Toronto Code Camp 2008

This morning a few of my coworkers and I went to Toronto Code Camp 2008 for .NET.  After getting up at 5am to drive two hours to Toronto (from my home in a suburb of Buffalo, NY) - I was sorely disappointed by the two presentations we went to:

1. Building Workflow Foundation Enabled Windows Communication Foundation Services in .NET 3.5
   
   My first gripe was with the facility - the microphone didn't seem to be working properly, so while the facility staff was working on that, it was fairly distracting.
   
   My second gripe is, the presenter didn't seem to want to be bothered with coming up with his own material, so he simply based it entirely on someone else's presentation (which he states was available as a webcast online.)  Great - then why am I getting up at 5am on a Saturday for this?    He also couldn't manage to get the samples to run well. 
   
2. SOA using WCF & WF
   
   Again, the microphone (in the same room, immediately following the first presentation) would simply randomly start/stop working.  Very annoying and distracting.
   
   This presenter was a much better presenter / speaker than the first, but I came away no smarter (or more informed) than if I had slept in.  I'm far from an expert by any means, but I was looking for some nuggets or gems of wisdom.

I have the following suggestions for organizers of such events:

1. Put in an advanced track for these types of events and start calling the appropriate sessions "Introduction to..." 
   
   Talking about pass by reference vs. pass by value, or explaining what Workflow is, or defining SOA should not be necessary.  If you audience is proactive at keeping up with tech, there's no reason to go over this info.
   
   
2. Provide experience-based wisdom, best practices, trade-offs - books and documentation can more than cover the basics.  If you want to provide real value to the audience, start with a real-world scenario and explain what and why you chose to do it that way.
   

Rather than stick around for the afternoon sessions (given the mediocre morning sessions) and got home a little bit early.  I had high hopes for this mini-conference, especially since it was within driving distance of Buffalo. 

Maybe next time.