I attended the AtlantaCodeCamp this last weekend, which looked like there were at least 300 attendees.
It was at the Gwinnett College campus -which was a GREAT venue. Great team of organizers from multiple DotNet Groups in the area, and everyone was out there supporting it.
There was plenty of SWAG too. Lots of books, software, hardware, and clothing. Then there were special training courses given away, and finally there were two one year licenses for MSDN Team Foundation Server that were the "grand prizes".
I won, one of those MSDN licences.
My appreciation to all the sponsors, organizers, and people whom attended and contributed to this event.
Even without the great license prize, I strengthened old connections, and made new ones, and learned things that I might not have been exposed to otherwise.
Developer community participation helps all invovled, to grow their knowledge, skills, and connections to other developers.
remember to look into
www.devlink.net in Nashville
and www.codestock.org in Knoxville
They are coming up again this year and I am hoping to attend again.