Notes:

• Due to travel delays I missed the speaker dinner. I missed the chance to catch up and meet new people, but I have to admit the introvert in me enjoyed a quiet evening before a busy Saturday. That’s not to suggest that I will plan to miss more, it’s an invaluable networking opportunity (if the venue allows you to move around and not be anchored at one table!).
• I did a new variation of my presentation on career learning and plans. I wasn’t especially happy with part of it (and it still isn’t right) but I had good attendance and good evals. The topic is worthy and maybe, maybe, I’m ready to write the mini book on it.
• Caught up with a few friends (good) and had a great lunch conversation with new friends (good) and got a masters candidate some of our coffee to get her through the afternoon of not-SQL studying.
• Lunch was good, logistics of that were good. Coffee available far past lunch was good too. It’s definitely nice to be able to offload that part of the day to a vendor (I think its the college or one of their partners).
• The only negative I heard was about signage. The Nova campus isn’t a maze, but it’s not square corners either. I saw quite a few signs, but I think if you aren’t on one of the couple main routes you feel lost. I think this is one place where parking garages make things a little harder, I’ve zeroed in on more than one location by looking for the Saturday morning cluster of cars in a lot.
• I attended several presentations during the day and a couple reminders to speakers. First, the goal is NOT to see how much you can pack into an hour. Second, if you’re code display heavy, take the time to adjust the font or zoom. If its one or two slides and it’s perfect, it’s ok. When it’s a lot, it’s not a great attendee experience.
• Not specific to this event, more and more I’m seeing HDMI connections (finally!) for projectors.