Utah Code Camp Spring 2008 Retrospective

Posted Thursday, May 01, 2008 10:51 PM by Nathan Zaugg

Code camp snuck up and bit me this year!  I have been so busy with the new cuegle.net/cuegle.com site that I didn't get the preparation time I wanted.  Although turnout was mixed (a little less than we had last time, but still pretty good) the sessions were pretty good this year.

The Good:

  • I got the large room again this time and a lot of people attended my presentation
  • There was a lot of good presentations on lots of different technologies
  • The speakers used up all of the time this year
  • The speakers were better this year
  • The topics were all very interesting!
  • The emphasis was on the code, not the power-point!
  • I think it got people energized about the new technologies
  • We had wireless and even if slow, it worked!
  • People didn't get locked out of the building this year.
  • My friend, Phil won a prize (I drew his name)
  • THERE WAS ENOUGH PIZZA THIS YEAR! YAY!

 

The Bad:

  • One of the presentations was supposed to be about how cool it is to have Iron Ruby-- instead we got a bunch of propaganda from a Ruby fan-boy about how we only use Microsoft technologies because "we fear anything else -- especially something that has power".
  • I wasn't as prepared this time around.  I was doing Silverlight and didn't get my sample application working until the exact moment I was to setup for my presentation.  As a result I wasn't really mentally prepared for the presentation and didn't present it well.
  • I didn't get to pay as much attention to the other presentations as I wanted or get to go to the ones I wanted because I was working on mine!
  • I didn't have near enough handouts (sorry, my printer is out of toner!)
  • I have some bugs in my XAML Cheat Sheet that I just distributed to 100+ people!
  • I've moved to Kaysville now and I'm quite a ways from Neumont University.
  • A lot of my "support" wasn't able to attend.  I know it sounds crazy but when I give a presentation be it Code Camp or a Users Group I like to have 2-3 of my friends helping me get going.  It allows me to focus my energy on mentally preparing.
  • I drew myself in the drawing which disqualified me!  DANG!

 

The Future

  • There is a lot of feedback and a lot of talk around having this during work hours.  This is probably the #1 request among developers.  This is a two-sided sword we're very mixed about it.  It is against the code camp manifesto that we loosely follow.  Though, I wouldn't be surprised if we started doing it on a weekday.
  • I still think we need to have more than 3 rooms going at a time and that some presentations should be given twice.
  • It would be cool to involve people in another way, too.  Have a code competition or a Linux Installation room, etc.  Add some dimension to the conference.
  • Let's go commercial!  Let some big-name sponsors in and give everyone free stuff!  Why not a free PDA for those who attend?

 

Special thanks goes out to Phil Gilmore who helped me immensely  in preparing for my presentation.  He also took the photo's posted below.

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Myself presenting Silverlight 2.0 Beta 1

 

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Discussing the difference between Silverlight 1.0 and 2.0

 

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They audience looks enthralled!

 

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There I am drawing my own dang name!

 

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The grand prize winner (Rock band)

 

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Winner-Winner Chicken-Dinner!

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Double score!

 

--Nathan Zaugg

Photo's courtesy of Phil Gilmore.