Code Mash

Sorry this is a little late, but the last week was pretty hectic coming back off of my few days off for CodeMash.  It was worth it, though, if for no other reason than the goodies! I love free stuff!

I actually forgot to include my APRESS notebook, CodeGear pen, and a few other goodies that were in my laptop bag. However, what I did photograph there included a CodeMash t-shirt, a Visual Studio 2008 t-shirt, a Microsoft stress relieving ball, an Amazon stress relieving heart, a water bottle from TechSmith, a Sun Microsystems notebook, two can coozies, two footballs, a velcro wire tie, several pens, a magazine, a keychain pulley, an APRESS button, a bunch of CodeMash tattoos, and a plastic cup. I’m silly, but I’ll be a walking advertisement for just about anyone if they give me free goodies.

Now about the conference. I had heard that this conference was a bargain, and it really was. All around, from the room fee to the actual conference cost, my benefit FAR exceeded my company’s financial output. Breakfast and Dinner were catered by the hotel and lunch was a very fulfilling box lunch. There was also all the pop you could drink on hand throughout both days. In addition, there was a social event on Thursday evening with everyone’s first two drinks provided by Quick Solutions.

It wasn’t all about the free stuff, though. There was some tremendous content to be had, as well. On Thursday, I attended Ruby: Testing Mandatory, Crash, Smash, Kaboom Course in Python, LinqTo: Implementing IQuery Provider, and Refactoring for Testing. On Friday, we hit Real World C# 3.0, RESTful Web Services, a few Experts Zone sessions, and socialized. We also enjoyed the keynotes. My absolute favorite talk was Scott Hanselman’s Thursday midday keynote on IIS 7.0. I’ve been a reader of his blog for over a year, but had never heard him speak in person. He was very funny and made excellent points. I might just be developing a man-crush!

I am going to do everything in my power to go to CodeMash in 2009. I would recommend this conference to any developer in about a 5 hour driving radius. I’ve never been to any event like this and I think it is definitely in a league of its own in the Midwest.