CodeMash 2.0.0.8 has come and gone. As a behind-the-scenes participant, it was exhausting! But, like every other conference that I've participated in, most of the hard work is in the planning: once the event starts, it already has enough momentum to carry it through to the end, and all that we had to do was give it a nudge or two along the way.
Most folks have already recognized the main organizers, so I won't belabor that point. I will, however, point out some of the vendors that I personally worked with as part of this event - each one receiving my endorsement.
First, there's the T-shirts. For the second year running, we utilized the services of Wade Manley of Great Lakes Logo to produce the shirts that the attendees received. (The Day of .NET in Ann Arbor also uses GLL for its shirts). Wade does an excellent job of taking artwork and converting it to ink-on-a-shirt.
And, I can't speak about this year's shirt without mentioning the guy behind the design on the back: Scott Zischerk. Scott is a very technical resource with a great eye for design. He's an active part of the Ann Arbor .NET Developers group, and also served as the webmaster/designer for Day of .NET in Ann Arbor conference. Not only did he come up with the design that you see on the back of this year's CodeMash shirt, but also three additional designs that we could have used (perhaps the "Palm Tree" design will be used next year, Scott. ;-)
And finally, another vendor that I am very pleased with (and who we also utilized for the second year because of their excellent service) is Maumee Quickprint, Inc. of Maumee, Ohio (419.893.4321). Producing this year's conference guide was simply a matter of emailing Jennifer with a high-resolution PDF, some instructions about which pages to print in color, and what type of paper to use, and then picking up the boxload a few days later. Everything was nicely stapled and trimmed and ready to hand out at the event. We couldn't have been happier knowing that the job was in capable hands.
I hope that everyone who attended enjoyed themselves, and will encourage others to attend next year. And I hope that the out-of-town speakers felt welcomed enough to participate again in the future!