Programmer Musings

On-site at YAPC::NA 2007

As a short break from my normal programming oriented blog entries, I figured I should comment about YAPC::NA 2007 which we (Houston.pm) are hosting. The conference is currently running (June 25 - 27) at University of Houston, Central Campus.

Eight-ish months ago, Jeremy Fluhmann talked us into putting in a bid for YAPC. Despite quite a bit of work it has turned into an amazing learning experience, even before the conference started.

As you might be able to tell from my site, I'm a stereotypical programmer-type. In the process of preparing for the conference, I had to work to learn to deal with people much better than I normally do. It is a lot of work. There were stressful situations. Things went wrong. Things went right. We were stretched and we learned. On top of everything, I had a real chance to meet and work with people just outside my normal comfort zone.

If you ever get an opportunity to run a conference or help organize a conference, I would highly recommend taking that opportunity. If you are like me, you will find this to be much different than you expect and a really good opportunity to work on skills that you may not normally exercise.