Review: CodeStock 2016

Year after year, CodeStock continues to expand, improve, and win a special place in my heart. As with any conference, the hallway conversations and opportunity to get to meet amazing people is every bit as valuable as the sessions.

The road to CodeStock is paved with awesome

One of the reasons I love CodeStock is simply getting there. It gives me an opportunity to ride some of the most beautiful roads in the country.

This year I decided to share the experience, and offered to have others join me for a Ride with ReverentGeek. My hope is this will be a growing annual event! All are welcome to join, including "cagers" (what motorcycle enthusiasts call people who drive cars 😉).

The conference

This year, Cory House returned for the opening keynote. And, wow, what a keynote it was!

Cory provided clear and compelling evidence of the pros and cons for everyone on the technology adoption curve: early adopters, mainstream, and tech laggards. Wherever we find ourselves on the curve, he provided tips and encouragement to "own" our career and take full advantage of the opportunities. He almost convinced me to be a COBOL developer!

My talks

I had a great turnout for my "Taking Back Project Sanity: The Kanban Journey" and "Cross-Platform Desktop Apps with Electron." I so much appreciate the feedback and conversations I had after the talks!

@reverentgeek having so many Kanban epiphanies during your talk! #CodeStock

— Katie Cleveland (@KatieCleveland) July 15, 2016 Great talk on Kanban by @reverentgeek. Actually made project management interesting. #CodeStock

— Michael Baldwin (@mkbaldwin21) July 15, 2016

I continue to receive a lot of comments on my use of hand-drawn illustrations in my slides.

Man, @reverentgeek's hand drawn slides are so fun. #CodeStock2016 pic.twitter.com/vmECkazdVA

— Ryan Hayes (@RyannosaurusRex) July 16, 2016

I had the pleasure of giving a lightning talk, "How to Win Hearts with Your Craptastic Drawings." If you want to learn more, check out my post, Captivate Your Audience Using Simple Illustrations.

Draw some happy trees!

Until next time...

Remember, you don't need permission to be awesome!

Hope to see you at CodeStock 2017, or a tech conference near you!