Spark Conference

2016 Spark Conference Update

Posted on April 25, 2016May 7, 2016 by Mark A. Wilson

We’ve had several inquiries about when we will be hosting the 2016 Spark Conference. We regret to announce that we are not holding the conference this year, due to scheduling problems with our preferred location. By the time we realized that scheduling was an issue, we couldn’t line up our old location at CPCC’s Levine Campus either. We hope to hold the Spark Conference in 2017 and will provide another update soon.

Announcing the 2015 Spark Conference Speakers and Sessions

Posted on May 23, 2015May 24, 2015 by Mark A. Wilson

Announcing the 2015 Spark Conference Speakers and Sessions!

Perhaps some of you have been holding out on getting your tickets until you have an opportunity to review the final list of sessions. Well, it’s time to stop procrastinating! Block part of your holiday weekend off to give yourself time to check out all the speakers who will be presenting next month.

Visit the conference website at www.sparkconf.org for all the details. You will find a list of the speakers and sessions. You can also download a PDF version of our complete schedule. We think you will agree that we have a pretty amazing lineup of sessions scheduled.

And if you are someone who has put off getting your tickets, you had better hurry! Well over half of the tickets available are already gone. And tickets always go very fast the week following this announcement. Don’t wait any longer!

Join us for the 2015 Spark Conference on Saturday, June 6, at the UNC Charlotte Center City campus in uptown Charlotte, NC. Connect with up to 600 members of the regional developer community. Thoughts will be sparked. Questions will be answered. And fun will be had. To reserve your place at this premier, must-attend event for technology enthusiasts in the South Atlantic region, please visit www.sparkconf.org.

We Love Our Sponsors

This conference would not be possible without the support of our sponsors. For that, we love our sponsors. Please take few moments to thank them for their support. Let them know that we appreciate their contributions. To learn more about becoming a sponsor of this incredible networking opportunity, please visit www.sparkconf.org/sponsor.

Register Now for Spark Conference

Posted on May 11, 2015May 24, 2015 by Mark A. Wilson

Register Now for Spark Conference

Join us for the 2015 Spark Conference on Saturday, June 6, at the UNC Charlotte Center City campus in uptown Charlotte, NC. Connect with up to 600 members of the regional developer community. Thoughts will be sparked. Questions will be answered. And fun will be had. To learn more about this premier, must-attend event for technology enthusiasts in the South Atlantic region, please visit www.sparkconf.org.

We Love Our Sponsors

When is the next Carolina Code Camp?

Posted on April 15, 2015April 20, 2015 by Mark A. Wilson

The Enterprise Developers Guild hosted the first code camp in Charlotte, NC on Saturday, April 30, 2005. When asked what spurred the camp’s creation, Bill Jones, Co-Founder of the Guild stated, “We saw a lot of change coming and no easy way for contract developers to get training.” The daylong event was the first of its kind locally. Mark Wilson, the Guild’s First Vice President, described it as having “more than 20 hours of hard-hitting technical content.”

As the program evolved, user groups from around the region took interest. This prompted the name change from Charlotte Code Camp to Carolina Code Camp. With the added diversification, the Enterprise Developers Guild had created one of the most influential training platforms for IT talent in the Carolinas.

Since its pilot, the trademark event experienced monumental growth. The initial event only had around 100 in attendance. Last year, almost 400 attended with many more on a wait list. The amount of content also grew with a total of 60 hours of training offered last year. Additionally, the agenda has seen many upgrades. Attendees have enjoyed the integration of hands-on labs and informal “Chalk Talks” hosted by Microsoft MVPs, authors, and of course, local developers.

Over the course of ten years, the Enterprise Developers Guild hosted a total of 14 events. While no one kept official statistics, it’s safe to say thousands of attendees across the region have benefited from hundreds of hours of training. But despite the overwhelming success of the event, the 2014 Carolina Code Camp was the last one.

What happened to code camp? In short, it grew! Due to an overwhelming attendance, we’ve outgrown the previous venue. This presented an opportunity to shake things up…and we couldn’t resist!

This year, Wilson, Syl Walker, the Guild’s Vice President, and UNC Charlotte’s College of Computing and Informatics, along with others, are introducing Spark Conference. This all new event will become the premier, must-attend event for technology enthusiasts in the South Atlantic region. But rest assured that our goal for Spark Conference is to not just match the rich success of Carolina Code Camp but to make it better than ever for our attendees, speakers, and sponsors.

To learn more, please visit the event website at www.sparkconf.org.

Have you submitted your Spark Conference session yet?

Posted on April 10, 2015April 10, 2015 by Mark A. Wilson

Call for Participation Ends April 12

There are just a few days left to share your spark with the community. The session submission window will be closing this Sunday night. If you have already submitted your sessions, rest assured the organizers are processing them and will begin voting on them soon. If you haven’t, block part of your day off to give yourself time to submit your sessions.

As a reminder, they are looking for topics in the following general tracks:

Design — Sessions focused on UI/UX design principals, tools, and techniques.
Developer — Sessions for software developers, testers, architects, or project managers.
Internet of Things — Sessions around the network of physical objects or embedded “things”.
IT Professional — Sessions for server, database, or network administrators.
Startup — Sessions around founding a technology startup or running a technology company.
STEM — Sessions for K-12 students interested in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Panel Discussion — Discussions that you will be organizing to discuss one of the tracks above.

The deadline for submitting sessions is Sunday, April 12, 2015 at 24:00 EDT. Speaker selection will be announced toward the end of April, before tickets go on sale. To learn more about becoming a speaker at the 2015 Spark Conference, please visit www.sparkconf.org/session.

We Love Our Sponsors

Introducing Spark Conference

Posted on March 16, 2015April 10, 2015 by Mark A. Wilson