2008/11/16

DATE MOVED!

Sorry once again for the bouncing date. We had some conflicts with other Code Camps; further, myself and the other organizer have both recently undertaken new roles in our day jobs, and therefore have been quite busy with the typical new job transition process.

We're now targeting February (02/2009), with a snow date of March. More details to follow.

2008/09/26

UPDATE: DATE CHANGE! November 22nd

Sorry about the Ping-Pong game we're playing with the date, but we learned of a Code Camp in Connecticut on the 8th, so we've decided to switch our date to November 22nd.

I suspect we'll lose some college students who leave that weekend for a Thanksgiving at home, but we'd probably lose more attendees and possibly speakers if we were competing with the CT camp.

2008/09/25

Announcing: Tech Valley Code Camp 2008.2 - November 8th, 2008

It's official -- per conversations at yesterday's Microsoft Northeast Roadshow, we're going to make Tech Valley Code Camp 2008.2 happen. We've even moved the date up a bit -- we're now looking at November 8th, in order to avoid conflicting with a Western NY camp.

Presenters needed! We're working on getting a registration site up ASAP. Doors are open to non-Microsoft-specific tech, but we'd definitely like to see a healthy dose of Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, .NET 3.5, WPF, Silverlight, etc.

We have a few sponsors already, I'll followup with a post thanking our first several sponsors. Additional sponsorship, however, is of course quite welcome, and certainly needed.

Tech Valley Code Camp 2008(.1) was awesome! Now let's make TVCC 2008.2 an even bigger, better experience!

2008/04/26

Thank you!

Hello everyone!

I wanted to take a moment to once again thank our presenters, our sponsors and attendees! Each of you played a critical part in the success of Tech Valley Code Camp 2008.

In fact, we consider it successful enough to do again this year -- we're shooting for v2.0 in November. Details to follow. (Yes, the bugs WILL be shaken out of the Code Camp software next time around, or there's a round of beers on me.)

I also wanted to give everyone an opportunity to exchange networking info. For anyone who would like to participate in an exchange of LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, blog, etc. profiles and URLs, please email your profile or site links to: info@techvalleycodecamp.com. I'll post them to the Code Camp site at http://techvalleycodecamp.com/ as they become available.

To give us a headstart on that, you can find me at:
http://andrew.badera.us/wcf.aspx
http://twitter.com/andrewbadera
http://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewbadera
http://flipbitsnotburgers.blogspot.com/

Chris Bowen's blog:
http://blogs.msdn.com/cbowen/

Boyan Kostadinov's blog:
http://blog.tech-cats.com/

Chris Miller's blog:
http://anotherlab.rajapet.net/

Robert Holmes' site:
http://www.sharepointguy.com

Rik Bardrof's blog:
RikBardrof.Wordpress.com

Alex Silverstein's site + blog:
http://unifieddigital.com/

You can find Code Camp presentations on many of these sites and blogs, as well as additional resources.

Thank you again for your participation and support!
--Andy Badera
Organizer, Tech Valley Code Camp

2008/04/18

Post-Camp Dinner & Drinks

Hi all!

After Camp tomorrow, we're going to get together with members of the Tech Valley New Tech Meetup at Old Chicago Grill, starting around 4pm.

Old Chicago Grill
111 Wolf Rd
Albany NY 12205
Phone: (518) 435-8007
Fax: (518) 435-8009

More info: Old Chicaco Grill

2008/04/15

Bugs, bugs, bugs v2

Session signup is HALF working -- if you select one session at a time under "My Schedule," you can successfully schedule up to TWO sessions.

Debugging now! (Chris, if you're reading this, I don't suppose you'd know if Lorin has updated the site software or not? The version on CodePlex is rough.)

2008/04/14

Bugs, bugs, bugs!

I know people are seeing error screens. Turns out clearing your cookies tends to fix this problem.

If anyone has problems that ARE NOT resolved by clearing cookies, please drop an email!

Tentative schedule up!

Tentative schedule is now available from the "Event Schedule" link at the top of the page.

"My Schedule" is not working properly, but yes, if you click to sign up for an event, it really does add you. Apologies for the bugs, the code is open source, borrowed from previous Camps.

2008/04/12

Linium withdraws sponsorship

Linium inexplicably withdrew their offer of funding for our event this week.

2008/03/30

Tech Valley New Tech Meetup

We're coordinating an after-camp dinner & drinks get-together with the Meetup.com Tech Valley New Tech Meetup. Venue suggestions welcomed! Something near our Code Camp site preferred.

$100 logo design

The TVCC logo designer, Justin West, would like to offer all attendees a $100 logo design package.

Blog widget live again

Sorry about the blog widget downtime on TechValleyCodeCamp.com. Switched the Feedburner feed to Atom 1.0, and some antiquated open source reader code choked. Now using .NET 3.5's SyndicationFeed and SyndicationItem in the ServiceModel.Syndication namespace.

2008/03/28

Lunch sponsorship still needed!

We all know what a bunch of hungry techies looks like. It ain't pretty.

We need additional lunch sponsors -- feel free to suggest a place, and if you can put us in touch with someone, so much the better!

Presenters still needed!

Hi everybody!

April 19th draws close, and we're still in major need of presenters. To date, I believe we have four sessions with presenters, with a fifth in the works.

Anyone can present! Present on a topic already suggested, or one of your own suggestions.

2008/03/09

Sad news

We have learned that Brian Peek's father passed away earlier this week. Brian, you have our condolences!

2008/03/05

CTS Albany to sponsor

Art Bianco of Computer Technology Services of Albany (ctsalbany.com) has agreed to hook us up with another excellent chunk of sponsorship money. Thanks Art & CTS!

2008/03/04

Looks like we have a venue!

Details and confirmation to follow tomorrow!

2008/03/02

Website down

Our host is having some issues with a core router this morning; we've been mostly down since 11am or so. Bear with us, hoping we're live again soon!

2008/02/29

First confirmed lunch sponsor

Pizza Plus of Waterford has pledged some lunch sponsorship! These guys make a killer chicken parm tray, and a great batch of wings! Thanks, Drum family @ Pizza Plus!

2008/02/28

Wow - website getting busy

We had about 100 unique visits yesterday ... but not a lot of registrations.

Are people still having problems with the sign-up process?

If so, please comment via the blog, or email an organizer!

2008/02/27

Change Round-Up comes in strong

Change Round-Up, a Coxsackie, NY startup dedicated to enabling retailers to facilitate customer donations, has pledged a big chunk of sponsorship money. Thanks Dan Quiqley & Change Round-Up!

Two more sponsors pledge support

Big thanks to Alex Papadimoulis at The Daily WTF and Brian Finnerty at InnerWorkings for their support!

2008/02/26

Linium withdraws sponsorship

Linium, a recruitment and technology services firm out of the Albany, NY area, has just offered a big chunk of sponsorship money. Thanks, Miriam Dushane & Linium!

Linium inexplicably withdrew their offer of funding for our event this week.

Wrox to sponsor

Colleen Hauser with Wrox has promised a (healthy!) number of books, plus Wrox-related giveaways. Thanks Colleen & Wrox!

Registration process working

Attendees and speakers can once again register for the event.

2008/02/25

SourceGear to "mega" sponsor

Received word from Paul Roub at SourceGear (makers of Vault, Fortress, etc.) that SourceGear is able to sponsor us -- in a big way! Not only with a 5-user Fortress license, comics and t-shirts, but a chunk of funding to cover venue and food costs to boot!

I think we may need to set up a "gold" sponsor category for sponsors like this!

Thanks SourceGear, thanks Paul!

Registration process broken

Hope to have it up around 6pm tonight (2008/02/25) -- sorry for the inconvenience.

CodeSmith to sponsor

The fine marketing people over at CodeSmith have promised us some licenses for raffling purposes. Thanks CodeSmith!

O'Reilly to sponsor

Marsee Henon of O'Reilly's User Group & Professional Association Program has pledged a selection of O'Reilly books. Thanks Marsee & O'Reilly!

Event Registration Live!

Event registration -- attendee, speaker, session -- now available at TechValleyCodeCamp.com.

We're using a variation of Lorin Thwait's Code Camp Site software.

2008/02/24

Seeking venue, presenters

Tech Valley Code Camp needs a home!

We're seeking a venue to have our un-conference. We're currently looking at a date of April 19th, but that's far from locked down.

We need several rooms -- one hopefully large enough to hold the entire group (80?), and several smaller rooms capable of holding 10-30 each. Anyone with a venue available, or suggestions of whom to ask or where to look, please email info@TechValleyCodeCamp.com.

Tech Valley Code Camp needs presenters!

Share your expertise and experience with others in the Tech Valley development community. Until we get the wiki up, if you'd like to present, or you have a suggestion on someone who you think ought to present, or a favorite (free) speaker you'd like us to invite, drop a line to info@TechValleyCodeCamp.com.

UPDATE: Register to suggest sessions.

We're up!

Thanks to: ActiveHost.

Schenectady-based ActiveHost has agreed, per CEO Alex Finn, via Client Relations Manager Mitch Messmore, to donate hosting services for the Tech Valley Code Camp site.

Thanks ActiveHost, Mitch and Alex!

Working on getting the site in place now.