This was a great New England Code Camp! Laura Blood, Julie Lerman and I represented the Vermont Nerd contingent and drove down together. Laura handled the 4 lanes of I-93 and I-95 like a Big City girl. Better than I would have. Julie spent quite a while on the phone with a client on the drive down, but that's the price you pay when you travel with a .NET Rock Star like Lerman.
Yes indeed, Chris Bowen pulled off his first Code Camp with flawless execution. I haven't had much of anything good to say about Microsoft for a while now, but sponsoring an event like this is smart so I need to say "Thank you, Microsoft." But more importantly, thank you Chris Bowen and Chris Pells for your hard work in making Code Camp 7 such a memorable and valuable weekend for so many of us.
I gave my "Building Business Applications with Community Server" presentation on Saturday morning. I got to show a customized CS2007 site, which we walked through while jumping back to the SDK to look at the cool stuff happening under the covers. I actually didn't make it to any other sessions on Saturday because it was so great just hanging out with my New England Homies like Aaron Robinson, Greg McKinley, Gary Chin, Jim Bonnie, Rob Holmes, Dan Krhla, Mark Mullin, Robert Hurlburt, SB Chatterjee and others, including, of course, Jason Haley. As Jason mentioned on his blog, I had the pleasure of buying out the inventory of 4 different Dunkin' Donuts and a Starbucks with him to provide enough donuts and coffee for everyone on Saturday morning.
Saturday Night at the Waltham Westin was a roaring good time, with heated conversations covering topics like BHA-treated milk's estrogen-like affect on mammary glands and who was the real creative force behind the Police. Todd Mancini claimed it was Andy Summers, but I had to go with Stewart Copeland. Chris Bowen made some wisecrack about cows and Vermont, but he's so darn likeable that the smackdown that would have normally ensued was averted. The analogy of Superman walking back to his arctic home in blowing snow and trucks wizzing by after doing Louis Lane and losing his super powers in Superman II was used a few times in the discussion, but I don't recall exactly why anymore. Mark Mullin took his Scotch neat, as usual, so all was right in the world.
Sunday was Generics day for me, starting with a great presentation by Robert Hope, then the true star of New England Code Camp (IMHO), Richard Hale Shaw, packed the house with 2 sessions on Generics. Richard puts on an incredible show, and he even brings his own kool-aid.
It's a wrap on Code Camp 7, and what a show it was!