One full week. That's how long it took me to recover from COSSFEST 2009. Mainly because of all the effort that went into setting up the event. The Friday night dinner/karaoke/drink-a-thon didn't help any either.
As one of the planners, I saw the inner workings of the event. I saw a number of things that just fell together right, and a few that didn't work at all. Luckily most of the latter type were not visible to the attendees, and have been identified as issues to address next year.
Where to start... COSSFEST 2009 got underway Friday April 17th at 7:30ish for me. We arrived early to finish up the last of the setup details. A group of us were at the hotel the night before to make sure the base infrastructure was in place - network lines, projectors, sound system, etc. John and I even met Bruce Byfield as he arrived at the hotel. All we had left Friday morning was to put up the signs, set up the registration desk, and coordinate with the speakers and sponsors as they arrived. Then we were into the presentations.
I have to say that if I ever want to see these presentations, I really should opt out of planning the event. It seems that there is very little time for the planners to sit and relax. Unless they are one of the few manning the volunteer room, or sitting at the registration desk. Even then though, there are constant distractions/interruptions as things unfold around us. But this is half the fun anyways - the constant "go" to make things right. Luckily we decided to video tape the presentations this year, so I might get to see those I wanted to see and missed.
The video recording was an adventure in itself. We'll be posting what we have to a publicly accessible location once we've massaged the videos to get rid of the cruft. Watch the COSSFEST website for notice of when the videos go live.
From what I did see of the event on Friday I think it went off very well. The presentations were more or less on time, though there were a few notable exceptions, and most were well attended. I didn't hear any complaints about the topics, speakers, or venue. I did hear some comments about how the walls refused to hold ANYTHING at all - they seemed to repulse tape and tacks/nails were a no-no.
We expected some smaller numbers this year due to the many changes - at a hotel versus educational campus, 2 day event versus 1, business focus instead of/in addition to just community focus, and a paid event. As a planner, I will always want to see more people at the event, but I was happy that my worst nightmare didn't happen. (Presentations with only 2 or 3 people in them...) Well, one of the very first presentations in the morning came close, but that was just a time thing. We seemed to hover around 20 people in each presentation throughout the event.
Friday night we treated the speakers and volunteers (and anyone who showed up really) to a few rounds of drinks. We met at about 7:00pm at Bootleggers for a quick meal and some socializing. At about 9:00 they turned on the karaoke system, and it was all downhill from there. I have an "evidence" folder of this, just in case - my phone camera isn't all that great though and didn't produce much that I could post. Sorry. But this was great fun and I think we may have started a tradition. To see Aaron Seigo over-indulge and try to be on stage singing every chance he got, or a group effort with Aaron, Brad "Renderman" Haines, Simon, Gustin, John, etc. That was worth the few minutes of embarrassment when I was made to go sing (I don't think I'll be invited to do so again - I *did* try to warn them...) and the extra alcoholic lubrication that made the next day a little rough to start with.
Saturday's start was much easier - basically set up what we had already done the day before. It was a little more relaxed in that I had more time to talk with attendees, speakers, and sponsors. Jesse Kline stopped by and I was able to sit with him for about 20 minutes to catch up. (Jesse is an old friend from CLUG, and has been out of town for the past couple years).
Before I knew it though the day was over and we were wrapping up. A group of us did the clean up, tore everything down, packed up, and then went for a quiet meal. We ended up going to a Vietnamese restaurant, where Simon was near dead from exhaustion (his voice WAS dead - too much singing the night before), and most the volunteers were dead tired.
Bruce Byfield wrote an article about his COSSFEST experience. He touched on a number of points but generally had positive things to say.
With all the effort leading up to the event, and the event itself, I slept a lot over the next few days. It took a few more for my brain to slow down enough to get back to normal. But here we are now just past a week since COSSFEST and I think I am finally back to my ususal pre-COSSFEST routine. But we've already started planning for 2010.... More fun in the future..