After hearing about it for a couple of years, I finally got a chance to attend the No Fluff, Just Stuff tour here in St. Louis this past weekend.  In short all I can say is "wow".  If you get a chance to attend this event as it comes through your town I highly recommend it.

Over the course of three days the NFJS guys presented 11 different sessions.  Each session had 6 different presentations going on.  Let me tell you, I had a hard time deciding which presentations to attend.  There were many good choices.

Presentations ranged over many thought provoking topics in the Java, Open Source, and Agile communities.  Whether it is a topic in your area of expertise or an up and coming technology that you know you should learn, the NFJS tour probably has you covered.

Personally, I spent my time diving deeper to technologies with which I had familiarity but wanted to refine with help of others.  For me these subjects included REST, OSGi, Spring, Hibernate, and a very interesting session on the challenges of running production systems.  In an attempt to broaden my horizons, I also attended Ted Neward's Scala presentation during the final session.

Without a doubt, the best part of the sessions is the excitement that the presenters bring to their subject matter.  Each of them was experienced with the technologies at hand and excellent teachers.  Just as an example, go take a look at Ted Neward's blog.  There is a guy who is passionate about software and programming languages.

The NFJS tour is coming back through town again this September.  I can't wait.