Boise Code Camp & Tech Fest was this last weekend, and while I didn't present this year (they had claimed to be full before I put together a presentation), I really enjoyed the presentations, and feel like I was able to contribute, even though I was not a presenter. I attended quite a few sessions, many of which I'll be talking about in greater detail in the coming weeks here, but I figured I'd give my impression of the event here, before I dive into the technical details.

I've only been able to attend three Code Camps in the last few years. Two in Boise, and one is Seattle. Of the two cities, I've found that Boise consistently puts on the better events. This isn't a put-down to Seattle per se. Boise's event is simply a larger one, and despite it's size, it's very well run. However, this year was definitely a shadow of last years event, the economic downturn having (unsurprisingly) significantly reduced the corporate sponsorship of the event.

I attended a variety of sessions on subjects ranging from WPF, to ASP.NET MVC, to Mono, to Map-Reduce, to Android, to Unit Testing. This particular Code Camp is incredibly Microsoft-centric, which is another reason I wish I'd put together a presentation on YUI, git or something similar. Still, I picked up som pretty cool information, which I intend to share here.

We have once again raised the issue of trying to do a Code Camp in Pullman, trying to pull in the Moscow/Pullman crowd, as well as Spokane (which lacks a code-camp of it's own). It's an exciting proposition, but we're unsure how easily we can simply pull the event together. I bring this up here, merely to gauge interest, particularly of those in the Moscow/Pullman/Lewiston/Clarkston/Spokane/Coeur D'Alene areas who would be our primary targets.

Lastly, I just want to congratulate the Boise Code Camp team on an excellent event, and I'm definitely looking forward to next year.