When I woke up at 5:45 am this past Saturday, I had two thoughts. The first was relief from the fact that I didn’t immediately die from waking up that early. The second was my concern that the light drizzle would affect the SoCal Code Camp attendance.
Well I didn’t die, it didn’t rain, and the devs came out in full force. Over 100 sessions were given. That’s right. Over 100. Every topic relevant to people who craft code was covered. There were some awesome sponsors including some guys from redgate who, incidentally, have an office just a few blocks from us.
If you haven’t attended a code camp or user group meet, you really should. The speakers are fantastic. What really makes these events special though is the attendees. Everyone with an interest in a particular topic huddles together and starts talking.
What makes these conversations so interesting is the fact that no one works for the same company. There is a lot of insight to be gained and shared from these exchanges because everybody comes to the conversation having looked at things through a different lens.
I only managed to attend 3 sessions as my primary purpose for being there was to meet with some of our customers and talk to them. I was also there to answer any questions people may have had about our services.
I really enjoyed all 3 sessions so it’s really hard to pick a stand out, but Chander Dhall‘s “10 things Every Developer Must Know” was fantastic. This isn’t a checklist gimmick, it’s very useful content. If you ever have the opportunity to attend his talk, it’s an absolute must.
I also really enjoyed Daniel Lewis’ introduction to NancyFX. He created a collaborative session with everyone in attendance sharing. Ben Moro from Neudesic also did a fantastic job during his Google Glass & node.js session. It was a lot of fun and great way to end the day.
I’m sorry I couldn’t attend any of the others. Hopefully next time I can and hopefully more people will join us at http://www.socalcodecamp.com
