Everything CUSEC

If you live in the Montreal area and haven’t yet registered for CUSEC 2008, then our Director of Promotions, Skrud, will be available in the Bannex on 2160 Bishop on Monday, December 10 at 10am-5pm to sell tickets. You may reach him at 514-848-2424 extension 5498. If you have any questions, email him at drskrud@gmail.com. More information can be found in the Facebook event http://facebook.com/event.php?eid=16320310124.

Here it is (not in presentation order):

• DesktopBeautifier – Gili Tzabari
• Frysk – Mike Cvet and Nurdin
• Hal Project – Pascal Charest
• The Stupidity of Crowds -or- You Have to Break a Few Eggs to Make an Omelette – SimonLaw
• ReactOS – Alex Ionescu
• Migrating Your Blog with Ruby – Derek Mahar
• Using Sugar to Sweeten your Javascript – Sebastien Pierre

Even if you are not attending CUSEC you should come see what some of your peers in Montreal, and in some cases Toronto, have been up to lately.

• When: Thurday, January 18th, 2007
• Time: 6:30 – 8:30
• Where: Centre Mont-Royal
• Address: 2200 Mansfield, corner Sherbrooke
• Price: FREE!!!

See everyone their!

Want to demo your project? Want to get feedback and get people excited about your project? Want to see what your peers are up to in Montreal? Or do you just want to meet other people who are as passionate about building products that make a difference in people’s lives as you are?

THE MINIMUM YOU NEED TO KNOW (mark it on your calendar)

When: Thursday, January 18th, 2007 @ 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Where: Centre Mont-Royal, 2200 Mansfield corner Sherbrooke
Google Map: map to event Language: Francais ou/or English
Cost: Free for all. You can buy me a beer if you want!

Who: People who want to show off their projects and get feedback as well as those who just want to see and get excited about what other people in Montreal are up to. Entrepreneurs, hobbyists, students and professionals are all welcome… demo or not.

Why: To support innovation in Montreal (and to show Toronto we are better then them)

Want more information about DemoCamps in general?
http://barcamp.org/DemoCamp

(note: the conference during the day is not free but the DemoCamp that is being held at night and being sponsored by CUSEC is a free event for ALL.)

WANT TO DEMO AT THE EVENT? (you know you wanna)

Of course you do! DemoCampCUSEC is being held at the same location as CUSEC (the Canadian University Software Engineering Conference) and open to all including entrepreneurs, students and professionals.

It is a great opportunity for you to get people interested (buzz) in what you are working on, to get valuable feedback and a great way to attract people to join your project (if you need help). Plus, it is a great opportunity to practice your presentation skills!

Their is only two rules for presenters: * Rule #1: No powerpoints allowed. Why no .ppt? Well, do you have working software or don’t you? * Rule #2: Demos are not a second over 15 minutes each. Short and sweet!

Email john (at) kopanas (dotty) com if you want to present. Don’t be shy (2 demos already confirmed)!

SPONSOR (this one is good for you)

CUSEC (the Canadian University Software Engineering Conference) is donating space for us to host our event. The conference is being held from Thursday, January 18th to Saturday, January 20th at the same location.

CUSEC this year has a killer lineup of presenters including:

• Dave Thomas -> author of Pragmatic Programmer, Programming Ruby, and Agile Development with Rails
• Dr. Venkat Subramaniam -> founder of Agile Developer, Inc. and author of Practices of an Agile Developer
• Ralph Johnson -> author of Design Patterns (member of Gang of Four)
• Pete McBreen ->author of Software Craftsmanship and Questioning Extreme Programming
• and many more…

I know it is short notice but you should consider attending.

website: http://www.cusec.net
blog: http://blog.cusec.net

BONUS POINT: WANT TO BE NOTIFIED OF ANY FUTURE EVENTS IN MONTREAL?

As a Montrealer I always found it hard to both find and keep track of upcoming events for tech geeks in Montreal. I would love to be able to follow what usergroup meetings, presentations, conferences and camps are coming up in Montreal. I could just sign-up to every mailing list I come across but I just don’t have that kind of time.

So I decided to start a mailing list which will only send out one email (max 2) per upcoming event and will be moderated so no junk mail will come through.

You can easily sign up here:
http://groups.google.com/group/montreal-tech-events

(if you want me to post your event on the mailing list just email me the post)

QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? !SPAM?

Don’t be shy, contact me at john (at) kopanas (dotty) com with any question you might have.

UPDATE: Both Austin Hill and David Crowe have mentioned DemoCampCUSEC on their blogs. That is big… very big! A BIG thanks for pimping us!

Montreal has the second highest concentration of students in North America, after Boston…

Despite our world-renowned expertise in the high-tech sector, the experts don’t know each other.

The above are two quotes from an article that appeared on the cover of the last Thursday’s business section of the Montreal Gazette. The second one perfectly summarizes how I personally feel as a techy from Montreal. Heck, I moved to Toronto because I didn’t feel that I was getting what I needed as a tech geek from Montreal. And I have been feeling guilty ever since I left.

Canada, and more specifically Montreal, is loosing a lot of great talent to the states. It is the responsibility of organizations like CUSEC, and events like our yearly conference, to bring people together that will create teams and start business that will give more and more people the opportunity to stay in the city they have grown to love and that they proudly call home.

I am personally trying to come back to Montreal and finish what I start to build with respect to CUSEC and other events we are looking at organizing around the year.

Let’s come together as tech geeks and not only stop the brain drain but make people from all over the world want to come to Montreal and every other city in our beautiful country.

→ read The Invisible Industry