register for a session. Note that those who preregistered for a technical session or BOF will be allowed into the room well in advance of those who haven't, so if you want to get the best seats, be sure to register beforehand.
And again, as in past years, if you'd like to see certain sessions repeated, or if you're having problems with Schedule Builder or some other part of the Conference that you feel we should know about, feel free to send me a short message at Robert.Eckstein@sun.com. It's best to summarize in the Subject line -- for example "Please Repeat TS-1234." I'll convey each of these messages to the Conference group, just as I did the past couple of years, and if it's something we need to straighten out immediately, I'll try to sweeten the deal by giving the Conference group a box of chocolates and a dozen roses. And if something went very, very right, don't forget to let us know as well. The cold pizza on Saturday morning tastes much better when you can reread those accolades in your inbox and pat your sore back.
This year we have some great new announcements for JavaFX technology, which you'll hear during the general session on Tuesday morning. In addition, Jeet Kaul, vice president of Sun's Client Software Group, has some exciting news on mobility, and James Gosling (yeah, that James -- the man that has kept me from having to deal with general protection faults for 14 years now) will be talking to us about extremely innovative projects on Friday. If you stayed out late the night before, if you're on Hawaiian time, or those hotel pillows were just way too comfy, note that you can watch the live webcasts or replays.
But wait... Now, if this year's JavaOne fills up your entire first life and you still need more, Sun has also created a JavaOne presence in Second Life. So for you left-brained, right-brained, or multicore-brained attendees who get bored during the breaks, we will be hosting Second Life events Monday through Thursday on topics ranging from the NetBeans IDE to OpenSolaris to JavaFX technology. We'll also host a JavaOne party inworld on Wednesday. For more information, including the Sun's Second Life conference schedule.
That being said, if you have more than two lives, I'm afraid we didn't budget for you, sorry. Although in a way, I do envy you.
So with that, enjoy Day 1 of the 13th Annual JavaOne conference. There's plenty to do and see, and of course, thousands of people to meet. See you tomorrow!
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