Getting sick of hearing about the Vancouver Code Camp?  Too bad!  Dont worry, this should be one of the last I do for a while.

The top referrer to the event goes to .NET BC and in second place was Vantug.  Word of mouth was a close third.

Kent Alstad stole the show with his Ajax/Atlas talk, he nearly double the number of kudos to the second place which was John Bristowe on WinFx.  Third place was a four way tie between Rory Blyth, Michael Li, Polita Paulus and Peter Stathakos.

Most of the attendees were from .NET BC.  I guess either we didn’t do enough marketing in the other groups or it simply wasn’t relevant to those audiences.

More people want to have more than one code camp per year, than those that simply were fine with just one.  This is something I definitely have to consider.  The amount of work that went into this one has me wondering if I would be able to pull of two a year.  Most people recommend having it in the Fall as well, as long as it doesn’t hit any holiday.

Content was the biggest category that people comment on.  Here is an overview of the Add and Remove list, sorted by priority:

Add:

            Sql Server

            More advanced topics, including N-Tier

            Web Services

            Agile

            Patterns & Practices/Enterprise Library

            Programming for Microsoft Office

            IT Pro content

            More open source

            Best Practices

Remove:

            Basic content

            Products like DNN and InnerWorkings

When asked what people would change longer sessions was the top rated item followed by having things simply start and end on time.  Earlier start in the day and keeping things on track were pretty big as well.  This really hit home for me.  I planned the event to touch on allot of topics and organized the day around that idea.  I had thought that people would want to cover many topics (wide) instead of in-depth in a few topics (deep).  To tell you the truth the hardest part of an event like this is finding presenters, making sure their subject matter is qualified and on topic (in the spirit of the code camp), making sure they show up and having a backup plan for those that back out.  By having longer session this means I can cut back on the amount of actual work I would have to.  That is always nice to find out!

The location, BCIT was the last question.  The biggest thing that people asked for was to have it downtown instead of out at BCIT (in Burnaby) where the sky train access is lacking.  Parking was quite a hassle for many and I guess there was a temperature issue, the rooms were actually too cool/cold for some. 

There were some of you that actually complained that there was no map made available to BCIT itself and of the campus.  I guess you missed the “Location” tab on the site which had everything you needed!!  ;)

2 Comments

• Will Asrari said Tuesday, March 21, 2006 12:21:00 PM

  Rob,
  
  I had a great time. My friend and I came up from Bellingham and really enjoyed ourselves. I will definitely attend the next code camp. In my honest opinion, the BCIT campus is ideal for an event like this. I know that downtown Vancouver can be rather busy on the weekends. My $.02.
  
  My new Dell DJ Ditty is working nicely also!

• Ted Jardine said Tuesday, March 28, 2006 7:51:00 AM

  Rob,
  
  Many thanks for the work put into putting the event together! It's very much appreciated - I was there and look forward to future events (with the above changes implemented - more in depth and advanced!)
  
  (and my Dell DJ Ditty is working out quite nicely too ;-)
  
  Ted