Developer Day Austin wrapup

It's been a few days since we wrapped up Developer Day Austin, and I'm only now able to catch my breath – a few snowmageddon- and planning-related incidents combined to keep me pretty busy over the weekend and this week. In a lot of ways, Austin reminded me of the very first Developer Day, back in March of last year. Some of the lessons in logisitics that we learned at that first event, in particular, were significantly reinforced by our experiences in Austin. Despite a few hiccups, however, the event as a whole went over well. I think we were able to bring together at least a few people who don't often meet up – front-end developers and Rubyists, with a few Pythonists and others in the mix. Our lineup of talks was front-end heavy this go-round, and that was interesting; I thought Kyle Simpson and Alex Sexton did a great job bringing the JavaScript thunder, for instance, and I'm encouraged to bring in more front-end talks at future events (especially because JavaScript is almost a lingua franca for web developers at this point). Unfortunately, I had to leave midway through the day (the aforementioned snowmageddon incident), so I missed Aaron Bedra, Eitan Suez, and Bruce Tate, each of whom I was excited to see. And a few words about Austin... first, Austin is clearly Gowalla territory. Stepping off the plane, I was struck by how many featured spots there were, and it made bopping from place to place a lot of fun. Second, it was much colder than I expected. If I thought I underdressed for Boulder last year, it was nothing compared to the mismatch of expectations that Austin (and Dallas, on the way back) triggered. Anyways, I think Austin provided a good start for the 2010 Developer Day season, and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the series – speaking of which, the next event is February 27th in Durham, NC, so if you're anywhere nearby register today!