What is CascadiaJS?
CascadiaJS is a three-day, community-driven conference on the cutting edge of JavaScript and other front-end tools that takes place in Semiahmoo Resort, a beautiful ocean front resort in Blaine, WA.
When is it?
The conference runs annually in August, and this year the conference took place from August 3rd to August 5th, 2016.
How was it set up?
The event was broken down into 3 different days. Day 1 was CSS Day, Day 2 was Browser Day, and Day 3 was Node.JS Day. Despite the specific topics for each day, it still covered a variety of topics and the conference was catering to front-end developers and the JavaScript community.
The entire event was in one building in a secluded area making it very convenient to find all the sessions and activities. They did a great job putting signs up and arrows to find the workshops and main room, so there weren’t any issues navigating to where we needed to go.
My Favorite Talk?
The strange thing is I’ve never really been a fan of workshops, only because I can’t stand sitting for long periods at a time listening to someone talk, but somehow the workshop I decided to join with my colleague Austin Hyland was a great experience. He gave us several breaks throughout it and broke it into 2 halves: a beginner and an advanced course. The workshop we attended was called, “From Zero to Awesome API-Driven Apps in 9 Easy Steps” by Joe Sepi. He showed everyone how to build an API using Node.JS and StrongLoop and made it very easy to follow along. You can follow along to a similar tutorial found on the StrongLoop developer documents here.
It’s Never Really Over ;-)
When the conference ends after dinner, it’s never really “over” completely. The event never ended through the evening and had a range of activities that kept the conference attendees together, continuing the networking and engagement. My best conversations I’ve had with attendees was during the evening social gatherings. It ranged from a get together at a camp fire, to karaoke events at the swimming pool, to an event full of carnival games winning tickets and prizes. The conference organizers did a great job keeping the whole event full of entertainment and fun, making it well worth every dollar you’d spend helping make this event possible.
Who Doesn’t Like Swag?
One thing I absolutely love to do is giving out free stuff. Who doesn’t like free stuff, right? Thanks to Cisco DevNet for shipping me out a bunch of goodies recently, I was able to bring stuff with me to this event (with permission of course!). One great thing about swag is it makes it easy to open up a conversation with people you don’t know, especially when you are getting to know a brand new open source community. These are some great people I met here at the event who absolutely loved our goodies! Now, maybe next time I should have people trade me their business cards for free stuff, so I can keep in touch with everyone. Only if there was enough time in a day to talk to everyone, right?
Would I Recommend It?
I really like the sponsor booth layout where they take place in front of the entrance to the main room, so there was consistent traffic going in and out throughout each day, keeping the sponsors very busy talking to attendees.
So my answer is yes, yes, yes! I am hoping that we can be a sponsor next year having Cisco DevNet on the sponsor list. hint hint in case anyone from DevNet is reading this. ;-)
I’m hoping my colleague and I will be able to attend next year and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again as well as meeting many new faces!
I <3 the JavaScript Community. :-D