As I tore off the first month of my over-sized school-year calendar I was reminded of my first week at Puppet Labs. I woke up early, made breakfast, and caught a bus into downtown arriving 30 minutes early only to be reminded that I didn’t yet have a key to the office. I plopped down in front of the door to wait for someone else to arrive, and opened my notebook to review the topics for my first official meeting with my new boss. Scrawled in my notebook are limited, and partially illegible jottings I took from our previous conversation. Unfortunately, between his Australian accent, frequently altered speech tempo, and foreign use of commonplace terms, and the fact that my penmanship skills hover around a 3rd grade level, all I could make out is one line: “Puppet Camp-do it.”

With that extravagant amount initial information, the last four weeks, James’ guidance, and the help of our wonderful in-town event planner Julie, I have hobbled together what I think will be a pretty awesome event. So without further ado I give you the top five reasons to attend Puppet Camp:

Reason 1: You Own It

Puppet, and Puppet Camp are user driven. Without the community the product, and the event would fall to pieces. With that in mind Puppet Camp is run as an “unconference” or “open-space” conference. Essentially, while we have some morning lectures planned, they can be influenced by the audience and deviate from their topic or forget about it all together depending on your wants. Similarly our afternoon breakout sessions are completely user generated. During morning break and lunch you have the opportunity to suggest any number of topics for afternoon breakout sessions. Speaking of breaks of course brings us conveniently to…

Reason 2: The Edibles and Drinkables

We’ve got a pretty reasonably sized breakfast of fresh fruit, yogurt, bagels and cream cheese, and muffins to serve along with juice, coffee and tea. Breaks are accompanied by cookies, and soft drinks, and lunch features a soup, salad, roasted veggies, and a sandwich bar buffet with chicken, roast beef, and hummus. While you may be on your own for dinner, we are offering an open bar at Swig on Thursday night which will offer…

Reason 3: Networking Potential

Short of sharing a plate of spaghetti, there really isn’t a better way to forge relationships than over a pint and one of Swig’s 150 whiskeys and whiskies. Whether you want to find your next employer, meet Volcane, or just swap stories with other Puppet users, Puppet Camp provides the opportunity. Because of the events’ flexibility, it caters to novice Puppet users, Puppet Masters, and everything in between, behind, and around. You’ll be amazed by the people you’ll meet, the industries and companies they hail from, and the size of their Puppet implementations. As you converse, hopefully…

Reason 4: You’ll Learn, Learn, Learn

You’ll learn more about Puppet in 2 days that you could have in a month. You’ll learn about our future goals for the product, trade-secret work-arounds, and a whole host of other information. No matter how active you are in the community there is really no equal to learning, face to face, from other users. The exchange of knowledge Puppet Camp induces is by far its most valuable aspect, which leads me to want to end here but…

Reason 5: You Really Ought to Attend Developers Training

If you can stay the weekend you can sign-up to attend Puppet Developers Training starting on Monday, October 11th and ending Wednesday the 13th. Developers training teaches you how to extend Puppet by adding custom facts, types and providers, and more. This class is offered on a limited basis so be sure to sign up if you have the chance.

In addition to all opportunities and benefits listed above, you’ll get some exclusive Puppet Camp swag, and get a well deserved opportunity to visit San Francisco. You can reside with us at the Serrano Hotel using our group discount code or take to the city and explore. I hope you join us for Puppet Camp 2010. We’ve got an awesome line up of presenters and entertainment waiting for you in San Francisco.

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