"Local" Software Development Conferences

Question

There are several big .NET development conferences, such as VSLive, DevConnections, SD West, etc., but I am finding a lot of value in some of the smaller scale local conferences that have been cropping up over the last few years. I have enjoyed some of the smaller conferences such as devLink (http://www.devlink.net, Nashville, TN), CodeStock (http://www.codestock.org, Knoxville, TN), and CodeMash (http://www.codemash.org, Sandusky, OH). These conferences are considerably less expensive ($100 or less), and last just 2-3 days and are (arguable) suited better for people who aren't interested in traveling to attend the conference. Note that these are general .NET developer conferences, not marketing-driven MSDN one-day events or tightly scoped training events.

What other "local" conferences are going on around the country?

Answer 1

There is Joel's The Business of Software 2009 conference in San Francisco.

Answer 2

I've been to devLink three years running now, and I've found it adequate. Not as good as DevConnections in many ways but better than DevConnections in many others. I can't compare to SD West, as I've never been. :(

Last year's devLink was frankly terrible but the previous two were decent. I blame the move to a different location for that, however; it wasn't the content so much as the organization. In fact, the star (of the sessions I attended) was the F# talk given by Ted Neward and Amanda Laucher, which was amazing... very great presentation, great information, great session all round.

So I have high hopes for this year's devLink. They're back at the old location, so maybe it'll work out. Some of the sessions certainly look interesting. Alas, it looks like neither Ted nor Amanda will attend.

Answer 3

The county? That's very US centric of you.

For example DDD Belfast was last Saturday (I'm one of the organisers), there's WebDD in two weeks, DDD Scotland next month and others throughout the UK. And DDD events are free.

Then of course there are numerous barcamps (all over the show, UK, US, Ireland, Canada etc.), various alt.net outings with the same sort of scope and so on.

Answer 4

Check out Community Megaphone