This post was to be titled Alabama Code Camp, but after yesterday’s success there are plans in the pipeline for at least one more Code Camp in Alabama. Who would have guessed the Code Camp idea would have become so successful? If you have not attended one you work with .Net then you really should keep an eye on the Code Camp master list.

Props to Virgina College who permitted us to take over their classrooms for the day. Unfortunately the building lacked any large rooms so when en-mass we were outside, still I hope they allow us back next year:

Virginia College permitted about 140 unknown geeks into their building – Thanks guys!

Everyone I met was friendly and I very much enjoyed talking to these chaps at the pub club. From the sounds of it I am pretty darn sure they will be attending next year

Even Mark Dunn gave a presentation – can you believe these days are free too? I attended one of Mark’s sessions both to hear his content, and to pick up steal tips from a very experienced presenter. My own presentation was terrible (see the next post) due to a projector issue flustering me beyond belief. You can see here that Mark had a similar problem as me; the left of his screen is cropped – evidently he knew exactly what to do and carried on presenting commenting on it only once.

Is this a UN Food Drop or Free Books?

Turns out is was free books and games. Joe is seen here enforcing the 30 seconds to choose rule

The End – A Microsoft employee doing some physical labor. Would you ever see a Sun/ Oracle or Apple employee do this? Microsoft hires some great people and appears to filter out the elite snobs – I believe this is why we now hear much less of the ‘M$ is evil’ talk from the Linux/ Java guys.

So personally? Well my presentation really sucked. Aside from the Mobility Group kick-off presentation last year when Lariam kicked in this was my worst 60 minutes by a long way. It was good experience to fail though as it is a lesson learned. I was flustered by the projector cutting off large sections of my screen and kept blanking on details + mixed up a few acronyms while trying to code in a tiny screen area making sure it could also be seen on the overhead. On a very bright side it finally looks like Lariam has worn off – a year ago a panic attack would have rapidly built up and I would have wanted to escape the room asap (if you go to ever Africa think very hard before taking Lariam to prevent Malaria – side effects of drugs do hit some people and Lariam defines the term ‘living hell’).

The speakers were the best I have seen at a Code Camp since Florida’s in Ft Lauderdale. Being a speaker it is always a toss up between hanging out in the speakers lounge (good networking) or attending presentations (learning opp + I pick up presentation techniques). This time I saw as many presentation as possible but still met lots of stars including Wally and David. Talking of stars many of the developers I met really know their .Net - I wish I had the memory to list all their names here. I look forward to meeting them again next year.

There is so much more I would love to write about the day, but very few people read long posts so I will end now with a final thanks to Bruce Thomas who put a lot of effort in to organizing and planning this day – our conversion was cut short at the pub club, but I was hoping he would tell me all about working in Japan which must be fascinating.

There are still spaces left for Alabama’s code camp which happens on Saturday 29th October. If you missed Atlanta’s then why not try this one – we know the price is right.

The Agenda is interesting; there are an unbelievable NINE tracks:

http://www.alabamacodecamp.com/AlAgenda.aspx

You can sign up here:

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032280737&Culture=en-US

If you fancy a ride there in a swanky BMW then just email and I’ll let you know my travel plans. Ok it is only a stripper 325i but I love the car, although it will be traded for a ’99 Miata soon so I’ll be able to afford to race what I drive – the BMW had two warranty issues that followed my driving school so it has not hit the track again. The dealership is always great but I don’t want to abuse the warranty, I have already had a full set of new rotors and pads + the rear diff fixed which I know were all due to my driving. Now should I NOS the Miata…. Yes I am a law abiding 35 year old UMIST grad with a white collar job; sometimes no one would guess

While I am talking cars here are two pictures of my humble steed in two different situations. The second one is ultra-cool and will be explained in a future post. In a post after I explain how to obtain a Realtor license and just how much cash it will save you when moving house (I said that I would do that how long ago?):

DIY on the house this week - good job I have a (folding) trailer

Plugging into ODB-II, who needs the dealership?

Boy am I late blogging about this one. Well it was a great day with many great speakers, info on who spoke about what is still up here: http://www.gcnug.org/Default.aspx?tabid=81

Everyone I met was very friendly including these guys I had lunch with:

The food at lunchtime was the best of any Code Camp so far, just look at the happy faces below who hung around for seconds:

Finally I attended Doug’s Indigo presentation. He is below setting up and no one owned up to taking this picture before he was ready:

It was great to meet several stars/ future stars at the Queen Anne Revenge. Some of the people I enjoyed meeting are Frank Lavigne (and wife), Lou Vega, Bill Ryan, Will Morganweck, Robin Edwards and the guy who made it all happen Chris Williams. I met loads more great people there and at the Code Camp so sorry to miss some names, but my memory is terrible and I think everyone ran out of business cards by 10am – I know that I did!

So how was it personally? Suzanne and I traveled to Charleston the evening before Code Camp and dined with the other speakers at the Queen Anne’s Revenge.  I spoke at 9am and we had to close the doors to the room nearly ten minutes before starting due to having no more space! The presentation went fantastically with pretty much zero nerves – see y’all, all it needs is practice, if I can become a competent presenter then anyone can! Suzanne and I left Charleston on Sunday morning arriving back in Atlanta in time for tea. A perfect weekend