Allen Lew's Thoughts » Conferences

I’m going to DrupalCampLA 2008

Allen Lew — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 20:05:31 +0000

So I didn’t make it Wordcamp this year, but instead, I’m going to a local conference for my second favorite content management system, Drupal. Drupal Camp LA is going to be big this year, with a new venue at the Los Angeles Convention Center. That is very impressive for a community open-source project. I’m currently using Drupal for an internal Urban League project and plan on using for a couple of other web sites.

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Craigslist Bootcamp 2007 in Berkeley

Allen Lew — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 15:40:27 +0000

My previous boss in Berkeley, Sylvia, introduced me to the nonprofit scene in the Bay Area, taking me to 501 Tech Clubs from NTEN and the Craigslist Foundation. I enjoyed this scene, so I made it a priority to come back to Berkeley for the Craigslist Foundation’s 2007 Nonprofit Bootcamp. It’s a fantastic conference with tips on starting a nonprofit, marketing it, and much more.

At first, I didn’t realize how Bay Area oriented the conference would be, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised as nonprofits generally have tight budgets for travel. This made it a bit harder for me to network with other conference attendees, as I wouldn’t really get a chance to see them in the future. However, I did spend a lot of time talking to the salesmen in the sponsored areas. Obviously, they were trying to sell me their services, but I still enjoyed talking to them and the services they provided. In particular, I liked discussing with NPO Orbit about Salesforce customization, TriNet about HR outsourcing, and Mobilecause about getting the nonprofit mobile services. These are all services that would seemingly work with any nonprofit, and though I haven’t worked with them yet, they all look promising.

So all in all a good conference. Sadly no pictures. I’ve heard there was a possibility of a Los Angeles area bootcamp; I’m up for joy with that thought.

What I saw at Wordcamp 2007

Allen Lew — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 22:38:48 +0000

The Wordcamp conference has come and gone (I know it was a couple of weeks ago and I just now blogged about it) and all I can say is I had a blast. It was nice to be able to meet the faces behind some of the blogs I follow like who this Matt guy who created WordPress or that Lorelle who gives so many tips are anyway. Thanks to my employers, Los Angeles Urban League, for paying the accommodation and travel fees.

There were a number of great speakers. One session I liked in particular was the one by John Dvorak and Om Malik who talked about blogs and journalism (that talk can be seen on One Man’s Blog). I also liked the panel (and hanging out a little) with Jeremy Wright of b5media, who talked about blog monetization through finding your niche. Other great sessions include the Designing Massively Multiplayer Social Systems (her slides) and the Usability Analysis of WP, both of which got me to think a lot about the design of my own projects.

I met some very great people there like Enric Teller, Naoko McCracken, and Micah Johnson. Also many thanks to George Yang, who helped me with the pictures below of me with some prominent bloggers. I will be looking forward to attending Wordcamp next year.

Me with John Dvorak

Me with the IcanhasCheezburger staff. They was sitting a few seats from me.

I’m going to WordCamp 2007

Allen Lew — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 06:22:18 +0000

Thanks to my job at Urban League, I’ll be headed up north to San Francisco for the Wordcamp 2007 conference. Looks like it will feature a number of great speakers on the schedule. I won’t be liveblogging, but hopefully I’ll have a recap when I return.

More thoughts on MacWorld

Allen Lew — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 21:03:07 +0000

Photoshop CS3 looks really cool. The perspective grid looks amazing. By far that was the best conference I attended.
Most of the conferences I wanted to go to were really full, which really sucks. Hope that means they’re good.
I’m tempted to buy the disk for the conferences I missed from Macworld Encore. At $99, it maybe a better value than the conference itself.

Blogging from MacWorld

Allen Lew — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 18:51:14 +0000

My job as Computer Resource Specialist for the College Writing Programs of Berkeley has me blogging from the MacWorld Expo. I’m at the great Microsoft Blogging Lounge typing away. I must say I’ve learned a few things from the consultants that I haven’t been able to figure out, which was great. I also saw a great show by David Pogue of the New York Times and ran into a few friends I didn’t expect to see. However, I’ve already missed a couple of the fun things like the Steve Jobs Keynote and the Q & A with Kevin Smith. Now I’m off to the User Conferences.