Seven year navel gazing...

The first post of this blog documented that I was preparing to start a new job. That was December of 2008. Seven years seems like a long ago.

On Monday I start another new job.

So I feel like this is a good opportunity to reflect on what these past seven years has meant to me and my career. A chance to thank the universe for what I've experienced, to thank the folks I've met, and to recognize where I think I'm going.

The month after that initial post I started working at MyWebGrocer. I had been hired to work on the eCommerce product and introduce some improvements to the development processes. I had played a similar role at my prior employer by implementing an automated build system and a few other bits of tooling. At MyWebGrocer, however, I was able to expand on that prior work. I led the introduction of a continuous integration server, static code analysis, automated unit testing, some scrum practices, and more. The team I was on kicked ass; our product was pretty stable, we were delivering new functionality, refactoring to reduce complexity and lines of code, and enjoying each others' company. After a few years I took a management position. While I eventually resumed my technical career - for those two years I had the privilege of managing the best team with whom I've had the pleasure of working. When I decided to leave management the MWG executive team was supportive; allowing me to resume my technical career without leaving the company. Not every employer would have done that; I'm appreciative.

My tenure at MWG coincides with my increased participation in the development community around Burlington, VT. I increased my involved with the VT .NET user group which led to co-founding the VT Code Camp. When MyWebGrocer founded the HackVT event they invited me to be on the planning team. I've continued to serve on the organizing team for HackVT. I've met amazing members of our technical community, too. Organizers of other local user groups, students, presenters, sponsors, employers, journalists, writers, etc. My participation in this community will continue regardless of where I work, and I'm confident that MWG's support of the local development community will continue, too. They've been reliable sponsors for VT Code Camp, HackVT, and other local development events.

As I transition into my next role MWG is six times larger than on my first day. I look at how the development team works and I see my fingerprints on a lot of it. It's not been a perfect experience. I've made mistakes and there are elements of what I would have like to have contributed to the MWG experience which are unfulfilled. This is the real world, after all. But these past seven years have (so far) been the highlight of my professional career.

Come Monday, when I start at Renewable NRG Systems I will be a significantly better, and more well rounded, developer than I was seven years ago. I'm eager to dive into a different industry for an organization which has a different corporate culture. New people, new knowledge - it's going to be great!

So thank you to the MWG team for helping me grow professionally. And for your friendships. Thank you to RNRG for the opportunity to challenge myself in an industry I feel is important.

Thanks universe.

A realization in advance of VT Code Camp 5

This coming Saturday is our fifth Vermont Code Camp!

Those of us involved in the planning are running around engaged in our last minute preparations to ensure this event will be as successful (or more) than our prior 4 camps.  One of the things we do differently from other code camps is engage the whole tech community in our area.  Most code camps are centered on .NET and other Microsoft platforms - while there are BAR Camps and other events for different technology stacks. But Vermont having such a small population we've found that working with as many of the user groups as we can gets a much more robust set of speakers, exposure to different technologies and a wider sense of community.

So we usually provide a hand out listing the various technology user groups in the area.  Today as I was compiling the list I was struck by how vibrant the Vermont technology scene really is.  Here's the list (sorry for the spoiler VTCC5 campers).  It's a page and a half of groups and events that demonstrate Vermont has it going on!

I'm moving onto the next task to prepare for this weekend - but I'm very happy to be part of such a wonderful community.

Oh, by the way, have you registered for VT Code Camp yet?

Book Review: "slide:ology"

When I attended PDC in November one of the booths I visited in the exposition hall was O'Reilly Media. They have been, and continue to be, supporters of the VT .NET user group and the VT Code Camp - so I wanted to drop by and thank them for that. It turns out Marsee Henon was there. Marsee's job is to reach out to user group leaders on behalf of O'Reilly - so she was the perfect person to run into. Knowing that I have done presentations for the VT .NET user group she was kind enough to give me a copy of "slide:ology" by Nancy Duarte.

Nancy Duarte is CEO of Duarte Design, one of the largest design firms in Silicon Valley, which focuses exclusively on presentations. She has poured her expertise into "slide:ology" (subtitled "The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations"). The book sets out to liberate presenters, and their audiences, from the tedium of presentations which are little more than documents shown through a projector. We've all attended such presentations, of course. Slide after slide loaded with bullet points with the speaker reading each one in turn.

The early parts of "slide:ology" takes the reader by the hand and reviews with him/her how bullet points can be distilled down to ideas to be communicated. Additionally, by considering the audience those ideas can be delivered in the most appropriate manner. Those practices alone can help presenters be more effective.

Much of the remainder of the book is focused on moving your presentation from merely effective to compelling. Examples of effectively visualizing data (using graphs, images, diagrams, etc.). Guidance on the impact of color and font choices to communicate and to best represent yourself and/or organization are offered. Incorporating movement and animations was a topic I had not considered before, but was a section I found particularly useful. Finally, there is a section on how templates can be defined to provide a uniformity for an organization with several presentations.

I've prepared two presentations since reading "slide:ology" and both were better as a result.

The book itself is a fairly quick read and presented in a clear, concise manner. The size of the book is reminicent of a slide show, too, with the layout of each page following many of the same guidelines for design and communication. I found some of the early sections a little pretentious - but that might be due to the fact I'm not preparing presentations designed to save the world or provide clean drinking water to the third world. If you read "slide:ology" and start to feel that way just power through... there is more than enough content to justify reading the whole book.

This book belongs on the shelf of anyone who prepares presentations - especially if they lack a design background.

VT Code Camp 1: Summary

It's been nice to read some of the posts people have made about the VT code camp. The ones I've seen are by Bradley Holt, Chris Bowen, Dave Burke and Jim O'Neil. But I thought I would post my own summary of the first VT code camp.

First, I want to reiterate my appreciation to the many donors, speakers and volunteers who made the event the wild success that it was. You folks rock!

Code camp setup began around 7:30AM. This was only my second time at Kalkin Hall and was just as impressed with this location as I was when I had seen it the day before. It is just a wonderful space that suited our event to a "T." Again, many thanks to the UVM School of Business Administration for opening their doors to us. The setup team included Margot Schips, Julie Lerman, Laura Blood, Carl Lorenston, Bradley Holt and Dan Russell. (If I'm forgetting someone I apologize. Things were moved so fast and furious during the day I neglected to stop and take notes to do this properly.)

We got our only crisis out of the way early on Saturday when at around 7:35AM when we found out one of the rooms we were told we would be using turned out to be hosting a different all day event. After some frantic calls made by Margot we got it straightened out and were able to use an alternate room which worked just as well.

After that it was smooth sailing. We had a marvelous breakfast spread provided by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. Lots of coffee, lots of pastries, lots of bagels and even lots of fruit. It was all yummy (and I speak from experience... lots of experience).

In typical VT style we began the welcoming remarks a few minutes behind schedule (what? you got someplace to be?). After thanking the donors, orienting everyone to the space and reviewing the day's schedule we turned our attendees loose. Plenty of positive energy and familiar faces.

The first two time slots went off without any projectors exploding (although it took a little bit to figure one of them out). Laura Blood was super-generous with her time and watched the registration desk. After that we broke for a lunch provided by MyWebGrocer. Lots of pizza and soda. Filled me right up. By this point my schedule started to even out. We had the swag organized, the registrations had started to die down and Julie and I had done the pizza run (complete with expert parking job). So I made the most of it and enjoyed the lunch break. It was great to spend a few minutes chatting with folks I knew and meeting folks I hadn't - plus the surreal experience of meeting in person folks I only knew from online.

After lunch we dove back into session. We moved the registration desk downstairs where it was manned by Dave Burke. Dave's one of the first people I met when I started to attend the .NET user groups and I always enjoy talking with him. Plus, when he adjusted my name tag for me it was the most action I had had all day.

Soon it was time for another snack break - this time courtesy of Microsoft. Sodas, brownies, and other tasty treats. Noshing and networking... good times.

We held the raffle during the last break. We gathered in one of the session rooms and used a random number generator to identify the winners. Julie also took a moment to extend a special thank you to Steve Andrews and Alison Gianotto who were the two speakers who travelled the farthest. After all the support our donors provided we ended up with nearly 30 prizes to give away - so we ran a little longer than expected. The final sessions started a little late, but everyone was still going strong. We volunteers set about cleaning up during the last session so we could get an early exit to a social gathering at the Windjammer. Special thanks to Chris Bowen and Microsoft for treating the speakers and volunteers so kindly.

I could keep writing about all the people I met and reconnected with. I might even do a post about the lessons learned that I hope to apply to the next code camp (yes, we intend to do this again). The whole experience was exciting, maddening and gratifying. I'll keep searching for posts, tweets and pictures tagged with VTCODECAMP to see what people thought. I hope you do, too. And join us at the next VT Code Camp!

Twas the night before code camp...

No more messing around - tomorrow is the first VT code camp. We've got everything as done as we can at this point. Excellent speakers/sessions lined up, a kickin' venue, a good team of volunteers and lots-o-swag. We've got over 100 people who have registered to attend, which far exceeds my expectations. I think I'm probably on the record somewhere stating that for our first code camp 50-70 would be a great turn out but talk of 100 was fantasy.

Looks like I was wrong. Happily, happily wrong.

Seriously, for this event to have that many people register is a huge testament to the development community in VT and the northeast in general (we've got participation from as far away as PA and NYC).

I'm super pleased with the support we've received from our donors, too. The UVM School of Business Administration has opened their doors to us for the venue. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters is covering breakfast, MyWebGrocer (my employer) is buying pizza and soda for lunch and Microsoft is providing an afternoon snack.

Chris Pels and the http://www.thedevcommunity.org/ site helped us by managing our registration and speaker abstract submissions which was HUGE.

We've a pile of swag to raffle and give away, too. Donors are:

• aspNetPro Magazine
• CODE Magazine
  
• DevExpress
  
• David & Julie Yack
• JetBrains
  
• Microsoft
• MyWebGrocer
• O'Reilly Media
• Pearson Books
• PluralSight
• TechSmith
• telerik
• Wiley/WROX Publishing

It takes a lot of people to get an event like this off the ground and we have a great team. Super big thanks go to Bradley Holt, Carl Lorentson, Julie Lerman, Laura Blood, Margot Schips, Martin Stevanof, Matthew Weier O’Phinney and Rob Rohr who did a lot of heavy lifting to get us poised for a successful event tomorrow.

I also got some wonderful advice about organizing a code camp from Chris Bowen and Jim O'Neil our regional Microsoft development evangelists and also from Dennis Perlot and Supriyo "SB" Chatterje from the CT code camp. These four guys provided some good input and are all class acts.

Finally, I wouldn't even be able to be involved in this kind of community development if it weren't for my wife, Sue, who will be taking care of the kids while I'm at the code camp. So she gets a thank you, too.

So that's it. Everything is printed, the alarm is set and I'm really very, very excited to see how we do.

VT Code Camp - Call for Speakers and Registration: Now Open!

The first VT code camp is going to be Sept. 12 at the UVM school of Business Administration. We've just opened up the web site for registration and call for speakers. Get started at http://www.vtdotnet.org/codecamp/

You can follow the VT code camp on Twitter using #vtcodecamp

CT Code Camp Recap

I attended the second CT code camp on June 13th at the New Horizon's center in Hartfort, CT. Ostensibly it was a research trip for the code camp we're organizing for VT this fall, Sept. 12. However, I love going to code camps because of the educational value and networking opportunities they present. As I've previously posted, I've been to a few of the code camps held in Waltham, MA - so I was excited to have a slightly different experience.

The venue for this code camp was a well appointed learning center with plenty of rooms of varying capacity. Each room had projectors, lots of tables and chairs. At the Waltham camp most of the seating lacks a table, so it was nice to have a place to put my notebook (rather than balancing it on my knee). One thing I noticed by its absence was the wide hallway at the Waltham location. The hallways at the New Horizon center seemed more narrow. Maybe it was just the 150 or so people moving through them, though.

I encountered the registration area as soon as I entered the building. It was nice to see Dennis Perlot's smiling face at the desk. I met Dennis at the New England User Group Leadership Summit in May. He and S.B. Chatterje run the CT .NET user group and this code camp. The registration packet included the session schedule, list of donors and a copy of Windows 7 Release Candidate.

The entire event was extremely well run. My only quibble was the lunchtime activities, focused on job fair like sessions such as resume writing and networking skills, went on longer than I would have liked. I'm sure this is a result of my being comfortable with those topics - I just would have preferred to have at least one technical session going on concurrently. But as I say, that's a quibble. The entire experience was well worth the trip and I hope to make additional CT code camps.

I've created separate posts for 3 of the 4 sessions I attended. I'm not bothering to post about the 4th session because I had to leave early and my notes aren't complete. My session specific posts are:

.NET Troubleshooting in a Production Environment - Polina Cherkasova

jQuery – Why You Want It & How to Use it in ASP.NET - Dave Bush

Scrum 3 Roles, 3 Ceremonies, 3 Artifacts, 3 Best Practices - Dan Mezick

I'm So Excited (and I just can't hide it)

I'm one of a handful of people trying to launch a code camp in the Burlington, VT area. We just received confirmation on the venue and can now start asking people to hold the date. It's going to be on Saturday, Sept. 12, at the UVM Business School.

There's still a lot of work to make it happen but I can't tell you how thrilled I am that we have a venue and date.