rachelreese's blog

Laid Off Camp Phoenix

2009-08-13T20:46:00Z

My mind has been buzzing for days with aftereffects of Laid Off Camp Phoenix.

So, first: my history & background: I was laid off in December. I was actually laid off via voicemail while I was on vacation in another country. At the time, I was so burnt out that my only thoughts were, "zomg, sweet! I don't have to stop being in vacation mode!!" I danced around the house and took the dogs to the dog park. Just hung out and did whatever I felt like for a couple weeks. At that point, a contract had fallen into my lap, so I started working on that. Fast forward to February, and I heard about three different friends being laid off in one week. A couple of us chatted, and we decided to bring Laid Off Camp to Phoenix.

It started slowly (very slowly). Ideas for sessions trickled in & ideas for speakers; we chose a date, lined up gangplank for the venue & set up Facebook, Eventbrite, Meetup and twitter accounts/pages.Then, just as things started to come together, everything needed to change. :) There was so much interest in helping, I started to get more speakers, more signups... I wanted more space, more rooms, more tracks. I spoke to several venues, started pricing things, wondered where on earth a sponsor would fall from the sky to pay for it all. And then, Derek Neighbors and Gangplank saved the day! & hooking me up with the Town of Gilbert, AZ. In a matter of hours, I had a new (fully sponsored) venue, a second food sponsor and a ton of help. I'm extremely grateful to them for *everything*.

I ended up with five rooms. A lunch/networking room; a large room for talks; a smaller room for talks; a room for panels; and one for impromptu sessions. I wanted to keep the unconference/-Camp idea alive, but I wasn't sure how a mostly non-techie crowd would take to it. So, for the most part, I scheduled the sessions, but left the one room open. I know a couple sessions popped up there, so I'm glad that was utilized.

Overall, I think Laid Off Camp was a success. Enough so, that I was talked into doing another one that night, in 6 months-ish. So, c'mon speakers! Start ramping up your sessions!! Honestly, I'm still processing some of the feedback. I had one woman tell me that, for her, it was "life-changing." That will stick with me probably forever. Beyond that I think my favorite comment was @jillinski's tweet about "visions of reinvented me dancing in my head." That so exactly and perfectly summed up my intent. A lot of people seemed to come away honestly inspired; & for that, I thank the speakers & panelists. I'm just glad I could gather everyone there to make it happen. :)

Thanks again to:

Gilbert, AZ
Gangplank
Hyatt Place Phoenix/Gilbert, AZ
TekSystems
Flatterline
And all the incredible volunteers: Perri Collins, Joe Guadagno, Xanthe Horste, Charlene Kingston, Derek Neighbors, Evo Terra, Lorin Thwaits, Debbie Walker

Followup networking: Susan Baier has created a list of everyone's twitter handle who was there. Check her blog post to connect! And I created a LinkedIn group for everyone.

Thanks again for an extremely successful Laid Off Camp Phoenix! And I hope to see you all next time!

LaidOffCamp Phoenix!

2009-05-28T00:34:00Z

I first heard about LaidOffCamp, when it was being organized in San Francisco. I recall thinking, what a great idea! Someone should organize one in Phoenix. Well, I was laid off in December. I promptly found work again, but when a few friends were laid off all the same week in February, we decided that the time had come to host a LaidOffCamp Phoenix ourselves! So we are. :)

Background

LaidOffCamps are ad-hoc gatherings of unemployed and nontraditionally employed people (including freelancers, entrepreneurs and startups) who want to share ideas and learn from each other. They feature an open, participatory discussion forum designed to educate, empower, and connect community members. The various presentations, workshops, and discussions focus on topics that may include: building your personal brand, transitioning to a new industry, legal & accounting demands of launching a new business, finding affordable health insurance, alternative working spaces, alternative income sources, and how to become a freelancer.

Details

Date: Saturday, August 8th

Location: Gangplank
325 E. Elliott Rd
Chandler, AZ 85225

Tickets: GET FREE TICKETS!
You must have a ticket!

The Rules of LaidOffCamp

1st Rule: You do talk about LaidOffCamp.
2nd Rule: You do blog about LaidOffCamp.
3rd Rule: Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join.
4th Rule: No pre-scheduled presentations and no tourists - everyone participates!
5th Rule: If you want to present, you must write your topic and name in a presentation slot.
6th Rule: As many presentations at a time as facilities allow for.
7th Rule: All sponsors, no matter how large their contribution is, shall be treated equally and afforded the same "benefits"
8th Rule: There will be no screening or vetting of presenters - anyone can speak!

Adopted from Tantek Çelik's The Rules of BarCamp.

For even more details, check The Wiki.

Tech-Ed Followup

2009-05-26T22:12:00Z

Just wanted to follow-up on my Tech-Ed on the cheap experience.

I purchased an Expo floor only pass ($100), which did not offer meals. So, I purchased a late breakfast/lunch/brunch every day at e.g. Denny's ($15/day * 5 days = $75), which was large enough to hold me over till 3pm (which = free snack time on the expo floor). Grab a couple free snacks, and I'm good. Enough hanging out on the expo floor, and you hear where all the good parties are (free food, free drinks & best networking opportunities). I drove and, since I drive a Prius, it was only 2 tanks of gas, roundtrip. $40. But, then I had to pay for parking $150. (Boo on big city parking!) And I was able to snag a couch to crash on from a friend in town. (free!)

Just wanted to reiterate: For $400 total (cheapest vacation ever!), I hit up one of the most important Microsoft conferences of the year, and networked the heck out of it. Seriously: that's accessible for everyone (employed or not) right?

Why weren't you there?

Tech-Ed, budgeting and being laid off.

2009-05-07T03:46:00Z

I was laid off in December; then took up a 3 month gig with a friend for which I only ended up being paid 25%; and am about to complete a roughly six week gig on Friday. Needless to say, I've been quite low on money for quite some time.

Having my contract end this week is actually somewhat convenient. TechEd is in LA next week. Since it's just a hop, skip and a jump from my place, I'm going. Obviously, I can't afford the $2300 registration fee, but I can afford the $100 ticket just to get on the Expo floor. I can couch surf. I can bring food & pilfer granola bars. There will likely be cheap eats somewhere near the conference center. If not, I do have a car. I can drive to a Mickey D's. I will still have access to some of the world's most knowledgeable people. Most of the sessions are online anyway.

As someone who's (thinking about, and slowly acting upon) organizing LaidOffCamp Phoenix, I want to make the point that there's nothing at all about my current situation that is preventing me from going. Major conferences are important networking events. You SHOULD be going to these things if you have the time, because they DO NOT HAVE TO BE budget-stretchers.

There are ways, people. Learn them. Live them.

Upcoming Phoenix Events!

2008-10-27T17:04:00Z

There's a bunch of FREE stuff going on this week, folks, so get out and GO!

Ignite Phoenix, Part II:

http://www.ignite-phoenix.org/
Wednesday, October 29, 2008.

Ignite Phoenix is an information exchange aimed at fostering and inspiring Phoenix’s creative community. Presenters get 5 minutes and 20 slides to talk about anything they are passionate about. Send in your presentation or just show up and have a fun time. (stolen shamelessly from the About page)

Now, check their list of topics. Want to know how to survive the next zombie uprising (and really, what kind of person doesn't have time for that? Do you want to die?) What about how to get started with urban livestock? Make a movie for under $5k? iPhone development? Ignite Phoenix has it all.

PodCampAZ:

http://podcampaz.org/
November 1-2, 2008.

What is a PodCamp?

PodCamp is a FREE BarCamp-style community UnConference for podcasters and listeners, bloggers and readers, and anyone interested in New Media. It was held for the first time from September 8-10 in Boston, Massachusetts and is now spreading across the world.

These 7 rules define what events can be called a PodCamp:

All content created must be released under a Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

All attendees must be treated equally. Everyone is a rockstar.
All attendees must be allowed to participate. (subject to limitations of physical space, of course)
All sessions and events must be free of charge to attend.
All sessions must obey the Law of 2 Feet - if you’re not getting what you want out of the session, you can and should walk out and do something else. It’s not like you have to get your money’s worth!
The event must be new-media focused - blogging, podcasting, video on the net.
The financials of a PodCamp must be fully disclosed in an open ledger, except for any donor/sponsor who wishes to remain anonymous.

(stolen shamelessly from the Learn page)

Hope to see you there!

I was interviewed! AKA: Learn more about me.

2008-10-24T23:22:00Z

Just wanted to thank Chris Williams for interviewing me as part of his very cool Nine Questions series!

Yes, it was quite awhile ago. One of my more recent goals is *slightly* more frequent blogging.

So, check me out: Nine Questions with Rachel Reese

Fixing WCF/WPF VS 2005 Extensions installation after installing VS 2008 or .NET 3.0 SP1

2008-04-25T20:01:00Z

Just wanted to point folks to a fix I just found helpful:

Thanks to http://blog.tfanshteyn.com/2008/01/fixing-wcfwpf-vs-2005-extensions.html

Basically, once you've installed VS2008 or .NET 3.0 SP1, the registry key saying that .NET 3.0 has been installed is removed. If you want to, say, install Visual Studio 2005 extensions for .NET Framework 3.0 (WCF & WPF), November 2006 CTP, you'd recevie errors to the effect that .NET 3.0 wasn't installed, and was a prerequisite.

Thanks!

Be Careful

2004-07-19T17:19:00Z

I know this is something many of you have had to deal with for a long time... but for future reference, be careful what you type while at work:

http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/0719workemail19.html

“The poll said 25 percent of companies fired a worker for violating e-mail policies, up from 2 percent last year....

“About 0.5 percent of companies said instant messages have been subpoenaed.”

Gmail

2004-05-19T18:13:00Z

Apparently the 1TB offer for mail that some folks reported was only a glitch. :-(

Full article: http://news.com.com/2100-1024_3-5215599.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news

Google definitions

2004-05-05T18:38:00Z

I'm sure someone's blogged this before, but how cool is this!?

If you Google what is a web browser (for example) the first link that comes up is "Web definitions for Web Browser". Click on it, and you get a list of definitions of “web browser”. Nice.

Reflection

2004-05-04T18:10:00Z

I posted a question late last week to a couple listserves I'm on:

Given only a string variable containing the name of the property you wish to call, how does one go about calling it?

The answer came back fivefold nearly immediately: “Use reflection. It's really easy.” Oh goody, thinkest I, a chance to learn something.

For those of you who haven't picked it up yet, there's really not much to the concept. By far the most helpful thing I found, was Bipin Joshi's article covering it, on DotNetBips.com:

Introduction to .NET Reflection

Happy reading!

Linux hacked more than Windows

2004-03-04T18:51:00Z

All of Microsoft's security pushing seems to be paying off. The article makes the point that it's just because less experienced folks are deploying the solutions. But of course, with Microsoft catering to the less experienced and locking things down that should be locked down by default, fewer attacks happen, whether these folks are experienced or not.

http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/0,2000061733,39116229,00.htm

" An analysis of hacker attacks on online servers in January by security consultancy mi2g found that Linux servers were the most frequently violated, accounting for 13,654 successful attacks, or 80 per cent of the survey total. Windows ran a distant second with 2,005 attacks. A more specific analysis of government servers also found Linux more susceptible, accounting for 57 per cent of all breaches.

" In a similar analysis last year, Windows proved far more vulnerable, with 51 per cent of successful attacks on government servers made on some version of the Microsoft operating system. "

More on the Application Blocks

2004-02-05T20:18:00Z

Just a couple good articles I found this morning over on 4Guys:

An Introduction and Overview of the Microsoft Application Blocks

Examining the Data Access Application Block

Microsoft Application Blocks

2004-02-02T17:32:00Z

I've seen people blogging on the application blocks before, but I ran across a few people this weekend that had never even heard of them, so I thought I'd create a short list of available application blocks.

These are all written or approved by Microsoft, and can make your life a hundred million gazillion times easier. Compare it with: buying a robot to do your dishes, laundry and vacuuming, given that there are clothes and dishes in various piles all over your countertops and floor. Seriously.

Happy Programming. :-)

Update: Heh. Oops. I *swear* I have this one copied into the notepad version of this message I was working on... <shrug>
The Caching Application Block:http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnpag/html/CachingBlock.asp?frame=true

Helllloooo Gadget Stores

2004-01-16T16:31:00Z

Now, this is something I've known for quite some time, being a gadget freak gal, but I'm glad some of the consumer electronics folks are perking up their radar. It's also one of about a billion reasons I prefer shopping online.

http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/0116womengadgets16.html

"...women are involved in almost 75 percent of all electronics purchases..."

"Women actually spent more on technology last year than men, according to the Consumer Electronics Association.... But electronics stores have been slow to catch on. Nearly three-quarters of women surveyed by the industry group complained about being ignored, patronized or offended by sales people when shopping for electronics.

“Forty percent of the women said they were treated better when accompanied by a man. "

"A meager 1 percent of women surveyed thought manufacturers had them in mind when creating products, according to the report, released at last week's Consumer Electronics Show."