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):

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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).

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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….

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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.

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.

Tuesday (3/18) was the Microsoft Launch event in Detroit.  Being the intrepid geek I am, I decided to take a road trip and go to the event 3 hours away, rather then the one in the same town a week earlier.  Madness you say?  Nay, for I got to enjoy the good company of Corey Haines and Nate Hoellein on the way there and back as we car polled together.  While leaving at 4:30am was a bit rough, the drive was worth it once we got there.  I got to interact with a slew of smart people that I get to see far to rarely.   Dustin Campbell has a good list of everyone I ran into there (don’t worry Dustin, your secret of feeling up Jeff at lunch is safe with me).

The event du jour however was by far the Geek Dinner put on by Keith Elder, and generously sponsored by the Microsoft Visual Studio Team System..err. . Team.  If you’re ever in downtown Detroit and looking for some killer deep dish and wings, I can’t recommend PizzaPapalis enough.

After a cold beer and some hot pizza, it was time to take the long haul back to Cleveland.  Corey did a fantastic job getting us through the fog alive, and by the time I hit the bed around midnight I was more then ready for sleep. 

North East Ohio seems to suffer from a dearth of good Developer centric events.  And the events we do get seem to be poorly advertised.  And the developers who would be interested in planning and implementing events can often have a hard time finding like minded souls.  To help alleviate both problems, I am implementing the North East Ohio Developer Events blog and Google group.  The blog is intended as a place where North East Ohio based developers can hear about upcoming events that may interest them, while the Google group is a place where those passionate North East Ohio developers can collaborate and plan events.  I’m hoping that we can really get some activity going in this region, I truly think it’s under appreciated, and I know others feel as I do.  The blog kicks off with details on the next Cleveland ArcReady event.  I hear word of an upcoming Coding Dojo, with other talk of a Code Camp and rumors of a possible DevCares event both in the near future.  As I get details they will be announced on the NEODevEvent blog.

North East Ohio Developer Events Blog

North East Ohio Developer Events Group

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!

Attended the Microsoft ArcReady event yesterday. Got a chance to see Brian H. Prince and Josh Holmes again. I always look forward to try to absorb what I can from these two, very very bright guys.

Josh made a point to show me his new 2007 Road King, hinting that it was somehow relevant to his job. It seems that Josh is doing what looks like is going to be an awesome show, called CodeToLive. He is taking the bike across America with Steve Loethen and interviewing developers. Based on the trailer (which he showed during the presentation) and the first episode, it looks like this is going to be a blast to follow. CodeToLive is definitely a mantra I live by, developing isn’t what I do, it is who I am. I’m hoping to see many more episodes from those two.

Due to an administrative error (specifically an admin confusing Kansas City and Cleveland), there was a surprisingly small turnout. That did not prevent a few spirited exchanges though, it was interesting to hear how some could not fathom how Twitter and Twittervision applied to the concept of Platforms being better products then Applications. One of the real benefits of these events is getting a chance to interact with fellow professionals in different areas with different background. Getting those unique perspectives and having a chance to articulate your own positions really helps put things into focus. So regardless of the turn out it was a worth while and lively crowd in my opinion.

Josh’s presentation was enjoyable as always, interspersed with personal stories and anecdotes that help illustrate situations we may find in our day to day jobs. The first story he relayed was his treacherous experiencing trusting a single data provider, namely NavTeq. The second related to utilizing your users to drive design. His alum Franciscan University of Stubenville, had installed some new sidewalks and were dismayed to see none of the students using them. They had elected, rather, to cut through the grass along a shorter and more direct route. When the university expanded and added new buildings, the initially did not put any sidewalks in. Instead the planted grass. They then waited until the students had worn trails in the grass along their preferred routes and paved those. It’s really quite a good story about the importance of user-centric and user-driven design.

Brian talked next and demonstrated how some of the concepts are used at QuickSolutions. You’d think it’d be incredibly boring, but Brian’s skill as a presenter is such that you really don’t notice. He demoed a bit with the BizTalk Labs site, specifically the Connectivity Service and went over some of the procedures QS uses. A joy to listen to as always.

Josh also gave us a brief overview of Tafiti (which I had seen before, but it’s always good when the MS guys start doing new demos ;) ). And things wrapped up then with the usual giveaways. A few books, a copy of Expression and Office 2007. Though my chances were good I walked away empty handed, yet not empty headed :) I am definitely looking forward to the next ArcReady!

Don’t forget to checkout CodeToLive, and a reminder that CodeMash registration will be opening soon!