Iowa Code Camp Marked by Success
Well, here I sit Monday morning at work, reflecting on Saturdays events. For those reading out of context, the first ever Iowa Code Camp was held Saturday May 3rd at the University of Iowa.
For me, there's always a certain amount of nostalgia involved in this kind of thing. The months of setup, preparation, conference calls and hundreds if not thousands of emails between the organizers, sponsors, volunteers and attendees - all for the culmination of the event itself. Getting Started with an "O'Dark Thirty" wake-up call, and proceeding to the conference center to run around like your hair is on fire for the next 12 to 14 hours, and then....just like that it's done. You shake the last hand and retire to your vehicle for the drive home, or to the hotel room and it's done and gone.
I suppose that eventually people get used to this sort of thing. As a programmer it's somewhat of a unique situation to run an event like this. Our day jobs tend to carry on endlessly. There's always the next patch, update, revision or feature...not so often do we get such a clean break to mark completion of something large scale, or such a finite way to measure our success or failure.
Ok, ok...I know it's getting thick - the event was a HUGE ringing success after-all right? Absolutely...
Rough check-in numbers were quoted somewhere around 120, and we maintained about 95% of our audience throughout the entire conference....until the prizes and giveaways, what's up with that?! We gave away 2 Zunes, 4 360 Xbox games, some very expensive software, some really nice laptop backpacks and a slew of books, shirts and messenger bags...why would you want to leave before that!
We managed to feed everyone Breakfast, Lunch AND dinner, give away prizes, give everyone a free t-shirt and allow them to participate in a beautiful facility for an entire days of events...all at no charge to attendees.
The content was just amazing. We pulled speakers from as far away as Ohio (Columbus?) and Minneapolis which just rocks. I got the "opportunity" to speak twice (the only one on the docket to do so...thanks Greg Wilson), and I can honestly say that our presentation topics were so good I'd have rather been sitting in the audience than at the podium.
I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate the other organizers involved. We actually got the comment at one point from someone I wont name...but they'd know "The bar has been raised for Code Camps" and "This is the highest class no cost event I've ever been to"
Greg Sohl and Chris Sutton - awesome job on logistics and organization. Everything ran perfectly smooth all day long
Greg Wilson - Very nice job on the speaker lineups and scheduling. 5 tracks at a code camp! Rockin'
Javier Lozano - Sponsors....sponsors...sponsors. Very nice job man.
Bryan Sampica - What did I do again? :)
Anyway, a big thanks to everyone that participated. Organizers, Volunteers, Sponsors and Attendees alike...you all played a part in making the first ever Iowa Code Camp one of the most successful code camps in the genre and for that I personally thank you.
Bryan Sampica -