RunRevLive.12 Atlantic City
The highs, lows and outright triumphs of this year's RunRev Conference

By Heather Nagey

It's all over and we're back at our desks, catching up on everything that happened while we were away. I have to say, this year was perhaps the best yet for me, I really enjoyed this conference. It was certainly eventful including as it did a tropical storm that knocked out all the electricity and internet.

Jo Hernandez, directing traffic to the conference suite in the very large and maze like hotel venue

Highs
As always, the best part of the conference for me was meeting you guys. Chatting with you, hearing about your lives, your work, and how you use LiveCode, is just fascinating. During the "Take on the Team" night,I raised a glass with Larry, who promised to send me info about his automated chicken run door (still waiting Larry ;))

Larry Walker and me

I was soundly thrashed at ping pong by Bjoernke Von Gierke and at table football and air hockey by several other attendees (you know who you are!), but had a minor triumph at the card table - I pursuaded Peter Thirkell (all the way from New Zealand, kudos Peter) Bjoernke and Elanor to play 500 by my rules. I assure you, I wasn't making them up as I went along. Truly. It just looked that way. My one win of the night.

Colin Holgate (right) turns out to be a whizz at pool, though Bjoernke (left) isn't bad either

It wasn't all play of course, a lot of serious work was done during the day, and one of the triumphs of this year's conference were definitely the one-to-one sessions. The code kitchen room was packed throughout the conference, and the developer team members who were giving the one-to-one sessions were pretty much solidly booked for the entire 4 days. I'd like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank-you to our guys here. David Williams, Michael McCreary, Steve Thomas, Ian McPhail, you were all outstanding, and so many of the attendees you worked with came up to me afterwards to say how much you'd helped them - well done. Mark Waddingham and Ben Beaumont also gave some one to one mentoring, hugely appreciated by the recipients.

The Code Kitchen room, from left to right: David Williams, James Wall, Thomas McGrath III, Ben Beaumont, Tereza Snyder and Mark Waddingham

In fact Steve found that attendees were stalking him in the bar afterwards, still hungry for design tips.

Steve in his natural environment

The evening boat trip around the harbour in Atlantic City was another high point.

Embarking on the boat

It was reassuring to learn that Scott Brand is ex-navy when he took over steering the boat. Possibly less reassuring was Andre Garzia's offer to take us all the way to Brazil.

A safe pair of hands? Kevin Miller takes over the helm

A wonderful evening

Everyone seemed to have a great time on this trip, well done to Jo for organizing it for us.

Feedback on the quality of the sessions this year was overall excellent. Here are just some of the things a few of you said:

"Excellent conference. Good selection of session topics that were well presented." Jim Netrin

"The code kitchen, the panels, the folks from RunRev…really made this an event to remember for me. The community is absolutely fantastic. Getting answers to code problems. Getting honest answers to what I could do better in my coding and design was invaluable. Having access to all levels of RunRev is what I will remember about this conference." Thomas McGrath III

"Learned so much, met great people. Was my first conference. Hope to come every year!" Robert Glassman

"It was a lovely venue and I was pleased to see a serious education component. RunRev staff were all very helpful throughout the event. The evening scheduled events were also very thoughtfully done. I was also very pleased with the provision of materials used in the presentations and by the PDFs that were made available." Judy Perry

If you weren't there and you'd like to see the sessions yourself, you can still purchase access via the Simulcast recordings, or order a DVD of the event.

We were very fortunate with the weather at this event.The major thunderstorm and mini tornado hit the night after it had finished. Although the power and internet in the entire surrounding area were knocked out for several days, the thought of how much worse it could have been consoled the RunRev staff remaining at the hotel. The thought of all you fine folk wandering around a darkened hotel, cut off from internet, phonelines and worst of all, coffee, was too dreadful to contemplate. Happily this did not occur, and I personally cannot wait for the next conference.

We are at the moment deciding where this should be held, and if you'd like to have our say, please visit our survey and register your vote.

About the Author Heather Nagey is Customer Services Manager for RunRev Ltd.