Here are some more pictures from Tampa Code Camp 2022, along with some best practices that I saw at the event, which took place last Saturday, October 8th.
Want to see the full set of photos? They’re in the Photos section of Tampa Code Camp 2022’s Meetup page.
Make sure you see the previous article, Scenes from #TampaCC / Tampa CodeCamp 2022.
Try to get a group shot with all the presenters.
It’s just nice to have, and it helps make a record of the event more complete. The photo above is the post-Code Camp group photo featuring all the presenters, including Yours Truly and Anitra.
Get a venue with a big, bright gathering space.
I may have mentioned earlier that Keiser University’s Tampa campus has a great atrium lobby that makes a fantastic entry space for a conference. Thanks again to Keiser for providing us with such a nice venue!
Provide lunch at the venue if possible.
Providing lunch makes the event affordable to attendees in every economic situation, and it also keeps the attendees in one place, where they can literally break bread with each other and socialize, making the group more cohesive.
Even better, when people don’t have to go offsite to get lunch, they’re less likely to be late when the afternoon presentations start.
Have a great speaker dinner.
If the budget allows, have a dinner where the speakers and organizers get together and get acquainted (and especially this year, get re-acquainted). It helps to set a great tone for the event.
Here are some photos from the speaker dinner that took place the night before — thanks to Tampa Joe’s for giving us food, drinks, and a lovely patio on which to enjoy them!
Bring an accordion.
Because if you don’t, who will?
Have raffles if you’re an organizer or sponsor; enter the raffles and stick around for prizes if you’re an attendee!
Raffles are a great way to draw people to a conference and encourage people to interact with sponsors. If you hold the draw at the end of the conference and especially if you require the winner to be present (I know this isn’t always possible or applicable), you can encourage attendees to stick around for the full day.
Many people at conferences often decided that they’ll fill out the necessary forms or do the necessary legwork to enter a raffle “later,” and as with so many things in life, “later” often turns into “never.”
As a result, your odds of winning a prize at conferences, especially local ones, are often quite good. My general rule is to always enter the raffle — and if you read to the end of this section, you’ll see why it’s a general rule of mine!
Algorand, represented by Russ Fustino, a long-time regular in Tampa’s tech scene, provided a $100 Amazon girt certificate, which was won by Kelvin McDaniel, also a long-time regular in Tampa’s tech scene:
Pomeroy provided a Meta Quest 2 VR rig as one of the prizes, which Roger Hale won. I suggested that he definitely make sure to give Beat Saber a try, especially since it’s now free when you get a Quest, and it’s a fun way to dip your toes into VR:
Webonology also provided a great prize: an Xbox Series X, which got taken home by…
…me! Here’s Greg (who’s also Webonology’s CEO) and me with this sweet, sweet gaming console.
And yes, while you can download games from home now, and while we’ve got gigabit fiber at home, the download/install process is still slow, especially for games for current-generation consoles. So we made a beeline for Gamestop, and I picked up Elden Ring, where my character needs to do a lot of leveling up.
Thank you so much, Tampa Code Camp!
