I'm in a cab, on my way to Heathrow airport in London to start on the first leg of my two-month conference marathon. Or, as Relly put it in the lovely good luck card she sent me yesterday, I'm embarking on my SWX World Tour to celebrate the launch of SWX PHP 1.0!

The first stop: Flashforward Boston.

FlashForward, many moons ago, was the first Flash conference I attended. I remember watching Branden Hall present some light-years-ahead-of-its-time-thing-or-other (as he always does), and thinking "I want to present here some day." It was a wonderful honor when I was first invited to speak there several years ago and I can't explain how delighted I am to have spoken at every FlashForward since. FlashForward's lasting power and professionalism is a testament to the energy that Lynda, Toby, Christophe and the whole FlashForward team put into the conference time after time.

After FlashForward, I fly back to Europe to present at the FlashForum Conference hosted by Marc Thiele and Sascha Wolter in Cologne, Germany.

FlashForum Conference is apparently the largest German-language conference. FlashForum has a community of over 80,000 members. I've never been to Cologne and I'm very excited to be going. In fact, I haven't been back in Germany since I presented at the Wizards of OS conference in Berlin last year (i.e., it's been too long). I can't wait to meet up with old friends and meet new ones from the FlashForum crowd.

Right after FlashForum Conference, I fly back to the States to present an Inspire session at MAX Chicago.

(What, Aral's presenting at MAX?)

After MAX Chicago, I have a week to recuperate in my lovely Brighton before embarking on the second leg of the tour, starting with MAX Barcelona, followed by FITC Hollywood.

At FITC Hollywood a few friends and I will have a surprise for those of you attending. What is this treat? Not tellin'... but if you do some digging, you might just find out!
After FITC Hollywood, I am going to be presenting at MAX Tokyo in Japan. I'm hugely looking forward to this as it will be my first time there and I've heard and seen so many things about it.

Finally, I am going to be back in my beloved Brighton to present at Flash on the Beach. I was delighted when John Davey called last year to run an idea by me: What would I think about a community Flash conference in Brighton? What? A Flash conference where I live? Hmmm, let me think about that for a moment... brilliant! Watching the idea bloom into the amazing conference that became Flash on the Beach last year was a hugely rewarding experience. John literally poured his soul into making FOTB a success last year and, if what I've seen of the preparations are any indication, this year's is going to be doubly good.

So that, in a nutshell, is the SWX World Tour. I am going to be presenting my session Let's Talk About SWX, Baby! at each of the events but expect the session to evolve from conference to conference. SWX itself won't remain stagnant during this time either. Expect some exciting announcements in the next few days!

Here's looking forward to meeting some of you in my travels. If you're attending one of the conferences, do come by and say hello and grab a SWX Moo Card and sticker!

Go go gadget SWX World Tour! Woot!

The SWX World Tour article by Aral Balkan, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 UK: England License.