CZJUG evolves — Workshops and code camps

Yesterday was the April meeting (slides) of CZJUG. There are two more meetings before the summer break, as you surely know. I’d like to share some ideas about where CZJUG might go next, ideas that Roumen and I have been discussing, largely in response to your feedback.

We’ve probably sorted out the problems recording the meetings. That’s encouraging, especially for those who can’t attend in person. Many of you want more practical examples in the talks. We’ll try to give you those and use them to take CZJUG a step further.

Workshops, code camps and other hands-on activities

Our meetings have a fixed amount of time, but we’d like to try a workshop and a code camp. Both are primarily practical and directly involve the participants.

• A workshop is a practical exercise on a specific topic, such as JPA. Participants write code from an assignment under an instructor’s guidance. The idea is to get hands-on experience with the technology.
• A code camp covers a broad area such as J2EE, with no single topic or instructor. Everyone works on their own application, which can be different for each participant. If someone has a problem, a question or something to discuss, they share it and work through it with the others.

These are just ideas for now, but we’d probably combine a workshop and a code camp into about half a day. That means we’d most likely hold it on a weekend. We’d like to keep admission free, depending on whether we can arrange support.

The main thing we need is a venue big enough for the event. Every participant needs a laptop and a power outlet. Let’s face it, sitting on the floor with a laptop in your lap wouldn’t be ideal. Some light refreshments would be welcome too. All of that points to a need for sponsorship, either directly in money or through a venue, refreshments, a speaker or an instructor.

We’d like to hear in the comments or on the CZJUG mailing list whether you’re interested in any kind of workshop or code camp and what you think of the idea. If your company would like to support an event like this, please get in touch.