Utah Code Camp
I was hoping to get my retrospective posted much sooner but because of the lousy firewall at work I couldn’t post on a lunch break, which is what I usually do.  I think that my friend Anthony Park said it best in his blog post; there was too much Microsoft.  Personally, even if there were a lot more than Microsoft presentations I would likely attend mostly the Microsoft ones.  After all, that is the technology I have chosen to specialize in and is where most if my interests are.  I am intrigued by things happening in other technologies, and would love to have gone to some of those presentations.  I don’t know why, but the Microsoft presentations tend to be a bit on the dry side so something else would have been nice!  To be fair, here is the break-down:
Microsoft Specific: 8
Other Vender Specific: 5
Non-Specific: 7

I would have liked to see a Linux Install Fest going on for those who didn’t want to attend any of the presentations for that hour.  Having the DARPA robot challenge seems like it would have been really cool.  They did that at the Desert Code Camp.  A programming competition for a big-ticket item would have been awesome!  An “Experts Corner” would have been pretty neat to have someone in the field answer any questions you have.  Having other things going besides just presentations would be what makes these fun!

More Code at Code Camp
My friend Phil Gilmore says it best; I expect that I’ll see some code at code camp!  To extend that some degree I’d say that if the presenter is not into their IDE showing code within the first five minutes of their presentation I should walk out!  I was almost saddened by David Yack’s presentation on WPF/E!  How can you make that technology boring?  I really don’t know but for the most part it was!  We never (really) got to see any code!  Sure, there was some code in the PowerPoint and even the result of that code but we get a *lot* more from watching how you get that code to execute then we ever could from even the best-made power point!  Presentations need to be taken up a notch (myself included)!  They should be as fun and entertaining as they are educational. 

Environment
I would like to see Code Camp moved to a more central location.  Most of the people attending live in either Salt Lake county or Weber/Davis county.  Neumont University is at the extreme southern end of Salt Lake County and is about 30 min’s down the road from where most would expect to drive for people coming from the north.  I would think that the University of Utah would have been a great location for Code Camp.  Also, Neumont had some issues!  They had probably the best-deployed wireless network I’ve seen anywhere with the largest room having something like 6 wireless repeaters.  Too bad no one could use it!  This location has been the home for UDUG for years and they have always refused to provide the wireless WEP key.  Secondly, there has *always* been access problems with this building!  People get locked out and there is nothing you can do about it!  I personally had people come to see my presentation that were not able because the building was locked!  We even had to be shuttled up the elevator because it was locked!  To make things worse, there is no cell phone reception so people can’t even call to have someone open the door!  Neumont has got to go!  At the very least, I am bringing a wireless repeater next time and I am going to block the door open with a rug and put a sign with a telephone number to call if the door is locked!  Resource planning is also a big must!  Knowing what session’s people have signed up for would have helped a lot!  I got put in a small room with a large crowd!  I am willing to bet that more would have come if it wasn’t so crowded!  Why would you think the .net 3.5 presentation was going to have a smaller turn-out compared to O/RM mappers?

Double Sessions
I would personally have *really* liked to have seen every presenter give their presentation twice.  We were running three rooms at once and if there were two or three presentations you wanted to see in one hour you had to pick!  Having two sessions makes it much easier to get what you want out of Code Camp.

Silent Sponsors
My friend, Anthony Park, mentioned that in the Desert Code Camp they have a concept of silent sponsors.  I think that’s a pretty good idea for the most part.  On the other hand, I would rather see a well-funded “sell out” code camp than a meagerly funded one.  The give always were mostly a joke (with the exception of the iPods and Mice).  It would have been cool to give away a computer, a Plasma TV, a laptop, a Windows Media Center, an Xbox, Office 2007, more t-shirts, etc..  Though overall I would give this year’s prizes a B+. 

Summary
I believe that this code camp was overall more successful than the last one that was just 6 months ago.  I think that for the most part the presentations were better quality than before.  We need more advertizing and more appeal!  We need people to know about it and want to come!  We need more than the same people coming to these things!  On the inside we need a bit more organization.  I’m not a big fan of “matching power points” either.  Hopefully we can address many of these things and have an even better code camp next year!
--Nathan Zaugg