A Week in August

 Conference, Food and Wine, Technology, Vancouver  No Responses »
Jul 242008
 

It seems that August is conference season, at least for me. More precisely, one week in August. First Balisage in Montréal (for which the online registration is closing next Friday) August 12-15, and then Vinocamp here in Vancouver, at the UBC Botanical Garden, on August 16th. I’m speaking at the former, and helping organise the latter (for which numbers are limited to 120, so don’t wait too long to register). The premise for Vinocamp is a friendly conference about wine, put on by a bunch of techies; this is its first year. Both conferences should be fun! Entertaining as well as educational, and a certain amount of good food and wine in both locations. I can certainly think of worse ways to spend a week in August.

Montréal in August

 Conference, Crafts  No Responses »
May 272008
 

Summer wouldn’t be summer without a summer conference or two. There’s something about walking the streets or sitting in cafes, talking about technology, in balmy weather (well, when it doesn’t rain like it did at last year’s CSW XML Summer School in Oxford). This year I’m off to Montréal for Balisage in the middle of August. Even if the weather decides to be nasty, and the streets are too unpleasant to stroll, there will be lots of interesting people to talk technology with and cafes near the conference hotel to frequent. If you missed the deadline to speak, there’s no need to panic just yet. There is still room on the schedule for late-breaking talks as long as you get your proposal in by June 13. I was one of the reviewers of the main batch of talks so I got a sneak peek at some of the submissions. There is thought-provoking stuff on the program and I expect lots of hefty discussion, at the talks and in the cafes afterwards. Warm weather, interesting people, good food – I guess I should brush up on my French a little for those restaurants.

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