Trenton Computer Festival - great weekend

I was lucky enough to attend and speak at the Trenton Computer Festival this past weekend! I’m sure it’s not a widely known venue, but it’s been going on for the past 35 years ! I think I attended some of the very first of these events (held at the then “Trenton State University” – now “The College of New Jersey”) – This is an absolute Geekfest ! The best part of the show isn’t the speakers, but the computer flea market. Vendors set up in the parking lots selling anything from vintage reel-to-reel tape players, to SCSI disk drives and any kind of assorted cables, magnets, tools or anything else you can imagine! It’s a hackers dream come true ! I have to admit, I was really disappointed at the commercial vendor exhibit. I remember going to this when I was much younger and it felt like an InterOp (all kinds of manufacturers from around the country – it seemed) – this year it seemed like local vendors with stuff barely a grade above the flea market

My talk was titled “Agile Methods: Fact or Fiction” – It was pretty well attended. I didn’t expect much since this event is more or less for the computer hobbyist/hacker – but the people that attended my talk here professional programmers/Product owners and interested in how Agile can help them. Like most audiences, they’ve heard a lot about the topic in the press, but none have really tried. They all started out thinking it was kind of silly, but as I kept talking, you could see the realization in their eyes and you can tell they “got it” – its fun when that happens !

On a personal note, speaking at the TCF was really a thrill. Growing up in the early days of computing (with Kim-1’s, SYM’s and Commodore PET’s) – this show was a yearly highlight for me. I remember watching Hal Chamberlin, Frank Covitz and Cliff Ashcraft speaking at a TCF about Computer Generated Music and thinking how cool it would be to do that one day. Well I did it ! Only took about 35 years, but I feel like I finally “made it”