Waxing Lyrical

Well I finally found a moment to myself and the energy to blog! Scotch on the Rocks is well over now, but I didn't want to let it go without a post as it was without doubt the best conference I've ever been to.

I had an absolute ball in Edinburgh - the conference itself is as has been mentioned very casual, and as such has a brilliant atmosphere, which I think was a large part of the reason we had such good BoF sessions where everyone joined in, junior and well known developers.

Three days packed full of fun, excellent talks from the intro to the advanced, and some seriously good times catching up, networking and drinking with people from the community. Andy Allan, Big Mad Kev and Stephen Moretti did a brilliant job of managing the event, and were a lot of fun to get to know, not to mention Andy's lovely and talented wife Leanne, who also had a large hand in the organizing, and was a very gracious hostess :)

Edinburgh is my favourite city in the world, and it is a fantastic place for a conference. The nature of the setup, plus the type of people the conference attracts made for an amazing junket of learning, sharing and getting to know the community. I met all kinds of people, made some good business contacts and I think made a few new friends as well - and as always it's nice to be able to catch up in person with those on our IM contacts list whom we only see once or twice a year.

If you didn't make it to Scotch, I would seriously recommend putting the money aside for next year. Not only is it an absolute blast but it's a serious investment in your development education and can greatly expand your personal network within the industry. The conference itself could have cost three or four times as much and it would have been worth every penny - I came from Australia and stayed in town for a fortnight and my only regret is that I have to wait another year to do it again!

Congratulations on a brilliant event Andy et al, and thank you very much for an enlightening and hugely fun three days.