Confused?  Don't be!  I will explain!

Some of you E-mailed after my last posting asking one of three questions:

• why I hadn't been liveblogging DevTeach 2007 as I had done with Edmonton Code Camp 2006 and the previous two Calgary Code Camps
• where I was hiding during DevTeach 2007, since I was nowhere to be found
• whether wearing a baseball cap and baggy pants backwards gives a white man in his 20s-30s "street cred"
  

This last one was only asked by one person, so I will tell Tim Hibbard directly that the answer is no.

As for the answer to the first two, get ready, as this is a bitter pill to swallow.

I actually was not liveblogging DevTeach 2007 because I was not actually *at* DevTeach 2007. 


I know - you are shocked, concerned, panicked, possibly hysterical.  For what reason would I have missed what has been pimped out as the premier Canadian development conference of the year?  Well, my friends, the answer is conspiracy.  A conspiracy against *what*, I cannot tell you, but a conspiracy nonetheless.  However, the disillusionment doesn't stop there.  Contrary to what you may have thought, I am far from the only person in North America who did not go to DevTeach 2007; George Clingerman and D'Arcy Lussier were not there either.  That's right, the Rat Pack of the software development world was not at DevTeach 2007 *at all*. 

Don't let people fool you when they give you their conjectures and rumors as to why we couldn't be there.  When you have to tell your friends, your parents, your illicit lovers about why Justice Gray wasn't at DevTeach 2007, don't say "conflicting commitments", "other pressing travel the month following", or "intense negotiations".  Those are lies.  Tell them that sinister forces are afoot; do this and know that you are helping to spread the *truth* about my inability to attend.

I've tried to come to some completely unbiased and almost scientific conclusions about whether DevTeach 2007 was a worthy conference.  From what I have been able to gather from blogs and other anecdotes, I missed the following things at the conference:

• great technical presentations
• fantastic learning experiences
• amazing networking
• Donald Belcham throwing himself aimlessly at any woman with a pulse

Now, I'm sure for you Montrealers this was a big deal, but as a native Edmontonian I can tell you that I watch Donald throw himself at women almost every single weekend, so this is really nothing new.  So we have three *minor* plusses that are dramatically outweighed by the gigantic minus:

• Justice Gray not in attendance

What we've learned from this exercise is that if Justice Gray is not seen at your conference, you don't have a conference.  It is with this I can safely declare that DevTeach 2007 sucked.  Am I trying to rationalize not attending?  Absolutely.  But let's move on to a conference that we know is well worth your time and money.  Yes, the conference that is *truly* going to change the software development landscape for ALL TIME...

DevTeach 2007!!!

What?

Yes, that's right.  DevTeach is happening *again* this year, but with two notable differences from the DevTeach that just concluded:

• it will be in Vancouver, the greatest city in North America (as detailed previously on this blog)
• yours truly will be there

What does this mean for you?  It means that if anything, DevTeach 2007 just got a hell of a lot sexier, and that's just from my showing up, let alone presenting!!  Before the developer world has a collective orgasm, I should clarify that I have not been selected to present on *anything* at DevTeach 2007, though I certainly have demonstrated that I have an *arsenal* of potential topics to choose from.  However, the biggest limiting belief about DevTeach is that you have be selected by committee to present!  Hardly!  You don't need *anyone's* approval - just walk into someone else's room during *their* talk and start your own birds of a feather session while they're talking!!  That's what I'll be doing at least once a day during this conference!

DevTeach 2007 - register early, and register *often*!!  This might be your only chance to see oozing machismo in action!!!