I’ve deliberately waited a bit to write this after the event, just to see what stood out after a week – what would still seem interesting? In no particular order:

• Great venue. It’s a high school, and while it wasn’t fancy, it worked – and that’s what we need.
• Speaker dinner was good food, good service, but overly (to me) noisy, the room echoed a lot.
• Saw lots of people using the speedpass, good! Saw technical challenges for those who didn’t print them in advance (I hear it’s being fixed this week), but the team was adjusting without seeming stressed.
• Lunch was bbq (good), and interestingly to me was self serve. Wasn’t sure how it would work out, but went fine. What’s the lesson? Maybe have enough food so portions don’t matter? I’ve seen plenty of self-serve pizza for lunch events go wrong for lack of enough food!
• The event seemed…smooth. That’s not a small thing.
• Could have used a map to the rooms
• Just saw the eval results come in, great follow through
• Lots of great conversations,some with old friends,some with new friends. I really go expecting well organized events now (is that bad?), but I look forward to the conversations, some technical, some not.

Congratulations and thanks to the volunteers for a nicely done event!