Day Camp 4 Developers: Soft Skills
6 Nov 2010 at on-line

(Sorry for the duplicate comment, didn't realize I wasn't signed in.)

This was a conference well-worth my time and money. The topics made for a good track. Aside from a few hiccups, the technology was transparent and things just worked. The speakers were all very clear and intelligible, except for Josh Holmes' talk, which sounded like he was on the telephone.

The chat room was great and a nice replacement for in-person conference socializing.

Room for improvement would be in more refined email communication to attendees. I received many emails twice (I count 9 total since signing up, with many being duplicate messages.) Messages originated from 3 different email addresses with 3 different "From" names with 3 different visual layouts. I understand communications from GoToMeeting are necessary and they use their own format, but receiving those in duplicate was confusing. Some emails were info explaining about future emails we would receive (meta-meetings, anyone?)

I'd also like to see consolidated conference communication (lotta C's in there) from a @daycamp4developers.com email with "Day Camp 4 Developers" in the "From" field, instead of "cal evans." This way attendees can set inbox rules and easily group messages together.

This was a conference well-worth my time and money. The topics made for a good track. Aside from a few hiccups, the technology was transparent and things just worked. The speakers were all very clear and intelligible, except for Josh Holmes' talk, which sounded like he was on the telephone.

The chat room was great and a nice replacement for in-person conference socializing.

Room for improvement would be in more refined email communication to attendees. I received many emails twice (I count 9 total since signing up, with many being duplicate messages.) Messages originated from 3 different email addresses with 3 different "From" names with 3 different visual layouts. I understand communications from GoToMeeting are necessary and they use their own format, but receiving those in duplicate was confusing. Some emails were info explaining about future emails we would receive (meta-meetings, anyone?)

I'd also like to see consolidated conference communication (lotta C's in there) from a @daycamp4developers.com email with "Day Camp 4 Developers" in the "From" field, instead of "cal evans." This way attendees can set inbox rules and easily group messages together.

That was an aweseome "conference". Thanks to all that were involved in organizing. You did a really great job. And of course thanks to all of the speakers. So much fantastic input to digest. It was a really helpfull day for myself and a well done investment into my career.

There is not that much to improve, but I will give you the few things I found puzzling:
- Yes, the timezone thing could be less confusing. Giving times in UTC could help here.
- The sound quality of Josh Holmes talk was pretty lousy and therefore I found the talk hard to follow.
- The flaw of not being able to log into the webinar a second time and therefore having to start the webinar completely new was no big deal, but I believe it has given Cal and Kathy a rather busy time.
- Not being able to use the software on a Linux-System might be a bit of a drawback, as it forces users to attend on a system they do not know. That wasn't a problem of mine, but some people brought up the subject in the IRC
- Having to remember that the password to the webinar was sent through eventbrite and not from Cal evans as all the reminders to the webinar (which have not been to many IMHO) was a challenge.

And last but not least:
- The next event is definitely too far away ;-)

Good mix of presentations, an afternoon/evening (for us in Europe) well spent. The socialising happened on IRC, so the only thing missing over a "real" conference was meeting the participants in person.

Good job on the organization and a big thanks to the speakers.

Things to improve:
- Avoid confusion about timezones. I thought I had it right and still was an hour off. Give times in UTC next time, please.
- Apparently I wasn't the only one who had trouble finding the password ...
- Having never used GoToWebinar before, I wasn't too sure what to expect and how it would work (from a technical point of view). It all worked flawlessly in the end, but maybe there's a way to do a test run before next time?
- Sound quality on the last presentation was pretty poor.

That was very impressive and extremely helpful. I've been a DBA the past five years and am looking to move into software development. Before today, that was an idea. A hope. But now I know how to create my own road map to get there. Every talk was important and added so much! I have such a better idea of how to go about this career change. I not only have the inspiration and the passion to get there, but I have the direction. Thank you so much. This was a wonderful event. I felt it was also very well executed. It was great to have so many outlets for interaction throughout the day. Perhaps even more so than we do in face-to-face conferences. Well done, all!!

Thanks Cal, Lorna Jane, Elizabeth, Scott, Brain and Prince for a great conference. I don't usually get to conferences due to cost and location so this really worked for me. The information I got from the talks was actually much more than I expected to and also provided inspiration to start my own blog and also maybe a local PHP user group.

I'd like to see more DC4D in the very near future. I would like to attend some technical talks relating to PHP, including subjects such has Design Patterns and Unit Testing.

I'm not sure if technically it would have worked out but would have liked to see more interaction from the attendees even if it was just allowing them to ask their own questions. The IRC chat room was great but I think just hearing form some of the audience would have given it that little extra something.

The conference rocked. See you next time.

Thanks Cal, Lorna Jane, Elizabeth, Scott, Brain and Prince for a great conference. I don't usually get to conferences due to cost and location so this really worked for me. The information I got from the talks was actually much more than I expected to and also provided inspiration to start my own blog and also maybe a local PHP user group.

I'd like to see more DC4D in the very near future. I would like to attend some technical talks relating to PHP, including subjects such has Design Patterns and Unit Testing.

I'm not sure if technically it would have worked out but would have liked to see more interaction from the attendees even if it was just allowing them to ask their own questions. The IRC chat room was great but I think just hearing form some of the audience would have given it that little extra something.

The conference rocked. See you next time.

My thanks go out to Cal Evans and all of the speakers today. This was an amazing idea and it turned out wonderfully!

A great new (to me) format for having conferences. I miss the physical social part a little bit, but this is offset more then enough by the low ticket price and the comfort of being at home.

I hope that many more of these will come in the future.

I loved the conference. It was a very well invested 35$. If you organize any more events like this one, count me in.