And no it is not because the Yankees won the World Series (although congrats to them) it is because it has been an awesome month for me personally and professionally.

On the personal front…

My son’s baseball team, which I am an assistant coach, finished the season undefeated in regular season games (end of year tournament in next week).  My son hit his first over the fence homerun which was a Grand Slam (technically not November but pretty awesome). My daughter's softball team, which I am an assistant coach, finished the season undefeated in regular season games (end of year tournament in next week).

I get to go to fly back to NY in a few days to see family and friends and wish my mother a happy 60th birthday.

On the professional front…

I was elected to the North American INETA board of directors.

I was elected to the AZGiveCamp executive committee, VP of Operations.  As the VP I will oversee the activities of the Logistics, Sponsorship, Technology and Publicity teams.

I put together my first Code Camp, Desert Code Camp.

I am presenting a Bird of Feather session at PDC with Chris Woodruff on “How to Build and Enrich Your Technical and Local Community” on Tuesday Nov 17 from 11a – 12p.  Stop by if you want to see how to build your community.

That’s it for now.  Hopefully I can relax a bit in December.

My first Code Camp is done and I wanted to jot down some of the lessons I learned.

Bring EXTRA equipment! You will never now what people will want or need. Here’s a list of items that are good to have.

• Adapters
  • DVI to VGA (those MACs)
  • HDMI to VGA
  • Multiple video to VGA
• Mice
• CAT5 cables
• USB Cables
• USB Flash drive

Speakers

• Speakers will cancel.  It is an unfortunate fact.
• Don’t allow one speaker to speak at more than 3 sessions.  This reduces your risk in case of cancelation and prevents speaker fatigue.

Schedule.  Printed schedules are good to have and good to hang.  Also add speaker names to the presentations.

Name Tags. People like and want them.

Venue

• WIFI is key.  A reliable and unobtrusive WiFi connection is best.
• You need to be able handle last minute room changes

Food

• Make sure you provide the person(s) that are ordering the food explicit instructions on the food.
• Try to have more than just pizza.
• You should have vegetarian and vegan options.

And remember you are not going to be able to make EVERYONE happy.