John Kellar

Planning a Technical Event - Venue

info@anvilsystems.com — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 06:00:00 GMT

The venue for your event is one of the most important decisions you will face when planning a conference. There are trade-offs with every location so be prepared to compromise. A few vital things that you want your venue to offer are:

Parking which will support your maximum capacity
At minimum of 3 rooms, one of which must support you maximum capacity
- Why 3 rooms? Because you want to give people a choice. Two sessions are fine for a small event, but when you are talking over 150 people it is rare that two topics will cover something of interest to everyone. Additionally, it allows you to spread out your attendance more which makes many people feel more at ease to pay attention, ask a question, etc...
- Your capacity planning should not be set to your largest room size. If you have a room which sits 200 people, but your other rooms can only seat 25 you will experience problems. You should limit your attendance to what all your rooms can support. So a room set of 200 + 25 + 25 would allow you to cap attendance at roughly 100 people. You may have some overflow, but if your most popular sessions are in the largest room it should be not problem to have some standing in smaller sessions.
Secure firm dates with your venue. This is important because once you start promoting to speakers, sponsors and attendees you don't want to have to make a change. Beware beause some venues are not as well organized as others and may require you to drive the commitment.
Catering can be a problem with cost. The best venues are the ones that allow you to supply your own catering needs. This gives you the option to buy drinks from bulk stores and negotiate food rates with popular restaraunts. Catering at some locations just isn't that good, don't think that someone can't make your attendees sick. Sometimes it is unavoidable, but if it is possible to taste before you proceed, I highly recommend it.
Cost
- Depending on where you are located in the country, you may have better opportunities for a low cost venue. Larger cities are not necessarily cost effective places since tourism and events happen year round.
Possible venue ideas
- Colleges/Universities are usually very friendly to events that teach new technology. They are limited in availability since they have students most of the year, however there are off dates that coincide with great event dates. Summer and Fall break are good times to target. They also are traditionally a low cost alternative to putting on your event. Technical Schools can also fall into this category.
- Hotels/Convention Centers have all the facilities you need and are usually more than happy to give you space at a reasonable rate. They make their money from catering and/or hotel rooms. They are very flexible with wireless access, audio/video and other services that you will need.
- Businesses are something I have not had the opportunity to crack yet, but I am working on it. A company with great facilities provides the opportunity to get the best of both worlds, the cost of a college and the flexibility of a convention center.

I am trying to keep my posts short so obviously there are other things that come into play, so please don't think this is all to consider. If you have something to add please do so in the comments section.

Nice presentation helper tool - ZoomIt

info@anvilsystems.com — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 06:00:00 GMT

So I came across this neat tool called ZoomIt which was put out by Mark Russinovich of Sysinternals fame. This is really a nice way to give presenters a way of bringing parts of the screen up close and personal. I have played with it some and recommend you give it a look. I did notice that it doesn't seem to work with my mutliple montior setup, but I wouldn't have that during a demo/presentation anyway. The screen shot below is of the options screen, the application itself runs in the System Tray and is actived by keystrokes or the tray context menu. Nice!

Planning a Technical Event - Why?

info@anvilsystems.com — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 06:00:00 GMT

     I want to tackle the most important question you should ask yourself before moving forward with your technical event. Why do YOU want to do a technical event? I do not intend to make all my posts philosophical, but to a degree this one requires it. For different people you will find different reasons. If you are deciding this on your own it makes it easier because you know why. I hope you will think deeply though to make sure you are doing it for the right reason. If you have some others involved who want to put the event together sit down and discuss everyone’s reason. Yes, there will be those who won’t be honest, but if you ask it may make them think about what to expect.
     For me it started as an opportunity to do something special for our User Group, as I discussed in my previous post, but it quickly turned into something bigger for me. I developed a passion for growing other developers and the development community in general. Think of it as mentoring without necessarily being the mentor. Seeing the faces and hearing the excitement of those individuals who had never attended a conference or seen an upcoming technology was a great feeling for me. So for me it is a two-fold reason, one that is selfish and the other that is selfless. My selfish reason is I get to feel good for bringing something valuable to the development community and seeing people enjoy it. This is not dissimilar from the satisfaction I get from delivering and application to someone and seeing their relief when it solves the problem they were encountering. The selfless reason, which is far more important in my opinion, is that people get to expand their knowledge on a given technology, improve their skills in their specific field and the best is they get to meet and network with their peers in the industry. Many folks meet at events and form lasting relationships where they share their experiences and knowledge for years.
     Whatever your reason, selfish or selfless, it is important that you know it. There is nothing wrong with having a desire to get something back, just as long as that is not your only motivation.

CodeStock Developer's Conference

info@anvilsystems.com — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:00:00 GMT

It is great to see more communities putting on bigger events. CodeStock is a new event that will take place in Knoxville, TN on August 9th. This is only two weeks before devLink 2008 which could be a bad time for me to take a trip, but I just have to go. The event is organized by several folks in Knoxville, most notably Michael Neel, Alan Stevens and Wally McClure. It looks to be a great time and some great content so if you are in that neck of the woods, I recommend you check it out.

LINQPad - nice LINQ tool

info@anvilsystems.com — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:28:00 GMT

If you have attended my Discovering C# 3.0 and LINQ session you have undoubtedly heard me mention LINQPad. This is a nifty tool that was written by Joseph Albahari for his "C# 3.0 in a Nutshell" book. I have not read his book, but somehow ran across the LINQPad website. If you are looking for something to play with around LINQ, this tool might be worth a look. You can point it to your SQL Server database and write LINQ queries to try out the many possibilities that LINQ offers. I am posting this primarily so those who are looking for the link can find it quickly.

Planning a Technical Event

info@anvilsystems.com — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:38:00 GMT

     In the coming weeks, I am planning to challenge myself to tackle a blog project where I discuss what it takes to put on a technical conference. My main purpose is to share some of the things I have learned over the past few years doing Tech Expo and devLink. I am by no means and expert, but I regularly have people ask me questions around this topic. Some folks are just curious about what is involved, but most want to put on their own conference.  Now I will be the first to admit that I am notorious for letting my blog take last place since I have a pretty full plate with job(s) and family. My goal is to give this a solid effort and keep sharing until I am satisfied that I have provided what I know.
     I will start by giving a background on my experience so you can make the call on whether my opinion matters at all.  I worked on my first conference starting in December 2004 Mike Wiley, who is now working for a small startup called Microsoft. When we created Tech Expo in Little Rock, Arkansas it was intended to be a big meeting to recognize the one year anniversary of the Little Rock .NET User Group. We optimistically estimated 100 folks to come to the free single day event and it quickly spiraled to 250 developers. All of this was done over about 3 month’s time so it was a trial by fire experience.
     My second event was Tech Expo 2006, which we thankfully started planning about 6 months before the event. We took our lessons learned from the first event and had a great turnout of 350 people. What impressed me was that there were tornados and horrible weather going on the night before and rain that day, but people really wanted to be there.
     So at the end of 2005, I moved to Nashville, TN for a new job. Yes, I worked on Tech Expo 2006 remotely after I moved and returned to help put the event on. Anyway, after the move and Tech Expo 2006, the devLink Technical Conference was officially born.  Following the same model as Tech Expo the first devLink in 2006 was a free single day event and to my amazement we had approximately 387 people show up.  Thankfully Tommy Norman and some other very helpful volunteers helped establish the conference and make devLink 2006 a resounding success.
     In 2007, Chris Gundersen joined the devLink team along with Leanna Baker who took over the Secretary/Treasurer role.  The event was expanded to two days for a few reasons.  First and foremost, many of the people who attended in 2006 asked for a two day event. Additionally, I wanted to provide a better conference atomosphere with an Attendee party on Friday evening. All in all the event drew 397 attendees representing 14 states. We added a Java track (unsuccessfully) and a Project Management/Analysis track (successfully) to reach even more in the community.
     I am currently working on devLink 2008 which is again a two day pay event. Tommy has rejoined the team along with Keith Elder and Alan Stevens who serve on the Community Advisory Board. Chris has had to step back to fulfill other responsibilities. So I have really shared more a history of devLink and some of the people involved, but you get the point. I have four technical events under my belt and am working on my fifth so while there are obviously more experienced people, I have some knowledge of what it takes. I apologize for the mile long post, but I felt if necessary to get this started. I hope anyone who is interested will post questions/comments to add their knowledge or comment on the usefulness of the posts as I make them.

Mind Mapping tool in .NET

info@anvilsystems.com — Sat, 10 May 2008 12:22:00 GMT

I am currently working on something where a ton of brainstorming and information gathering is going on. I have looked at mind mapping software in the past, but couldn't justify spending $300+ for a tool. I came across a mind mapping application called Cayra.NET that is free of charge. It is a .NET 3.0 application with all the features I was looking for so I decided to give it a try. It you are looking for something similiary I recommend you check it out at www.cayra.net.

devLink Technical Conference Update

info@anvilsystems.com — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:22:00 GMT

So I have been working endlessly to get devLink ready to go this year. I opened up registration on April 22 and in less than 48 hours there are already close to 25 registrations. That may not sound like much, but most days you only see about 2 or 3 registrations so the numbers are pretty good. A sneak peek of some familiar names who will be speaking:

Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell from DotNetRocks
Charlie Calvert (Microsoft) who will be talking on C# and LINQ
Sara Ford (Microsoft) who will be talking on Codeplex and some other things

Of course, there are more speakers than that, but I have work to do, so check the devLink site this weekend for more information. If you don't know what devLink is, the easiest way to describe it is a mini conference of about 400 people who get the same content as the big conferences for the cost of a good technical book. We get the same speakers and some very passionate attendees. If you have any ideas for something you would like to see at devLink 2008, feel free to drop me a note. See you there!

MVP Summit 2008

info@anvilsystems.com — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:00:00 GMT

I had the opportunity this year to attend my first Microsoft MVP Summit in Seattle, WA. This was not my first visit to Microsoft, but it was a great experience. If you are not a Microsoft MVP, you can find out more information here about the program.

I was delighted to see several folks who I have known from the South Central District Dave McKinstry, Peter Debetta, Cory Smith and more. I also got a chance to put a face with a name for people I have interacted with over the years like David Walker who runs the Tulsa Tech Fest. I ran into Brad Abrams who keynoted devLink 2007 and Jeffrey Richter who was keynote for Tech Expo 2006, both great guys. I finally had a chance to thank Kathleen Dollard for coming to devLink 2007, last year. What I enjoyed most was meeting tons of new folks who are passionate about technology and the community. I know I am not going to mention them all, but a few quick mentions are Charlie Calvert, Ian Griffiths, Bill Wagner, Jim Wooley and Miguel Castro. Some of these folks I am hoping to get to devLink in 2008.

So what about the Summit? Well I can sum it up in one word, Input! It was good to see Microsoft so open to the thoughts and opinions of those in the industry. Well, I need to get back to devLink so enough blogging.

Tech Expo 2008

info@anvilsystems.com — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:31:00 GMT

I had a great trip to Little Rock for Tech Expo 2008. It was great seeing several familiar faces from my old stomping grounds. As usual the drive was not fun, but Tommy Norman was riding along so it was not boring. The final numbers for the event were 200 registered and 130 in attendance. This was the first event for Terry Horton and Larry Taylor and they both did a tremendous job keeping things running smoothly. Great job guys!!!
My C# 3.0 session in the morning was to a full room and a pretty active crowd. I had several great questions from the attendees. Since I didn't have any books to give away I offered one person a free pass to devLink 2008 instead. It was a great discussion and I even unveiled some C# 2.0 capabilities that some of the audience were not familiar with.
I landed the short straw for my afternoon session and presented right after lunch. I was covering LINQ and fortunately over half the audience had attended my C# earlier. There were some great questions, but it definitely went quickly. The large room unfortunately made it difficult to hear questions from those in the back, but we made due.
On Wednesday night some of the speakers, Michael Neel, Tommy Norman, Raymond Lewellan, Wally McClure and your's truly, met for dinner at West End Smokehouse and Tavern which was fun. I even had the opportunity to clear up a mystery for Michael Neel about how Warren Buffett did not make his billions singing Margarittaville. Unfortunately, poor Alan Stevens was not able to join us as he was on the red-eye from Redmond. The busiest speaker of the day was Todd Anglin from Telerik; he had two general sessions, a lunch product discussion and the closing keynote.
On a more personal note, Michael Neel is never allowed to recommend a hotel to me again. All the Tech Expo speakers, minus a quick thinking Raymond Lewellan, stayed at the same hotel. While I will not divulge the name, I will say it was less than stellar. My room featured a bathroom door with no screws in the hinges, a broken TV and the phone had been ripped out of the wall. I was able to fix the phone so I could get a wakeup call the next day since someone had stolen the alarm clock. While that may sound bad my room was better than poor Tommy Norman's. He had to sleep in his clothes as his bed was emitting an unappealing odor. The hotel's wireless router had been installed in Michael Neel's room.

Overall I think the Tech Expo trip was definitely worthwhile. Little Rock still has an active developer community and should be proud of what they accomplished at this year's event.

The demo solutions from my presentations are located here.