Well, I had a great time meeting old friends and making new ones at this year's summit. There were so many things going on and so many people to see and talk to, that it's next to impossible to consume everything at once! So, to keep things simple, here are of the highlights per day:
Sunday
Although, I was not there until late (way late), it was a lot fun hanging around the Westin's lobby and talk about how a chicken takes a dookie. Yeah, that's right. Keith Elder had the great intentions of recording a podcast that quickly degraded into different implementations of ICanLayEgg and ICanPoo. Yeah, needless to say you had to be there.
Monday
By the far the impromptu IronRuby open space was the best! Had a pretty small group (10+/-) of people talking about IronRuby. You knew you were in for a treat when John asked, "Tell us where we suck." From there the conversation turned into the number of specs needed to get IronRuby fully running and talking about getting RoR up and running by RailsConf. Great stuff! Also, I had the please of finally meeting Jimmy Schementi and talk about dynamic Silverlight! Jimmy had some great insights on his side project called Silverlight on Rails. The concept made my mind explode!!
Tuesday
I had a great time at the product dinner! I sat next to my new MVP Lead, Suzanna Moran, Jason Tillman, Bryan Sampica and Eilon Lipton. We talked about how we define community, and how we can build community and of course, ASP.NET MVC! The fun really begun when Phil Haack and I created the "Butch" an open source drink for the product dinner. The drink for those of you wondering, is 1 part vodka, 1 part ice and 1 part citrus juices (lemon, limes, etc.) and 1 part grenadine. The reason why its called the "Butch" is because it's both pink and manly at the same time since it's made with Beefeater Vodka. Yeah...again, you had to be there!
From there, I had the pleasure of meeting ScottGu! I must say that it was pretty awesome moment (yes, I sound like a little school girl). I thanked him for the work him and his team are doing to pushing out the best content and tools for .net developers. I think the moment where I passed out during the our conversation was when he told me that he reads my blog and really likes the content. The next thing I knew, I was at the Westin lobby standing next to Caleb Jenkins. Totally surreal.
At this time, it's close to 11 PM and the night is just staring. From the Westin lobby, I wonder off to bar/restaurant place called The Palace where I had a few beers with Rob Connery, Steve Harman, Jon Galloway, Dave Donaldson and Rick Strahl. I sat next to Jon and had a great time talking to him about his adventures with Silverlight and developing Video.Show.
Wednesday
By far both of the dynamic language sessions, "Why I Py?" with Harry Pierson and "IronRuby" with John were pretty awesome. After listening to Harry's talk, I should realized that I should give python more of a chance. The only thing that I do not like about python is the requirement to use space as a scope boundary...that's it. I know, I should stop whining and give it a chance. Also, talking with Scott Bellware and Phil Haack about thunking from IronRuby to CLR types was pretty cool.
The attendee party was pretty great too! It was funny to see my wife get up and sing Brown Eyed Girl with Nick's wife. Also, listening to D'Arcy Lussier sing I Touch Myself and Keith Friends in Low Places was pretty awesome too.
Heading Home
Unfortunately, I left on Thursday morning so I was unable to make the rest of the festivities along with the ALT.NET Conference. In all, I had a great time with everyone and look forward to the rest of the year and next year's summit!