I woke up on Saturday April 21st 2012 not knowing what to expect. Well, not exactly. Michael Eaton had been telling me for the last few years about the conference he helps organize called Kalamazoo X. How he hand selects the best speakers he’s heard throughout the previous year and asks them to come out to Kalamazoo and give a 30 minute talk for the single track conference. Unlike your typical technical conference, KalX is strictly about soft skills. The touchy-feely type of information that another human saying to you will have a far greater impact than simply reading printed words on a page.

So, I had the idea of Kalamazoo X in my head, but still had not actually experienced it; and since no one’s baby is ugly, I couldn’t exactly count on Mr. Eaton as a completely unbiased observer. So I was unsure exactly what lay a head as I walked towards the venue on that crisp, cold and deceiptively sunny Michigan morning.

Leaving the lying Sun’s ineffectual rays behind, I entered the classroom of the community college where the event was being held. As I began to pour a rejuvenating cup of coffee, I glanced around the room. As noted above, KalX is single track, so all attendees are in the same room for the duration of the event. Now, KalX is described as a conference, but at this point it’s small enough that it may be more accurately described as a gathering. Attendence numbers under hundred, leading to a very intimate feeling. Like being surrounded by a group of friends to hear other friends talk with you.

As Jeff Blankenburg took the stage, I should have known that there should have been no room in my mind for any lingering doubts. For the next thirty minutes he did a fantastic job of speaking on the topic of “How to Learn”. A big point of Jeff’s talk was how “time” and “priority” are fungible. That is, you can exchange priority for time. One of the notes I made was that “Stupid sometimes equals Great”, meaning that mistakes are wonderful things to be embraced as that is how knowledge is gained.

Following up was Joe O’Brien on “People: The Missing Ingredient”. After hearing him talk about “Pragmatic Thinking And Learning” for about the billionth time, I finally broke down and bought myself a copy. Next was Laura Bergells with an excellent talk on the personality makeup of teams and how opposing personalities make a team complete, the idea of “Creative Tension” as opposed to stagnant “Groupthink”. Suzan Bond took center stage with an amazing talk on intuition, with a riveting lead-in story of how intuition saved her life. The ever entertaining Leon Gersing gave a interesting presentation titled “Going Gonzo” about pushing boundaries of the dominant culture. One of the notes I made from that talk still resonates with me today: “The pressure to be right leads to lack of wisdom.”

By this time, it was the middle of the day and it was time for a break. Lunch was a nice selection of box lunches. A decent enough meal and enough fuel to recharge for the second half of the day. Unbelievably this was only 50% of the talks so far!

After lunch was Tim Wingfield with a talk on “Your Career Is Yours”, a talk that surely resonated with a number of the students in the room. However there was a great deal of valuable reminders about what it means to have a career in Software Development for anyone of any level. Justin Searls took hit the proverbial stage with a talk that is marked in my notes as being SO AWESOME. The talk was titled “The Mythical Team-Month” and was a great sermon on the values of early failure with quick turn around. Jen Myers followed up with the talk “Developers Can’t Design and Other Myths”, a talk I had seen her give at CodeMash earlier in the year and which was still enlightening to see a second time. Elizabeth Naramore instructed us on “Dealing With Difficult People” by noting that it’s often a case if you having to deal with yourself. The always fascinating Alan Stevens finished off the day with “Making A Difference”, a creed on transforming the world by starting with ourselves. One of the quotes that stuck with my from that inspiring talk was “Armoring yourself is not brave. Bravery is taking your armor off”. That is, it is far braver to expose yourself than it is to hide yourself away.

Overall the number one theme at Kalamazoo X seemed to be that one must strive to subvert their natural defensive mechanisms. Hack your mind.

It’s really hard to describe with written word how inspiring and polished all these speakers were. All had amazing stage presence with excellent material delivered in clear and concise, yet entertaining ways. Any one of these talks would be a worthy keynote at any conference of any size. I hear rumors that videos of the talk may make their ways online, and I certainly hope this is the case. Not only because I hope others can be similarly enlightened, but also I’d really like to experience those talks over again!

Kalamazoo X is really a hidden gem of the midwest region conference scene, one I can’t believe I’ve skipped the past three years. Miss it at your own peril. I know I’ll be returning.

I had the pleasure of spending this past weekend with a group of about two dozen of the most talented and passionate developers in this region, and some from outside.  This was no ordinary conference though, this was camping!  We had no electricity, no flushing toilets, and a hand pump for running water.  The great thing about the lack of power  though is that distraction was at an absolute minimum, all we could really do was talk and listen.  I kept a camp journal, below is the transcription (with some embellishment):

——

9/5/08

We have arrived at Agile Summer Camp.  After claiming a bottom bunk in the rear of the cabin, I am sitting in my camp chair enjoying a beer while Brandon Joyce, funky town dancer extraordinaire, cranks the camp radio so we can listen to Chef (RIP) croon on a 70s station.  Sadukie is dead-tree blogging and Woody and Matt Werstler have gone for firewood.  We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Mike Eaton who has recently called and is nearby. 

Suddenly, a car arrives.  Could this be Mr. Eaton?  Or a guy with a chainsaw (I hope he has bud light!).  It turns out to be Josh Holmes (who looks like he could have a chainsaw…).  He is followed shortly by Eaton, and then others.

There was a guest log in the back of the cabin packet that contained a riddle, as people arrived we asked for them to take it on, but no one could come up with an answer, see if you can:

We buried the loot where the fish used to swim

40 paces westerly of monitor, third stopper (not for bathtub) from the left.  one foot down right side.

1st Clue:  Are you good enough?

-John from Beaverton May 26, 2008

The evening ends with awesome discussions on community and a few already on the topic of agile.  Also me and Mike Eaton finish a fifth and a pint of Jack ourselves (okay Steve Andrews helped a little).

——

9/6/08

CLANK! CLING! CLANG!  I am roused from my fitful sleep by the sharp cry of metal to metal.  I change in my sleeping bag and make my way out of the cabin to find turkey sausage and eggs being cooked on the, now assembled, camp stove….

——

The rest of the journal devolves into generic notes, most of which can be found here (along with a lot more detail on the actual sessions).

Needless to say it was very educational and loads of fun.

I had the pleasure of attending devLink this past weekend in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.  Honestly, I almost blew this conference off.  The sessions really didn’t appeal to me, and it was a bit of a hike to get to.  But then Amanda Laucher announced the DevLink Bus. And I started to waver…  Then I heard that Alan Stevens would be organizing Open Spaces during the conference. I was sold.

Wednesday evening around 7:30, my wife dropped me off at Sadukie’s house. Brandon Joyce was already there, watching Family Guy.  After Sadukie finished gathering up her wares, we piled into her Durango and headed off to pick up Corey Haines. A quick trip across town and we were on our way to Toledo to catch the bus.

Well, more accurately we were on our way to Toledo to wait for the bus.  The bus apparently went to the wrong side of town and it had to turn around to pick us up.  This wasn’t entirely bad.  It gave us enough time to pick up beer and for Corey to have an impromptu parking lot concert. And what’s better then beer and music?

Eventually the bus arrived and we REALLY began our journey.  A journey of corny movies and lack of sleep.  After much tossing and turning and cursing of lack of leg room, we arrived in Tennessee about 9am.  At which point I collapsed in my hotel room and passed out. Waking up in the evening, I followed my instinct to the local hotel bar/restaurant. Later on, I ended up making my way to Alan’s room where a party was going down.  Guitars, Cigars, and Beers were being passed around with abandon until hotel security came to the door and asked us nicely to stop.

The rest of the time in Tennessee is really a blur.  I wish I could give a detailed synopsis of each day, replete with details and names.  But honestly, the days meld into one another, linked only by great conversations, new experiences, and wonderful people.  I can’t stress enough the amount of knowledge I gained, and the success of the Open Space format that was put into place.

Alas, it was over much too soon.  By Saturday night it was time to board the bus once again, and make the long, movie filled trip back to Ohio… Who knows, maybe this time I could get some sleep? I cuddled up to the window and slowly drifted…

“THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP!”  Okay, so sleep wasn’t going to happen.

A blown tire. Great, James Avery’s ribbing about “Everyone was screaming… except Cliff” went through my head.  It didn’t help that we passed a sign commemorating a 1988 bus tragedy (no joke). The bus slowly inched along, until we pulled into a gas station in English, Kentucky.  Our faces aglow in the soft light of nearby Waffle House.  We waited.  And Waited.  Cooter showed up, and proceeded to sheer three bolts off the wheel.  So we continued to wait.  But while we waited, a remarkable thing happened.  Incredible conversations took place.  On Comments, on SRP, and any number of things.  The Open Spaces continued into the most open space possible, the world beyond the conference. Then the acetylene torch came out.

So we waited a bit more.  Marriages came and went we waited so long. Eventually a new tire was on and we were off.  By 1pm I was home holding my daughter and reflecting on a fantastic conference.  I was thankful I ended up going, though some images will be seared into my brain, forever.

I’ll at least be able to say I shared a tour bus with a member of Ratt.

The best part is that the conversation continues at the Heartland Open Spaces Wiki. Be sure to stop by and join in!

Next, I’ll be at Agile Summer Camp, and then I’m home until CodeMash in January 2009.  To all my new friends, old friends, and friends to be, I hope to see you there!

What a fantastic conference this was two weeks ago.  A great lineup of speakers, and fantastic after event gatherings.  And I missed the first day!  Josh Holmes has a great series of posts detailing the event, so I won’t repeat the play by play here.  But I can say that I will definitely be making the trip to Columbus for eRubyCon 2009. 

This was the first conference I have gone to where I actually presented.  My talk was originally geared more towards .NET developers interested in Ruby, thinking that there would be more Java and .NET enterprise folks there then it turned out.  After I arrived, as I listened to the attendees, I realized the audience was primarily people already doing Ruby.  I also noticed a certain level of distrust around Microsoft in general, even though the event was hosted in their office!  As I was going to be speaking on IronRuby, a Microsoft project, this concerned me a bit.  So I ended up putting in an opening section about some of, what I believe to be, the positive changes at Microsoft over the last half-decade or so.  I highlighted efforts like CodePlex and Port25.  A number of people seemed to copy down the Port25 address, so I hope I helped open some eyes in this case.  I also went over the current state of IronRuby, and compared it’s performance to JRuby.  I then asked who did .NET work in their day to day jobs and must have had about 5 people raise their hands.  Then I went through a short demo of opening up and changing a standard WinForms app using IronRuby. It seemed to go well, I’ve gotten positive feedback on it and a number of suggestions for improvement.

I can’t thank Joe O’Brien enough for the opportunity or confidence in me he showed by allowing me to speak.  The slides and demo used for my presentation are here.

Just a heads up to my faithful readership, I’ll be speaking about IronRuby at erubycon this August.  It’ll be my first  public speaking engagement at a technical conference, and my first real public speaking since High School (in-house presentations don’t count in my book).  I’m quite nervous but it’s a topic I’m passionate about so I’m really excited as well.  The title of the talk is "Because Iron is Battleship Gray: IronRuby In The Real World", and it won’t mention Silverlight or Rails.  Ruby is so much more than glitz and glam, and I think that tends to get lost in the hype.  She’s a sexy lady, but she’s got brains too!

Hope to see you there!

Earlier today the website went live and registrations started. What is a “Day of .NET”? And why is it happening in Cleveland? A “Day of .NET” is, as the Day of .NET website says, “a one-day conference on all things .NET organized by developers for developers.” And that last part is why it’s happening in Cleveland. A number of us have frankly been tired of nothing happening in the Cleveland/North East Ohio area, and decided to take the bull by the horns as it were.

One of the themes we’re trying to push is that Day of .NET is .NET centric, but not .NET exclusive. So we’re hoping to bring a few speakers from other worlds (Java, Ruby, Python, etc) and learn from them. As well as explore a number of the exciting new things coming out of Microsoft these days (like the DLR, Silverlight, et. al.).

Interested in speaking? Contact speakers@clevelanddodn.org. Want to sponsor or know someone who would want to sponsor? We got lot’s of logo space to fill up, just contact sponsors@clevelanddodn.org. Most of all, get to www.clevelanddodn.org and register!

A little late, I know, but I finally got some time to put my thoughts into place.  First I want to send out my congratulations to Jim Holmes, Brian Prince, Jason Gilmore, Jason Follas, Dianne Marsh, Jeff Blakenburg, Josh Holmes, and John Hopkins for putting on ANOTHER wonderful event.  I went into CodeMash ’08 with very high expectations based on last years spectacular event, and the group did not disappoint.  A quick thank you to the CodeMash sponsors for helping those folks do that job!  Your loyalty to the development community will not be forgotten by this developer.

It was kicked off by a very insightful panel on how to "sell" yourself and your ideals to clients and/or colleagues.  Then were the two days of sessions which were again some of the most insightful and educational I’ve ever had the pleasure of attending.

The keynotes were five star once again, with Scott Hanselman, Neal Ford, and Brian Geotz all doing an outstanding job.

I strongly urge everyone to go listen to Chris Woodruff’s CodeMash Podcasts, as well as checkout the CodeMash site for slide decks and session audio.

Of course the other half the conference occurs after the sessions are long over and deep into the night.  I had great conversations with folks like Joe O’Brien (who is a way bigger twitter addict then me, Keith) , Jay Wren, and Steven Harman that I am still digesting over. 

Let the countdown to CodeMash 2009 begin!

Be sure to go and register now!  The sooner you do the cheaper it is.  I want to CodeMash 2007 and it was one of the most awesome experiences I had, be sure to check out my blog entries detailing last year if you want an idea of what it’s all about.  It’s inexpensive, it’s at a waterpark, it’s easy to get to, people are friendly, what more reason do you need?  Do you live to code? Why aren’t you already registered!?

Ah the first real blog post in a while, and even this is late, hoping to get back in the groove here with this one!

After leaving Cleveland at 6am I ended up arriving at Day Of DotNet a little late. Not too bad for a three hundred mile drive, I ended up walking into Josh Holmes’ talk on “Architecting the User Experience” (part of the ArcReady series, this was like a sneak-peek) about 10 minutes late. What I saw was awesome though , definitely some things to think about. Jason Follas, who I met at CodeMash and an organizer for DoDN, was kind enough to grab my name tag for me in exchange for me doing a head count of the session (76 people if you’re curious).

After having a few minutes to mull over what I had heard, it was time for the next session. “Hardcore Reflection” by Dustin Campbell. This was by far the most valuable session of the the day, for me. Dustin was a great speaker and really knew his stuff. I learned alot there that I’m looking forward to using in my day to day work.

I then had a chance to attend red-gate Software’s vendor session, mostly a bore-fest infomercial. Then Lunch, Domino’s pizza (if you could get it), I had a couple pizza’s and called the wife.

Off to “Next Generation UI” session by Mark Miller. Poor guy, his speaking skills are awesome, but the technology did not want to cooperate! I heard his second session went well, but I had opted to go to “Multithreading in Windows Forms Applications”. Patrick Steele gave a good talk on the basics of multi-threading a form application, I was hoping for something more in depth, but all in all a good refresher.

Then we had the Microsoft Vendor Session, which was also hosted by Josh Holmes, he didn’t have anything prepared so I threw out the DLR and IronRuby. Well, he didn’t have IronRuby, but we got to see some of the DLR in Silverlight 1.1 with IronPython, cool stuff! Someone asked about Silverlight on Linux (which Mono is working on). Josh said that if it made business sense Microsoft would do it (being that they’re a business and all), but he didn’t think that the Linux made much business sense right now. He’s probably right (though I did rib him a bit about Dell putting Ubuntu on consumer systems now), but sometimes developer and community good will pays more then a strict bean counter could see. Could you imagine if Microsoft announced Linux support for Silverlight? I think it would be a brilliant PR move myself. You keep saying your open and look at these cool standards and we’re cross platform, and blah blah blah. Just do it already! :)

Anyway, wrapped up the day with Brian Prince’s talk on “Agile Processes”, I didn’t get a chance to hear Brian speak at CodeMash, and I must say I came away impressed. He’s quite an awesome presenter! I hope to incorporate some of his company’s ideas into my own practices, and at least I’ll be more prepared if I ever get a job at an agile shop.

I was glad I went, I learned alot and had a great amount of fun and will be attending the next one! We need more events like this in the Northeast Ohio area!

Thanks to Christopher Grant for pointing out that CodeMash moved from #2 on Technorati’s search to #1:

Amazing! That kind of exposure can only be a good thing for this unique and wonderful conference.