This past weekend, I had the opportunity to attend the first OpenCamp in Dallas, TX. While I've been to a few of the CMS-focused events - WordCamp Mid-Atlantic, WordCamp NYC, and DrupalConDC - this was my first time at one of the crossover events. In one event, we had some of the best and brightest from each of the communities in one place presenting, talking, drinking, and generally arguing over the intracies of each of their systems and why the other guy was completely wrong.

Alright, I'm kidding.. most people thought everyone else was just mostly wrong.

First, some high points:

This coming year will be my third at SXSW so this time I partnered with Aaron Brazell (@technosailor) to submit a Core Conversation proposal called "Shattering Secrets with Social Media". Here it is:

What are they building? Did he quit or get fired? Who is she dating now?

As helpful as Facebook can be in knowing who is dating who.. does that really help anyone? Is that even interesting? Wouldn't you like to know about the things that *aren't* being talked about? Professionally, how can you look at a "stealth startup" and figure out what they're doing and how they're doing it? How can you learn about their investors, products, and even potential customers? How can you scare the hell out of them for fun and profit? Who are the Connectors? Where are the Mavens flocking? How can the CIA put two and two together to equal terrorist?

It's been a week since tekX completed and there are a number of other tekX writeups to read but I thought I'd share one last one from a different point of view. To add some context, I'm not the guy that signs the contracts, approves the expenses, schedules the sessions, arranges the speakers, or anything useful. Due to other project commitments, I basically served as backup for some of those things and then as social chair for the evening events.

First off, I'm proud of our first time tekX speakers. Easily half of the speakers had never spoken at a tek before, off the top of my head that includes - Bill Karwin, David Strauss, Jason Austin, Josh Holmes, Kanwalijeet Singla, Kristina Chodorow, Matt Schmidt, Matt Turland, Ryan Stewart, Sumit Chawla, and myself. Since tek is the Community Conference and it tends to be incredibly technical, it takes a different mindset than many of the other conferences. Even better, a few of those people were first or second time conference speakers period.

This is incredibly late since tek·X starts in four days, but it's definitely worth noting here. After a headed battle of Rock-Paper-Scissors against Cal Evans and Marco Tabini, I finally lost. While I thought we were deciding who was going to pay for dinner, it turns out the stakes were a bit lot higher.

It turns out that I will be Live Coding for two back to back sessions at tek.

You don't believe me? Well, here's the description:

As many do this time of year, I'm taking a few moments to review last years' goals and set new ones for this year. I don't do this lightly. I simply share them here as a form of public accountability. Without further ado...