ConFigures

Penguicon 2011

I enjoyed what I got to do at Penguicon this year (this weekend just past), including

Technical:

• Giving a technical presentation: There were about 12 attendees for my Continuous Integration talk Sunday morning (see description in comments). There were a few sysadmin types; most were developers, most from small shops. This topic is tied in with a lot of my configuration management interests, and I was glad to get a chance to talk about it. Thanks to the audience for listening and asking questions!
• Attending technical talks. I want to do more of this next year, somehow (hard to fit it all in). Went to the DevOps talk (I was surprised to be the ONLY woman out of about 45 attendees) and part of Automating Amazon EC2 with Puppet & Friends (sad the latter was delayed for 15 minutes, as that’s the one I knew less about, but couldn’t stay much longer, after it finally started). Thanks to Penguicon staff/volunteers for setting up so technical presentations went smoothly (mine and those I attended).

Non-technical:

• Making Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream:  I made some batches all by myself, for the first time!  I think I have developed a good sense of proportions for ingredients.  People loved some of the flavors I came up with (see the Penguicon 2011 flavors in comments). Thanks to the helpful people (tweeting flavor suggestions, holding the buckets, stirring, mashing up sage, even making a few batches).  Thanks to Con Suite volunteers for helping us w’ supplies management and all.  Thanks to everyone who enjoyed the ice cream! Next year we’re going to request 2-hour blocks be put in the schedule officially for LN2, so we have sufficient time for batch-mixing and cleanup. We have other ideas to make it even better next year, too (may announce later after we’ve done more planning).
• Co-teaching Learn to Swing Dance! There were about 40 people, some who were completely new to swing dance (most had done at least some sort of dance). We got almost an hour and a half to impart what we knew about leading and following swing dance, and teach some basic moves, to a variety of musical styles. We were so happy to see people picking it up and having fun. Biggest compliment after: one couple asked if we taught locally! Another person asked which local dances we went to! They wanted MORE! What a thrill! Someone also made a point of giving us a shout-out during the con feedback session on Sunday afternoon. Thanks for letting us know you enjoyed it. Big thanks to Ops and Aaron Thul, who saved our bacon and fixed laptop-to-sound-system (cable) for us on short notice (first time teaching swing dance, didn’t realize we needed to specify that).

Over 1200 people attended Penguicon 2011.  Next year, bigger hotel!  I understand Penguicon 2012 will be in Dearborn, MI.