Yesterday I had a great time speaking at the Maine Bank Expo in Portland. This is an annual meeting they hold and my second time speaking to the group. The focus of my talk was to provide them with their annual Microsoft Technology update. Of course at the top of the list were the soon to be released Virtual Server and the new killer functionality of Office 2003.

Slides can be downloaded from here

11:38:15 AM    

After a very long week, I had a chance to go through all the evaluations completely from last weekend’s code camp. Yes, I personally read and reviewed each and every one of the feedback forms. My personal feelings were that this was extremely important to understand what people felt about the event. I have to say I am completely floored with the positive feedback and overwhelming success that we had with this. Here are just a few of the more typical positive comments that I saw:

** Excellent timing on the weekends same me from having to take off of work.

** So many sessions my brain hurts – Can we have more?

** Format works well. May want to include more advanced sessions next time

As with all events the comments and feedback covered a broad spectrum. Logistics and topics were varied the most. The good news is that feed was all positive on doing this type of event   Logistics we can work and improve on. I think that there are several factors that contributed to the success of this event based on the evaluations.

Speakers

When we designed the code camp we actually took a less than traditional approach. Usually we pick a set of topics and then go after speakers. Not this time. I asked for speakers from the developer community. The result was a different set of content and presenters. I definitely think that was important and helped to make the event. Both Patrick and Duane had the highest rating of any speakers for the event! Many first time speakers came forward and did an awesome job! Speaking is a hard thing but rewarding.

Timing

Sounds like weekends are a good time and people were accepting. I have to say that I was more than a bit worried of having only five people during the event and a very empty set of rooms. Just wanted to pass on some of the people counts that I had: Saturday morning 220/Saturday night (now this is 9PM) 190 attendees/Sunday morning 200/Sunday afternoon 190. Amazing!

Participation

Without a doubt the most important part of this. People (attendees and speakers) were willing to give up their weekends to attend this. The participation and commitment of the speakers and participants is what makes these events successful. Not sure if people realize this but all speakers invested their own time and many nights on putting this together!

What does all this mean? Do we hold more of these? I think we would be making a huge mistake if we didn’t. One thing that I promised during the general session is that I would listen to the feedback and I think the message is clear – WE WANT MORE! With that said I am tentatively looking at scheduling Son of Code Camp 1 in the October timeframe! What do you think? Opinions are important! Help me put together event that you want.

As I said earlier, logistics is where I had the largest variety of mixed feedback and offers a good focus for the next event (yes – you read right – the NEXT one). The questions that come to mind immediately are:

1. One day versus two?

2. Three tracks? Should we focus on one topic?

I do think we have a winning idea! Keep in mind that Community participation is the key for these events to continue. Attendance, speaking and participation! These are the key ingredients for making the event what you want it to be! In the next few weeks I will be posting more around possible dates. Once I start doing that I need speakers and ideas and you are the key to that!

For those looking for the content I am slowly but surely posting it here.

11:05:25 AM