CodeMash v.2.0.0.8
CodeMash is a conference held in Sandusky, OH. It attracts developers mainly from Ohio and Michigan, but also some from surrounding states. This year, at least one person came from each of the states of Nebraska, South Dakota, Georgia, California, Virginia, and Washington. The talks were great and the conference experienced about a 40% growth over last year's inaugural event.
Sponsors and great speakers are the key to the success of CodeMash, and the conference has been fortunate enough to attract both. This year's sponsors included big companies like Amazon,IBM, Sun, and Microsoft, regional companies like Pillar, TechSmith, HMB, Quick Solutions, and Stout Systems. And, we at SRT Solutions sponsored as well as helping to organize the conference.
The conference, organized completely by volunteers (all of whom are developers) attracted industry luminaries such as Brian Goetz, Neal Ford, Scott Hanselman, and Bruce Eckel. Some speakers traveled to the conference, including Dick Wall (Google, Java Posse), James Ward (Flex), and Andrew Glover (Groovy). Well known local speakers included Bill Wagner (C#), Brian Sam-Bodden (Java) and Kevin Dangoor (DoJo) .. and many others. It was truly a great conference, and we're already looking forward to next year's event.
CodeMash Families was introduced this year. This was organized by the spouse of one of the attendees, as a result of recognizing that many families attended last year but didn't discover one another until well into the conference. Organized activities for families included group dinners and story time.
KidzMash took on a life of its own. Just before the conference started, discussions centered around who was bringing kids. A few people volunteered to lead some "kid geek" activities, to show our kids what it is that we do, as computer scientists. One demonstration (thank you Arnulfo Wing!) included showing kids how to program in the Kids Programming Language (KPL). It was truly amazing to see young kids (ages 4-8 or so) intently listening and participating! The other demonstration was a Lego Robotics demo by Duane Collicott (thanks Duane!). The parents seemed to enjoy it as much as the kids!
And yes, the conference was held at a water park: the Kalahari Resort. It's a great venue for a conference and lends itself well to the family-friendly atmosphere that the CodeMash conference organizers are promoting, by including CodeMash Families and KidzMash.