Blog

Into the Box Blog Post Series - Meet Shawn Oden

Paulina Lainez April 30, 2020

Spread the word

Paulina Lainez

April 30, 2020

Spread the word


Share your thoughts

We’d like to introduce you to Shawn Oden, our next speaker in our Blog Post Series. When asked  to share something funny about himself, he turned to his son and this happened: “I asked [him] what he thought was funny about me, he said "Your face." Which is rather ironic, since he looks almost exactly like me.”  Oh how the have tables turned!
 
Shawn will be leading the “The Golden Hammer: Confessions of a Recovering Database Abuser” session on May 8th at 11:00 AM until 11:50 AM.  You should attend since “almost every developer touches a database in some way.” I spent a long time being annoyed that my database was always a bottleneck. I was fortunate enough to have a patient DBA who was willing to work with me to show me a better way to do the things I was trying to do.  I'll try to share some of the lessons I learned.”
 
Having our virtual conference has benefits and drawbacks as Shawn mentions: “Normally, my favorite part of conferences is the Hallway Track, but that's going to be a bit different this year.” Yet he is hopeful since “over the past several years, the sessions at Into The Box have always looked pretty amazing, and this year is no exception. I always have the dilemma of figuring out which sessions to attend, and even with a virtual conference, I already know I'm going to be watching some recordings later.I'm very interested in the available containerization features, and I want to hit the sessions on Testing and CI. But mostly, as a data guy, I'd love to learn more about QB and Quick. Those are probably the sessions I'm most looking forward to.”

Add Your Comment

Recent Entries

From Legacy Risk to Modern Agility: A Phased Modernization Roadmap for CFML Teams

From Legacy Risk to Modern Agility: A Phased Modernization Roadmap for CFML Teams

Many organizations running CFML applications today face the same challenge.

Their systems still work.

They support core business processes.

They generate revenue.

But at the same time, those platforms are increasingly exposed to risk.

Unsupported runtimes, operational fragility, security exposure, and difficulty integrating with modern systems are becoming more common in environments still running older versions of Adobe ColdFusion or Lucee.

The quest...

Cristobal Escobar
Cristobal Escobar
March 16, 2026
Introducing the BoxLang Spring Boot Starter: Dynamic JVM Templating for Spring

Introducing the BoxLang Spring Boot Starter: Dynamic JVM Templating for Spring

Spring Boot developers know the pain of evaluating view technologies. Thymeleaf is great — until you need more expressiveness. FreeMarker is powerful — until the syntax fights you. What if you could write templates in a dynamic JVM language that gives you the full power of the platform, feels natural, and requires zero setup to integrate?

Meet the BoxLang Spring Boot Starter.

Luis Majano
Luis Majano
March 13, 2026
Why Swiss Banks Are Modernizing CFML Platforms Without Rewrites

Why Swiss Banks Are Modernizing CFML Platforms Without Rewrites

The growing need to evolve legacy financial platforms safely

Many Swiss banks and financial institutions still operate important systems built on ColdFusion and CFML platforms.

These systems manage a wide range of functions, including:

  • internal banking workflows
  • reporting systems
  • client portals
  • data integration platforms
  • compliance and risk management tools

In many cases, thes...

Cristobal Escobar
Cristobal Escobar
March 13, 2026