The Twin Cities Code Camp was the first programming conference I attended. I was just a freshman in high school, yet it was invigorating to get to share time with such a large group of folks in this industry. I attended for several years, then stopped as I moved to Iowa City for university, then I attended again until COVID. At its peak they had hundreds of attendees, the conference spanned the entire weekend, and they were organizing both spring and fall events. It was as though the entire software engineering industry in the Twin Cities would turn up for these events.

I learned an incredible amount at these conferences, and I give them a fair amount of credit for a lot of foundational ideas I hold. It was through a simple talk on the Sprache library that I ended up developing an interest in programming language theory. A simple talk on the then-new Windows Phone led me to write a lot of apps for the platform when it launched (famously Windows Phone now has a near-monopoly on mobile devices). It was my primary in-person source for learning about all the brand new emerging platforms, like GitHub!

Above all I enjoyed the time I got to spend with people there, and the folks I was introduced to at those events. But, all good things come to an end, and understandably the organizers of the conference have decided to discontinue it. They have my gratitude for having organized it for as long as they did.

So what now? Since COVID the feeling of the industry seems to have gone through an entire shift; longstanding conferences seem to be falling by the wayside. I'm going to be looking into starting a local meetup group in downtown Minneapolis. Get in touch with me if that sounds interesting. If you don't know what a "code camp" is - or if you are interested in organizing one - read the code camp manifesto.

Farewell, Twin Cities Code Camp!