Well, a) it's been a helluva looong time since I made a blog post, well a public one anyways and b) I'm going to try and do better so...
It was almost a year ago that I announced on here that I had the pleasure and privilege of being on the CAB for SotR (www.sotr.eu) 2013 edition. This was an awesome experience, sure it was a ton of work, but it all seemed to be just enough distraction from client work that it was enjoyable. Plus, I really liked my first/last Scotch Experience, and wanted to help out in any way that I could.
Anyways, so the years worth of work culminated last week at the actual conference. I flew into Edinburgh on Tuesday, so that I had lots of time to help set-up and make ready the hotel. The hotel was lovely, I was quite happy with it once I had had the tour and looked at the set-up. The rooms were all a good size and the smallest room was quite a bit larger than the smallest at SotR11. We (Andy, Leanne and I) talked with the Hotel about the timing of all the services etc. very cool be involved in all of that.
We then started packing the Speaker gift packs... which I was so happy to hear that all the speakers enjoyed... The box was a bit small and the Glenfidditch a bit big, so some of them were 'difficult' to close, but well worth the effort. Wednesday was spent in similar preparation, packing 200 attendee 'grab bags' who knew that mugs would be so popular this year?
The CAB all got together for the first time on Wednesday to go over a few things, and make sure we were all on the same page. Matt Gifford and I were set to do registration, somehow it turned into a competition, which I lost (due to Matt's voraciousness - checking in delegates in the bar, or as they walked into the hotel...) And so began SotR13!
Thursday morning brought more registration fun as we checked in the remaining delegates before the Welcome and Keynote. Time sort of started to accelerate at this time, and I don't really know what happened, but it was suddenly lunch, I grabbed some of whatever was left, as I wasn't there when they started serving, the food was good (what I had at least).
The afternoon blurred on, until the final session of the Day with Bruce (I attended a session or two, and I know I gained a lot from them, and have some follow up tasks, but I would have to look at my notes to see who/what and where!). His session was quite good, well paced, funny and an excellent way to deliver his message. I (as an organizer and attendee) really enjoyed his talk.
Day turned to night, the Open CFML BOF was missed (by me) due to me wanting to eat!, the Lightening talks were good, well attended near the end... because of the Open Bar. The magician who walked around during the Open Bar period was quite good, and then Ben Nadel showed up, well a replica anyways. Pictures and fun were had by all with Ben, but he didn't stop there...
Friday morning was excellent with a slightly later start, however it seemed that sleep wasn't my thing this year, I think I averaged about 5 hours a night (and I am still recovering). The sessions were once again excellent, speakers on a broad range of interesting topics. I attended a few more sessions, and my list of investigative requirements grew (look out Angular JS, I will learn you! and Rails too!) The sessions ended with a wrapup from Andy, and suddenly the conference was over.
We as a CAB had a quick wrap up meeting, where we all resigned. This was the most democratic way to end the CAB, but I'll be applying to help with SotR14! Cause it was just too much fun.
The fun continued into the evening, #NotBen had a reappearance, and many many pictures were taken... and one video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsAbPTI0N8g
That's all for me! Looking forward to blogging more and keeping in touch with all the great folks I met at this years Scotch on the Rocks!
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