Sunday marks the official start of Dev Jam, as people begin to arrive for the conference. This year we have 26 people from four countries (since Alejandro now works for us in the US, I’m not counting Venezuela).

As the conference grows it is becoming harder and harder to fit it into everyone’s schedule, so we use that most democratic of processes: the vote. Once the University gets back to us with available dates, we have people vote on both their preferred week and which other weeks they could attend. We then choose the one that accommodates the most people. Unfortunately, this year the best week caused hardship for a number of long time attendees, so people like Antonio couldn’t make it. I’m hoping we find a better fit next year.

With the exception of a couple of delayed flights due to the weather (Minneapolis has recently been experiencing a lot of rain, often resulting in flooding), everyone got here safely and we gathered at the Town Hall Brewery for dinner.

Most people tried the beer (I had water, this week is pretty rough on my diet as is) but Ben discovered a “whiskey tasting flight” that he said was both good and a good value. All in all, it was a nice way to kick off the week.