Before I go any further, I want to assure you that my co-presenter for the past two years, Bob (Dr.Bob) Swart is still part of Delphi Developer Days. Bob is taking a sabbatical from traveling in the first part of 2015, and his humor and profound knowledge of Delphi will be sorely missed. But he will be back next year, and I am certain that he will have a wealth of new information to share at that time.
In the meantime, I have the supreme pleasure to have another of the world's great Delphi gurus joining me for this annual seminar tour. Ray Konopka is an Embarcadero MVP, winner of the coveted Spirit of Delphi award, and owner and founder of Raize Software, one of the first providers of third-party Delphi components. Another of his products, CodeSite Express, ships with Delphi.
I first met Ray when we served together on the annual Borland International Conference advisory board. That was more than 20 years ago. And I have to say that he is one of the hardest working and most focused people I've ever met. More importantly, he is an articulate speaker with a gift for communication. Whatever the topic, he understands the essential points, and presents them with clarity. You can't ask for more from a presenter.
But there's more, and it's particularly important when it comes to Delphi Developer Days. As everyone who has attended in the past knows, one of the hallmarks of Delphi Developer Days is the book that every attendee receives. Packed with hundreds of packages of material, it ensures that you take home more than an experience — you take home information.
This is why Delphi Developer Days presenters also have to be skilled writers. My first Delphi Developer Days co-presenter, Marco Cantù, is an excellent example of this. Marco has published more books on Delphi than anyone else, and I don't know anyone working with Delphi who doesn't own several of them. Bob, likewise, has published a number of books, countless tutorials, and many magazine articles. Who hasn't found the answer to some impenetrable problem from Bob's posts? I know I have.
Ray, likewise, is an author. He wrote the Blazing Pascal column for PC Techniques, and the column Delphi by Design for Visual Developer Magazine. Furthermore, his book, Developing Custom Delphi Components was groundbreaking (as was the follow-up, Developing Customer Delphi 3 Components), and it deserves a place on every Delphi developer's shelf.
Ray and I are still working on the agenda for this year's topics, but I can assure you that there will be lots of great information. I will blog and tweet again once we've posted the topics. In the meantime, you can read the press release at http://www.DelphiDeveloperDays.com/press_release.html.
For more information, visit http://www.DelphiDeveloperDays.com. And, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that we're currently in the very early registration period, and you can save 25% if you sign up soon.
Let me finish by now returning to my main point. This year's Delphi Developer Days tour will be one to remember. Ray and I are looking forward to it, and I hope you are, too.