My family and I just got back from a road trip up to Ann Arbor where I helped out a bit and spoke at the Day of .NET. John, Josh, and Jason (do events have to be planned by groups of folks with the same first initials?) did an amazing job putting on the event. 20 sessions presented by a terrirific crowd of speakers, plus, get this, $40,000 worth of swag.
They did some things that were a great improvement over the Dayton-Cincinnati Code Camp James and I put on in January. First off, they had nametags (Yo, Michael: we’ll get these next year at the D-C Camp!), they had immense amounts of sponsors, plus they had a separate room for speakers to hang out, unwind, and get ready for their presentations. (Or in my case, get nervous about presenting to 60 or 70 folks…)
I’ve taken some notes on things to tweak for next year’s Code Camp here. One of the coolest things about having a great regional community is that we’re able to share info and ideas on big events like this. I got tremendous support from Josh and John (especially John!) for my camp; I was happy to be able to give back a tiny smidge for their well-run event.
My presentation went pretty well, although my system hung up two minutes into the gig — I got some funny mileage out of how not to start a presentation — then 3/4 of the way through my gig the system went into standby. I’d forgotten to plug the #%^*@!! thing in and the battery was low. Ooops. Thankfully the audience was 1) very patient or 2) mostly asleep by that time.
I was supposed to have recorded my presentation, but the capture didn’t work right. I’ll probably do a dry-run session in a day or two for posting up to the event’s site. I’ll post a note here when that’s done.
The energy of these events is just terrific, both for attendees and for organizers. You really need to look around for similar community-based events if you’ve not attended one. It’s a seriously great way to network and energize yourself.
Many congrats to Jason, Josh, and John. I know how much work these things are, and I’m ever so happy to have seen this event go off smashingly.
2 comments:
Your presentation was great and I don't think anyone was asleep. ;-) I spoke to one of my friends after that session and we were both extremely impressed by a) your ability as a speaker and b) the excellent content.
The demo gods had to hit sometime, right?
Great job!
Thanks for your kind words, Michael!
The session was a lot of fun, and I'm very glad folks liked it. Yes, I certainly could have done without the demo gods striking me. Thankfully my presentation was more of me gabbing than me relying on code working!
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