The St. Louis Code Camp is Coming!

It’s on the East Coast…

It’s on the West Coast…

Now it’s coming to St. Louis…

The St. Louis Code Camp

Are you passionate about some technical topic? Are you interested in learning what other developers in your area are doing? Have you always wanted to present, but never had the nerve to do it? Well, the St. Louis Code Camp is for you!

What is a code camp?

Code camps are very informal gatherings of developers who want to get together to share what they know with their fellow developers. The content is driven by whatever you want to talk about. Anyone who wants to show up is welcome, any who wants to speak is welcome.

Here’s how it works. Code Camps are community-driven events that occur outside working hours with the sole purpose of bringing together presenters and an audience. There is no fee, there is no pay, there are no sponsors, there is no free lunch (unless some kind company wishes to contribute it!). All there is is good, solid technical content.

While code camps are generally organized and aided by the local Microsoft region, that doesn’t mean that Microsoft puts any limits on the content at all. All kinds of content is welcome, including .Net, Java, C++, SQL, Oracle, XML, and more.

How can you help?

First of all, we’d love to have you as a speaker. Think of a topic you’re passionate about, and create a presentation on it. Make it intensely code-focused. We’ll be posting a Call For Speakers soon where you can tell us what you want to talk about. We’ll have a limited number of speaking slots, and they’ll be filled on a first-come/first-served basis, so if you sign up to talk, there is an excellent chance you’ll be able to.

The other thing we’re interested in finding are companies in the local area who would be willing to contribute space or money for the conference, for food, for incidentals, etc. Here is the catch — they don’t get anything back for their contribution other than the warm, fuzzy feeling that they’ve given back to the community. They are not offering to sponsor the camp, which has certain expectations of thanks being given to them, a short speaking slot, or other sort of recognition. They are offering to contribute some resources to us out of the goodness of their heart. This is a fundamental tenet of the Code Camp movement, intended to keep it entirely non-commercial.

When will this happen?

My goal is to do this on one of the first two weekends in May. I don’t have a room yet, so I can’t nail it down more closely than that, but that is the general time frame I’d like to do this in.

How can I learn more about code camps?

Google Is Your Friend  Seriously, do a google search for MSDN Code Camp, and you should find lots of information on other camps that have been held around the country (again, this is not an MSDN or Microsoft sponsored event — MSDN is just part of the name to make it unique). There is a wiki out there describing what a Code Camp is and what the Code Camp Manifesto is, and lots of other good stuff on the web.

I promise to post a more formal announcement with a better description soon. I wanted to get this announcement out into the blogosphere both to start a buzz around this St. Louis Code Camp in and around the St. Louis area, and to make me actually start doing it! So, if you tell two friends about this, and they tell two friends about this, too many people will know about it to let me forget about doing this

If you’d like to help in some way, or are interested in learning more, please drop me a note through my blog, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Thanks, and I can’t wait to see all of you there, at the First Annual St. Louis Code Camp!

— bab

 

 

 

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