It's no mystery that I'm a big Gradle fan ... it's by far the best build tool I've even seen. Build scripts are concise and readable, and Gradle the easiest build tool to configure and extend, as well.
I fought an uphill battle with the other Tapestry developers to replace Maven with Gradle. Yes, we had an existing Maven build and it worked (most of the time, until it didn't). Now past the switchover, we're really reaping the benefits: faster builds, fewer headaches, and it's much easier to add new sub-modules. Despite the achievements I've made with Gradle, there's a lot about this powerful tool I still need to learn. So I was surprised and pleased when Tim Berglund contacted me to help find a venue in Portland, Oregon for Gradle training.
They're now advertising that the three-day training is coming January 17-19, 2012; details here.
I've seen Tim speak at a number of No Fluff Just Stuff and Uberconf sessions; he's very good. If you are frustrated using Ant or Maven, you need to learn Gradle, and I can't see how getting an intensive brain dump won't do anything but save you time and money.