Tomorrow is the first day to the annual CodeMash conference in Sandusky, OH.  Billed as the finest software conference in an indoor water park, CodeMash is a great way to learn about .Net, Java, Ruby, Python and a host of other technologies.

For me, however, CodeMash marks the beginning of a year of community involvement.

In January 2008, I had recently changed jobs.  After almost a decade with the same company, I left to reduce travel and spend more time with my family.  My prior employer was a good company, but it was difficult for me to get involved in the development community because

1. Constant travel kept me from attending local user groups.
2. Constant travel made it difficult to meet developers near my home.
3. The company had a culture with a strong internal community, so most employees didn't need to seek that from the outside.
4. I didn't know what I was missing.
5. I didn't know how to get involved in the community.

As it turned out, my new employer was (and is) very active in the software development community - a major reason I was drawn to them.  Several of them were on the board at CodeMash and many spoke at the conference; In fact, employees of my new overlords frequently spoke at, ran and organized conferences and user groups across the Midwest. 

I ended up meeting a lot of my new co-workers for the first time at CodeMash.

I also met a lot of other folks in the development community - many of them from Michigan.  It was a great experience because I had a chance to exchange ideas with a lot of smart people and to see how they share their knowledge.  I'm still humbled by the lengths to which some of these people go to contribute to the community.

Meeting so many bright people who were anxious to share ideas was an inspiration to me.  IN the months following CodeMash, I became far more involved in two local user groups; I developed and delivered talks to a variety of audiences, including 3 different user groups, a conference and a couple Microsoft events; I created an account on Twitter and used this medium to exchange ideas and pleasantries with a number of people; I used LinkedIn to connect with people and, inspired by Jeff Blankenburg's Contribupendence Day, I recommendations with bright people I know.

At this year's CodeMash, I expect to meet more bright people and I expect to be inspired by them.  But I also expect to meet up with those who inspired me last year.