I Lvl'd Up: CF Specialist --> Adobe Evangelist

Posted by Adrock at 9:11 AM
88 comments - Categories: ColdFusion | Flex | AIR

I know what you're thinking... "Isn't this the same guy who nearly got beat-up for talking smack about Apple and is constantly making fun of PHP/Ruby fanboys?". Guilty as charged. I know I'm not what most people expect from an Evangelist (I actually like Vista, I'm focused on sales and I <3 ColdFusion). However, I think that's exactly why I'm very good at this job and hopefully I can change perceptions about Evangelism and about ColdFusion.

Back in December I was quietly promoted to the position of Adobe Platoform Evangelist reporting directly to Ben Forta (who many may not know was promoted to the Director of Evangelism at Adobe). First of all, it's an incredible honor. It feels like just yesterday when Rachel and I made our way to the Annapolis ColdFusion User group to hear Ben speak for the first time about ColdFusion MX. Through the pooring rain I carried my CF5 WACK under my shoulder, careful not to drop any of the pages which had become dislodged from over use. I met Ben that night and on the inside cover above his signature he wrote:

Good luck with CF!

Quite possibly the biggest understatement of my entire life. I've always been in awe about the fact that I work at the same company with Ben (and the rest of the CF Team for that matter). But the fact that he refers to me as the "ColdFusion Evangelist" now is just something I never would have imagined in a million years and I'm extremely humbled. The fact is, when I think of 'Evangelist' I think about Ben, not Guy Kawasaki or others who try and lay claim to originating the position. So in that respect, I like to think that I'm much closer to being the type of Evangelist that Ben is. At least that's what I'm aiming for.

We wanted to keep the announcement under wraps until we could find someone to backfill my position. To be honest, the search was not very hard. We've had our eye on Josh for quite some time and I couldn't think of a better fit. Not only is Josh passionate and knowledgeable about CF, he's just good people. Quite possibly the best part of working for Adobe is the people I get to work with and I'm really thrilled to have Josh on the team.

As the ColdFusion Specialist, I was wearing a few hats. In fact, I was 'dotted-lined' to 3 different organizations with 3 different bosses. My first and foremost job was to support the sales organization and provide technical expertise on ColdFusion during the sales process. When I wasn't closing, I was working extensively with Product Marketing (first with Tim, recently with Kristen). From a marketing perspective I helped organize our technical content at the various seminars, press tours, conferences and events. Finally, I would fill in for Ben wherever possible (if thats even possible) evangelizing ColdFusion all around the world (and within Adobe).

To be honest, it was tough. I don't think I've ever had a job that's kept me so busy. At first I was driving most of my work by hitting the pavement and trying to get our sales organization off their butts and move some ColdFusion licenses. It's no small task either. It's hard to get a salesman to sell ColdFusion when they've also got large enterprise systems like Connect and LiveCycle which bring in a significant amount of revenue. Thankfully, that all changed with the release of ColdFusion 8. It's been flying off the shelves and it's all I can do to keep up with all the sales calls. Which brings us to today...

Rather than juggle 3 different roles, I'm going to be focusing much more on Evangelism and Marketing whereas Josh will be taking over most of the sales-related activities. I'm sure most people will think this move was a no brainier, but in reality it took several months of contemplation before making the decision. Being on the ground with sales is an effective way to drive ColdFusion adoption and produce results. ColdFusion was a bit of a red-headed step child within Adobe, but when we put up record sales numbers with CF8, we quickly became the prodigal son (again). However, with the release of CF8 behind us, I think I can do a lot better for ColdFusion at a higher level.

As a Platform Evangelist, I'm responsible for not only ColdFusion, but for Flex & AIR as well. I've already gotten to take part in a number of Flex/AIR events and even kicked off the North American leg of the Pre-Release tour. So why is this a good thing for ColdFusion? Well, quite simply, I'm unable to talk about anything without mentioning ColdFusion. Meaning at all the events and customer meetings I make sure to include ColdFusion as part of the overall platform story from Adobe. I'm getting used to the initial expressions on non-CFers face when you bring up CF. It's like this eye-roll and stupid look that says 'here comes the sales pitch'. But the fact is, when most people hear what CF8 is capable of and how much it's been advanced since MX, they quickly become interested to hear more. I'm scheduled to cover the Japanese launch for Flex3/AIR and you can be sure that the good people of Japan will learn the power and force of a fully operational Adobe platform.

That being said, some of the more vocal Evangelists are worried that if they aren't talking 'PHP' or 'Java' that for some reason people won't get excited about Flex/AIR. I don't think that really gives developers much credit. All of my demos are running ColdFusion on the back-end and it merely takes a second to say, this could be PHP, Ruby, etc. I mean, are PHP/Ruby developers so dense that they can't even comprehend other back-end technologies (.... don't answer that)?

The job of an Evangelist is to show how cool _our_ technology is, not to conform to the general perceptions for fear of not fitting in. ColdFusion is bad-ass (regardless of what the open sores fanboys on Digg say). If I've learned anything from 90s hip-hop, it's that player haters are punk-fools, and there ain't no shame in the game.

ColdFusion _is_ the RIA server and it's about time people recognized!

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