Unfortunately, I haven't blogged in forever, and my blog reading has been limited to quick power scanning through posts. I've been really busy, sorry.
Last week I judged the INETA ImagineCup event at my old university, the University of North Texas. It was a really interesting event! I love the theory behind these events. It's really interesting to see how such fresh students with a limited knowledge of industries and problem domains tackle problems. I love it! I think we, as IT professionals, can sometimes get into a pattern (er, excuse the pun) with our solutions. So, it's neat to see the way people come at problems from different angles. The event, overall, was wonderful. I really enjoyed being involved. ImagineCup is very well organized for being such a new program. I only see this event getting better and better, and I hope to continue to be involved in the coming years.
Last night we had our first meeting of the Plano .NET Users Group! And, I'm still reeling today... To give you some background, our group has only been in existence for, literally, one month. We sent out RSVPs just over a week before the event. Within an hour of the RSVP mail, we already had ~40 people RSVP'ed. Fast forward 30 minutes before the event and we had 143 people RSVP'ed. This is where panic began to set in.
I never really realized the logistics behind these events until this. Then, I didn't understand just the sheer volume for a large group. I don't see how professional event planners do it. With 143 people, we estimated 3.5 slices of pizza per person, and 2 drinks per person. The final order was 35 pizzas, and 10 cases of drinks. This was all based off a survey we had sent out earlier to our members. That was no problem. We were lucky enough to have great sponsors to carry our costs.
Back to sheer volume: Sheer volume can make mountains out of mole hills. Take for example, ice. We needed ice. I had no idea how much really. Shane bought a big color when we went to Sams earlier, so I just picked a number out of my head. 10 bags of ice. Sounds good. Nice and round. I went to purchase it and start loading it up into the cooler to carry out when I realized that I had 10 8 lb. bags of ice. My weak self, there was no way I was getting it to the car. I was lucky enough that the station attendant helped me carry it out.
So, our final number was 132 people attended to see Rob Howard speak. He was awesome, as usual. He's such a great speaker and brings so much excitement to any event. Rob spoke for basically two hours straight, and not one person every got up, let alone flinched. When we finally did take a 15 minute break, we lost maybe 5 people. That speaks volumes about how enthralling it is to watch Rob do his talks. If you haven't seen him first hand, I highly suggest you catch him at one of the ASP.NET Roadshows when you can.
So, with that, I finally have a bit of a break. Well, I still have a big project at work, and trying to get the next version of nGallery out the door. But, my place has lightened. For now. ;)