Just a quick post to note that a) I’m still alive and posting, and b) I’ve been super busy trying to get this little conference off the ground. I say little, because it looks like the Gainesville event is going to be a lot more intimate than the Atlanta event in April. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because I’m hoping that it will stimulate the growth of the North GA development community.
We’re still looking for sponsors and speakers, so if you’re interested in either, feel free to let me know (http://www.sqlsaturday.com/eventhome.aspx?eventid=26). The biggest obstacle that I’m running into is the fact that many sponsors are concerned that the event is too close to the Atlanta event; on the other hand, many of the typical attendees are concerned that the event is too far from Atlanta. It’s an odd catch-22.
Nevertheless, we have managed to garner some impressive presentations, and we’re continuing to slowly add attendees. If we don’t have a lot of sponsors, we’ll be OK; as long as we can build community, we should.
Speaking of building community, if you haven’t read Alan Stevens’ recent blog postings about his experiences at the Jacksonville Code Camp, you should.
http://netcave.org/AnEyeOpeningExperience.aspx
http://netcave.org/AnEyeOpeningApology.aspx
I’m not saying that I necessarily agree with everything Alan posted, but his experience should be considered when planning one of these events; although we want to keep SQLSaturdays (and other code camps; note the little “c”) community-focused, we need to be sure that expectations between speakers, attendees, and organizers are well-managed. I appreciate the fact that Alan apologized for his statements; I also think that as an organizer, I need to learn from his experience to avoid similar situations at the events I help with.
Gotta run.
