.net and other interesting dev stuff in PA : Code Camp

First Philadelphia Code Camp completed!

sspotts — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 21:05:00 GMT

This was a great event, and everyone involved made it a huge success. There were a few minor glitches with setup and logistics on the first morning, and no one remembered to check to see if the A/C stayed on after 6pm (it didn't, and it got hot!), but nothing detracted from the tremendous buzz at this Code Camp.

Hats off to all the speakers, and the track leads - who were also speakers, but who took the time to manage the other speakers in their track. Bill Wolff did a fantastic job on the website, especially with the speakers page, which had a very professional look - including speaker pictures and bios, and the sessions page, which included session overviews, and even links to the session materials.

The speakers themselves were awesome, and it was a great mix of well-known speakers and local developers who were fairly new to presenting at events like this. It really showed that any local developer who has an interest can get involved, and I'm hoping that many more will step forward as we have more Code Camp's so we can them run tracks and give talks to their peers.

Great job everyone, and I hope to see all of you at the upcoming Code Camps!

Sold out! Philadelphia Code Camp at 500 registered attendees

sspotts — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 04:48:00 GMT

Okay, had you asked me a few weeks ago, I was a little nervous. I mean, here we were, several user group leaders, RD's, MVP's, and I, along with (necessary) help from my regional marketing rep, putting together an event that was targeted to bring in 500 developers to speak and to attend, over two days on a weekend.

Well, just this afternoon we not only maxed out on registrations, but filled the wait list as well! This is going to be a great Code Camp, and it showed what a few people in the developer community could do once they put their minds to it. It also shows how important it is to have enough such people around.

Given that, if anyone in the Pennsylvania, Delaware, or southern NJ (below Philadelphia) wants to start a new user group or put together a Code Camp in their local area, please contact me. We're already in planning stages for Pittsburgh, so if you're near there it's the perfect time to come to the table.

Philadelphia Code Camp registration near max

sspotts — Wed, 20 Apr 2005 14:43:00 GMT

There are now fewer than two dozen slots available for this event before people are waitlisted, so if you're planning to attend please make sure you register! Go to http://www.phillydotnet.org/codecamp for the agenda, speaker info, logistics, and link to the registration site.

If you're interested in helping out, we can always use a few more volunteers to handle registration, setting up chairs, and even proctoring the hands-on labs. The track leads, volunteers, and I are meeting on-site at 7:30am to ready the building.

10 days left before Philadelphia Code Camp

sspotts — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 19:51:00 GMT

Things are coming together for our Philadelphia Code Camp event, to be held on April 23rd and 24th at the Community College of Philadelphia! We have around 60 sessions and 40 speakers in our six tracks, as well as 50 machines in our proctored Hands-on labs, and over 370 registered attendees so far.

If you're in the DC area, they're ready for their May 7th Code Camp, with 5 tracks and 12 hours of sessions. For even more fun, attend both events!

Code Camp planning is underway for Pittsburgh as well, and I'll be posting more information as our planning team gets closer to deciding on a venue and date. If you're in the area and know of a location with multiple rooms willing to contribute them (i.e., give 'em up for free for the developer community), please let me know so I can add it to the list.

Philadelphia Code Camp is reviewing sessions and filling up!

sspotts — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 01:09:00 GMT

We've got about 32 speakers and 63 sessions lined up so far amongst our 6 tracks, and more speakers keep coming forward. We should start to do the final session selections over the next week or so.

As of Monday we had over 100 attendees registered, but should fill up soon now that we're close to locking down the sessions and moving on local promotions.

Be sure to check out the Philly Code Camp informational site as well as the home site for all MSDN Code Camp events for more information.

I'm meeting with Jared Roberts (Pittsburgh Technology Council), Mike Snell (RD), Craig Oaks (Pittsburgh .NET UG leader), and hopefully others tomorrow before the Pittsburgh .NET user group meeting to start moving on a Code Camp in the western side of PA. If you're interested in speaking or attending in that area, keep an eye out here for more information as we move along.

Atlantic Northeast Software Symposium coming March 11-13th to Philadelphia

sspotts — Fri, 11 Feb 2005 06:48:00 GMT

I met Jay Zimmerman at the Philadelphia Java user group meeting last night (hey, I go where any developers go!) and he told me about this conference coming to Philadelphia from March 11th through 13th. The Atlantic Northeast Software Symposium used to be all Java based, but attendees requested .NET sessions, so they get a full track for .NET this time around.

Jay told me that there were no vendors, no marketing, and no sales pitches. Five tracks (again, one is all .NET), 50 sessions. Limit of 250 attendees. Sounds like our upcoming code camp in April, but a bit smaller.

There's a $675 special early bird discount valid thru February 14th or whenever they sell out. There is a special $50 discount for all .Net User Group members through Monday, February 14th. Please use discount code, nfjs2005spec, when registering and the discount will be applied. Okay, there's another difference from Code Camp.

Cost notwithstanding, I do appreciate that they're doing .NET now, this is very, very cool.

Registration is live for Philadelphia Code Camp!

sspotts — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 18:57:00 GMT

You can go to the registration site and sign up for it now! Also, our Code Camp information site will have the latest news, agenda, and other information on it, so be sure to check it out regularly.

We're running at ludicrous speed now, and are looking for many types of contributors for this event. Contributors can donate:

Time, by volunteering to speak or to help with evaluations or registrations
Giveaways and swag for attendees
A meal for the attendees
Home-grown banners for Code Camp

This event is geared towards growing and enhancing the developer community, and we'd love to see people getting creative to support our Code Camp. If you would like to be a contributor, please let me know and we'll get you on the list!

Greater PA Code Camp site is at the Community College of Philadelphia

sspotts — Fri, 28 Jan 2005 08:25:00 GMT

Thanks to some great footwork by our PhillyDotNet User Group leader Bill Wolff and member/volunteer Mike Cullina, we've selected our site to be the Community College of Philadelphia at their Center for Business and Industry, at 1751 Callowhill Street. Many thanks to CCP for this as well!

As our hosts , they're really pulling out all the stops for us, including wireless internet access (attendees can blog during sessions!), two rooms for hands-on labs, great space, and a really fine facility.

The final dates for the event are April 23 and 24 (still a Saturday and Sunday), from 9am-9pm Saturday and 9pm-6pm Sunday.

We've got 6 tracks and a hands-on lab that will be running concurrently over the two days. Very soon now we'll have a site set up where we'll have the agenda, call for speakers document, sessions and speaker info (as we get them), directions, and information that should help make the event enjoyable. Keep watching my blog for updates.

The tracks and track leads are:

ASP.NET - Bill Wolff (PhillyDotNet UG Leader, MVP)
Enterprise Library / Patterns & practices - Mark Scott (RD)
Dev Tools / Lifecycle - Mitch Ruebush (RD, MVP)
SOA / Architecture - Terry Weiss (RD)
Data Access / SQL Server - Chuck Boyce (Philadelphia SQL Server UG Leader)
Windows Forms / Smart Client - Jason Beres (MVP)
Hands-on Labs - Rob Keiser (Windows SIG Leader, PACS)

If you're interested in speaking at the event and can't wait to let me know, just leave me a comment with your contact info here and I'll send a call for speakers doc directly to you. You can send it back to me and I'll coordinate with the track leads.

We're also going to need a bunch of volunteers to handle registration checklists, distribution of giveaways, "hall monitors" to help people find the rooms and sessions they want, etc., so if you'd like to help us out for a few hours please let us know. More information about that will be on the PhillyDotNet web site when we get the Code Camp page.