| CodeMash Rocked |
| Saturday, January 20 2007 |
|
Hard to believe that it's already come and passed, but the CodeMash conference rocked. We (the family and I) didn't get to the Kalahari until after 11 PM last night (my oldest son had a school program last night) so I missed Day 1, but I thoroughly enjoyed Day 2. My NHibernate talk went off without a hitch this morning and I got a lot of good questions from the audience, so hopefully it was well received. I was hoping to catch some of the other sessions today, but every time I would try to make my way to one, I ended up running into someone I hadn't seen or talked to in awhile, so I ended up spending much of the day chatting with lots of people outside of the sessions. Of course, catching up with people is a big part of the reason to attend a conference like this anyway, so it was definitely worth it.
I was also fortunate enough, along with a number of other influentials (both MS and non-MS) to get invited to a very informal lunch with Scott Guthrie that allowed us to pick his brain and in turn allowed him to ask us a bunch of questions at the same time. We actually spent about 2 full hours discussing numerous topics ranging from ASP.NET, WPF, WPF/E, dynamic languages, LINQ, Ruby, and Python. It was an extremely engaging time and to be able to spend that much time up close and personal with someone like Scott, who oversees tons of product development at MS, was phenomenal. (Side note: Steve Smith and I were sitting next to each other and after a lengthy discussion about LINQ, Steve asked me if I thought LINQ was an ORM killer; meaning did I think things like NHibernate and LLBLGenPro would eventually fade away. After seeing LINQ more in-depth today and talking with Scott about it, my response was that yes, in time, the need for the O/R mappers of today would probably decrease. Obviously only time will tell, but I wonder if this time next year I'll be knee deep into LINQ or NHibernate, like I am today? More to follow on that topic.)
I also noticed that this event had the same feel to it as the Heartland Developers Conference (which is a fantastic event and you should try to get out there one of these years). Having been a speaker at the last two HDCs, I was curious to see what the vibe was going to be like for CodeMash, especially given the fact that it's a mashup of many different and competing/complimentary technologies. I'm happy to report that the vibe is as I hoped it would be and more so.
Muchos kudos go out to the CodeMash organizers: Jason Gilmore, Drew Robbins, Jason Follas, Josh Holmes, Brian Prince, and last but certainly not least Jim Holmes (my apologies to anyone I left out). These guys did an extraordinary job in putting this event together and I know they devoted tons of personal time to ensure things went smoothly. To that crew I say thanks again guys for letting me be a part of this event.
I'm already looking forward to a bigger and better CodeMash for next year :-D
Update: Jim reminded me that I forgot about Diane Marsh being part of the CodeMash Crew. Sorry Diane!
I was also fortunate enough, along with a number of other influentials (both MS and non-MS) to get invited to a very informal lunch with Scott Guthrie that allowed us to pick his brain and in turn allowed him to ask us a bunch of questions at the same time. We actually spent about 2 full hours discussing numerous topics ranging from ASP.NET, WPF, WPF/E, dynamic languages, LINQ, Ruby, and Python. It was an extremely engaging time and to be able to spend that much time up close and personal with someone like Scott, who oversees tons of product development at MS, was phenomenal. (Side note: Steve Smith and I were sitting next to each other and after a lengthy discussion about LINQ, Steve asked me if I thought LINQ was an ORM killer; meaning did I think things like NHibernate and LLBLGenPro would eventually fade away. After seeing LINQ more in-depth today and talking with Scott about it, my response was that yes, in time, the need for the O/R mappers of today would probably decrease. Obviously only time will tell, but I wonder if this time next year I'll be knee deep into LINQ or NHibernate, like I am today? More to follow on that topic.)
I also noticed that this event had the same feel to it as the Heartland Developers Conference (which is a fantastic event and you should try to get out there one of these years). Having been a speaker at the last two HDCs, I was curious to see what the vibe was going to be like for CodeMash, especially given the fact that it's a mashup of many different and competing/complimentary technologies. I'm happy to report that the vibe is as I hoped it would be and more so.
Muchos kudos go out to the CodeMash organizers: Jason Gilmore, Drew Robbins, Jason Follas, Josh Holmes, Brian Prince, and last but certainly not least Jim Holmes (my apologies to anyone I left out). These guys did an extraordinary job in putting this event together and I know they devoted tons of personal time to ensure things went smoothly. To that crew I say thanks again guys for letting me be a part of this event.
I'm already looking forward to a bigger and better CodeMash for next year :-D
Update: Jim reminded me that I forgot about Diane Marsh being part of the CodeMash Crew. Sorry Diane!
