NathanBlevins.com

Codestock has finally come and gone.  After large events like this, I am always amazed at the amount of time and energy used to plan and host such an event as opposed to the speed at which the event actually passes by.  Two days after the event, I still keep feeling that there is something that I need to be doing in order to prep for Codestock, lol.  Nonetheless, I have to say that I had a blast during the entire event.  I was introduced to many new ideas, many new people, and simply had a whole lot of fun. 

So, here is my experience in a nutshell...

Sessions Attended

I had the privilege to attend 2 sessions at Codestock, both of which were excellent:

Rachel Appel and Dynamic Data 

Rachel did an awesome job in giving an overview of Dynamic Data.  Unlike many of the other demos over the subject, she not only spoke about how to use it / make it work but also added a practical slant to it.  Also, Rachel has a very unique and awesome sense of humor, which really made the presentation a lot of fun.  Despite the fact that Rachel was having a 'Lisp' problem, I really enjoyed her session.  Great job!

I have to say that I am pretty excited about Dynamic Data and I sincerely look forward to start playing w/ some of the new bits released today.  Particularly, I am very intrigued by the support for type templating on the website level.  Once I saw how Dynamic Data was accomplishing this, I wanted to slap myself for not thinking to do this before hand.  Of course, reduction of physical files due to Routing and the use of scaffolding are cool features as well.

My only main concern w/ Dynamic Data is whether or not it will allow me to a-la-carte its features.  I am not a huge fan of scaffolding and I think, in a perfect world, I would like to see something of a mix between what Dynamic Data promises and how I use WebForms today.  I do not want to be restricted to a narrow approach with my web apps.  I will have to blog about this at a later date.  :)

Open Spaces moderated by Alan Stevens

This was my first open spaces event and, admittedly,  I was a bit skeptical as to how effective this approach would be.  After participating in this event, it suffices to say that I am a complete convert.  Open spaces is an excellent way to learn new concepts and ideas from one another.  I can't think of a precise way to explain open spaces rather than to simply say that it is an open conversation between peers that share mutual respect for one another (usually about a predefined topic).   Due to this, you feel very free to present ideas, critique other person's ideas, and learn in the process. 

While I was there, we discussed ideas ranging from planning sessions for user groups to why a MacBook is a viable choice for .Net devs to how to handle development needs in a unsympathetic workspace.  As you can tell, the range of topics were far and wide, but they were extremely useful in content.  Of course, we also had the obligatory Twitter session... ;)

Alan did an excellent job moderating the event, encouraging contribution by all persons in the room while being very mindful of the topic at hand. It seems as if this would be a difficult task, as you would want to make sure the conversation had direction but that it was not inhibited by such direction.  Great job, Alan.

Sessions Given

I agreed to take on 2 sessions to present at Codestock.  The first session was a revamped session of my Asp.Net Provider speech that I spoke to the ETNUG earlier this year.  Even though the presentation was one that I had given quite a while back, it certainly was not dated.  One thing that I particularly like about this session is that it focuses more on design principles and patterns rather than any specific technology.  To be honest, I simply use the Asp.Net Providers an avenue to look into the concepts of integrating design patterns within your apps and the benefits of doing so. 

All in all, the session went pretty well even though I feel that I could have done better.  I felt that my main flaw was launching into the session too fast.  I kept having to force myself to slow down and not inundate the audience w/ information.  Besides that, I spent quite a bit of time reworking my original slides, attempting to take a BBP approach and introducing consistent themes.  (I might have gotten a little carried away on the themeing, lol)

My second session was something of a wildcard.  I had the privilege of co-hosting a session w/ Mike Neel concerning what the new features in .Net 3.5 SP1.  The session title was .NET3.5SP1BETA1BBQ in homage to the increasing tendency to create finer denominations of release status.  Considering the fact that we had next to zero collaborative prep time and, in some cases, we were simply hanging on by the seat of our pants, I have to admit that we did pretty good.  We made it through the session with only minor organization issues and, more importantly, the session felt more like a running conversation rather than one person rambling on about some topic or another.  I think the audience was better served by there being 2 presenters in that they got a good look at what was new, but from two different perspectives. 

Other Stuff

Finally, there were quite a few other highlights to my day at Codestock. 

First off, I got to meet a ton of tweeple of whom I had yet to meet in person.  On top of that, I got to meet a slew of new folk as well as speak w/ some old and dear friends that I had not seen in a while.

After the closing session, some of us went on down to enjoy the Codestock after party.  Mike arranged for a live band to play for us by the name of Hanover Fist.  They rocked!  They reminded me of a blues-y Lynard Skynard and really did an excellent job.  IIRC, they just released a new cd, which I will certainly be tracking down soon (as well as a t-shirt, I hope).

Conclusion

In conclusion, Codestock totally rocked.  Mike Neel, Wally McClure, and Alan Stevens did an excellent job in organizing the event.  Particularly, Mike deserves recognition for just about killing himself in order to make sure all the finite details were in place.  Also, Wally of Scalable Development was kind enough to make a huge contribution towards the closing session raffle, increasing the amount of excitement for the event.  In other words, thank you, Mike, Wally, and Alan, for making this great event happen.

I left Codestock w/ about 10,000 different ideas and concepts to try and, hopefully, left a few behind for others.  All in all, it was an excellent event and I look forward to next year!

Take care.