This is my third bloody attempt on writing up some thoughts on the last Oz Code Camp. Every time I start I get bogged trying to be too analytical about the whole thing. So this time I am just going to whack down some quick thoughts with complete disregard for continuity and form.
The main reason I want to get these thoughts down is that I feel that of the three code camps we have had so far in Australia that this was the best yet. Not to say that the previous two won't worthwhile but this year it feels that all the bits came together in the right mix and captured the spirit of what Code Camp is about. The three things that I made this camp work for me were venue, pacing and the topics discussed.
The venue: This year we were back in the Wal Fife Theatre. Yes it is a lecture theatre but it has good sight lines and gives you a sense of being with a group of people. Last year the main presentations were in a hall (can't remember the name) which was a little too cavernous and isolating.
Pacing of the presentations: This year each speaker had 55 minutes for their presentation which is just the right amount to keep the presenters on point but give them the time to do justice to their topic. In addition the ratio of two sessions for each break period (morning tea, lunch, etc) reduced the data overload factor. Finally, unlike last year, there were no breakout or concurrent sessions. In my opinion having breakout sessions at Code Camp tends to be more disruptive than beneficial. Not only is it a case of the logistics involved with people moving between sessions and the corresponding impact that is bound to have on session running times, etc but you also lose continuity between attendees.
Content: This the big one isn't it. This year my feeling was that material that the presenters covered was a bit more "real world" in that it covered technologies and issues that us average Joes could run with. This is an important point. With Microsoft's new "openness" and almost obsessive releasing of CTP versions of up and coming technology we are all pretty well aware of what is coming down the track. Which is all well and good but, at least for some of us, gaining a better understanding of current technologies and how we can plug them into the work we are doing now is probably of greater benefit. And this is how I feel about this year's code camp. I came away from it feeling enthused about what could be done.
Finally I just want to say that without the effort and hard work put in by Mitch Denny and Greg Low to pull Code Camp Oz together there would be no code camp and for that these guys deserve our thanks.
