Calling all Buzztouch Members, join us in St. Louis Missouri U.S for what promises to be tons of fun, a great networking opportunity, and a chance to hang out with the leaders of Buzztouch and fellow Buzztouch Members. There is no charge to attend this event. Hint: If you're outside the US, check airfare to Chicago, it may be far less $? Warren's done an amazing job making the arrangements. Here's the scoop: "Gateway Get-Together" Buzztouch user gathering AKA: BuzzCon '13 April 19 - 20 - 21, 2013 St. Louis, Missouri, USA. We will be gathering at: Comfort Inn Airport and Conference Center 9600 Natural Bridge Road St. Louis, MO 63134 Phone 314-427-7600 FAX 314-428-8465 http://www.choicehotels.com/hotel/MO230 Rooms (either 1 king bed or 2 full beds) are $69.99 plus tax. If you are staying the 19th and 20th, that would total $164.32. More information about those rooms can be found on the website. Be sure to mention the "Buzztouch" event for the room discount. The facility includes a pool and fitness center, and provides 24 hr shuttle service to the airport, which is 3 minutes away. It is also within walking distance to the city's Metra train system for easy access to many St. Louis area attractions. A hot breakfast is complimentary with each night's stay. Regarding the gathering itself, here is a tentative schedule of activities: Friday night - Buzztouch admin dinner meeting (off-site) followed by a social "meet and greet" for members at the Comfort Inn. Saturday morning - Chris Robbins will hold a "Buzzcast roundtable" for his popular podcast series to kick off the day. See the show recorded live. Saturday pre-post lunch, through the afternoon. --Three two hour training sessions with David Book. Buzztouch founder and lead developer. --"Creating easy "how-to" documentation for your clients" by Niraj Shah, Buzztouch Member and ridiculously smart dude. --Susan Metoxen (Buzztouch Plugin Market lead) will lead a developer session to enhance the Plugin Market Saturday evening - social / fun activity; for example, an "app-off" - where members or teams of menbers will compete to build an app from scratch. Sunday morning - breakfast / social / explore St . Louis Buzztouch will provide drinks and snacks during the day. The hotel features a restaurant, along with several dining choices nearby. Don't worry - if there's something in St. Louis you want to see, we'll get you there! Event attendance questions: Warren Evans, [email protected] Event press contact: Trish Dever, [email protected]

I would SO love to attend, but alas, I'm afraid I'll only be there in spirit. It sounds like a blast! Cheers! -- Smug

Hope to see you all there! I'll send you pics @Smug:)

Looks like the link: http://www.choicehotels.com/hotel/MO203 is broken. -tM

http://www.comfortinn.com/hotel-saint_louis-missouri-MO230 230, not 203... He types too fast. I do that sometimes... Cheers! -- Smug

Folks - if I don’t make it, it won’t be for the lack of trying!!! I’m pulling out all the stops here. Request: can one of the sessions tackle the subject of making money building apps? Ad Mob, marketing approaches, PreApps.com, building apps for other people, how to invoice for an app build. Just a thought. Great initiative - if I don’t make this one, I’ll make the next.

@Dervalo. Yes, great topic, I'll lead that session. How do we get you there?

Thanks @Smug for clearing that up. Man, I wish I could go, that's finals week. No way I can miss that. -tM

:-) Thanks @David - get a few hundred uploads for my apps and arrange a babysitter! I’m working on it!

ooohh wish i was there. anything organized for the summer you think?!

I will be there for Saturday!! I will be coming back from a cruise to Mexico earlier during the week so dont hate on me if I'm really tan.

Tryig hard to be there. Hope to meet you all. Miguel

Sounds great i will try to go!

Can't wait! Warren and I are going to try our best to either record or broadcast as much of the event as we can. (For those who cannot make it) Maybe Trish can teach me about Twitter and we can setup a hashtag for the event also! LOL #Buzzcon13 !! -Chris

I like that idea Chris!!

I'm jealous, I'm based in the UK, where it rains and it's cold all the bloody time. Wish I could attend.

Would be great to be there. 1). Anyone know how to get cheaps flights from Marseille or Dublin ? I keep getting ridiculous high prices. 2). What does Guinness taste like in Chicago ?

@David hey you suggest flying to Chicago, and then flying from there to destination? Or drive? What are you suggesting? Thanks. Miguel

I wish I lived in US

See you there!

Urgh, another downfall in living 13 time zones away !! Will definitely catch up with the webcasts etc !! Relying on Warren to pull something out of the bag and have some live recordings ;) I would contribute $$ to a speed typist to do minutes of the event for members ... Enjoy guys

@MadRod: Was thinking a Chicago to St Loius drive. If a few folks end up there we could rent a car or something? Was just thinking about cost of flights. May not be too much cheaper after all? I also think some others from Chicago could car pool?

Hey gang, With money being tight, does anyone want to share a room or something? LA

Chris is correct, between the two of us we will be recording as much of the event as we possibly can. I am working on a live streaming solution but it's still in the pilot stage so no promises just yet. We will have some form of GoToMeeting / GoToWebinar to allow some on-line attendance. GTM limits us to 25 people, but we have webcam access, GTW allows up to 100, but no webcams. In any case, we will have *something* by then. Regarding flying into Chicago vs. St. Louis: ATRAIN mentioned an affordable train solution to get from CHI to STL. I believe that's how he's getting here. There may be some car-pooling opportunities for those that want to attend. Maybe post to this thread and we can match up some folks to get them here.

Working super hard to be there as well! Got softball and baseball games for the kids, so it kinda depends on that schedule. But totally looking forward to the potential of meeting EVERYBODY involved with buzztouch! Mark

Awesome to see this in my home town! I hope I can make it! I work every other weekend but hopefully I can get off!

I am planning on being there. Should be a great weekend!

Oh Damn It! I so wish I could come. Is it going to be live streamed onto YouTube or a Webinar? I really want to go, however, I am 10 hours flight away, and costs are over £1000 (which is $1600). That's a heck of a lot of money! Maybe Buzztouch should do a Europe tour were the main capital cities (i.e. London, Paris...) would all have these conferences. I would love to go to those.

Hello all I just booked flights from NY! Ill be in 1030pm Friday night. Let me know where the social meet and greet is. If not then I will see you all Saturday morning!

fantastic! @feraco!!

@feraco - The "meet and greet" will be at the Comfort Inn where we're all staying. Not sure of the room yet (sometimes we just "take over" when we show up) But we will be sure to get you connected with the rest of the group on your arrival.

For the folks attending, what is a safe and easy way to share our contact information such as phone number, email, etc? All this enthusiasm has gotten me energized. Gonna be a blast -- yeehaw! -- Niraj

David's got a boat, right ? For us from Europe, how about picking us up in Portsmouth, Lisbon and Marseille ?

@Naraj here is a google form people can fill out for contact info. If you fill this out I will share the results of the document with you. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/13RMefse0fHjfYbopGhznWwKoatWmp-fh3LiE0bIy2eI/viewform

Sounds awesome! Tickets aint too bad, I might just be able to make this one

Love to see you there Absentia!

@feraco -- Thanks, I submitted my info! Perhaps one more field to see if people want to save money and share rooms? -- Niraj

Totally wish I could come. April is a really hard month for me this year, and that weekend is booked :(

Gonna have to count myself out as well :( one too many bills this month

Good to see some more official details :) I'm working on making it down there for Saturday. Who wouldn't want to spend a few hrs learning hands on with David! This should be a blast and a chance to meet some folks. The Black Crowes just booked 4/19 at The Pagent and I'm all over that show. They have been on hiatus for a couple of years so this is not to be missed. Crowes > BuzzTouch > 4:20 :) Can't beat that!

Hope you can make it Atrain53! The Pagent is a great venue. I played there back in the early 2000's. cheers! ian

wait...what? Ian, you played the Pageant?

The Pageant is awesome... love to watch concerts there.

Yep @Warren. Touring in my band The Pagent was on our stop a few times. I seem to recall not leaving the dressing rooms as clean as we found them:)

What was the name of your band, Ian?

Newpastlife crazy times. Even played with David's brother's band The Fly's Small world! I chill behind the piano now instead of thrashing around on stage:)

Do I hear a concert is in store @Buzzcon by Ian??? ;)

Who knows!

NPL : "Described as "Darker than Stone Temple Pilots and more accessible than Tool"" Awesome! Can't wait to check out your tunes!

:)

Hey Gang, I wish I could attend and eat marshmallows and peanut butter with jelly on a bagel! Or sit in a cosy diner and order special of the day... I am starting to put coins into my "My first BT million" can, so once I will have enough for a flight, I will apply for the US visas. I got my biometric passport, so first step is done. Until now, all my coins are of the same kind like InAppPurchase, virtual money... Have fun together and make Buzztouch even stronger! Frogman

I made my reservation today for Friday night (I'll have to come back Saturday afternoon to be back for church on Sunday)

fantastic @chris1 !!

So glad you can make it, Chris! This will be such a great experience for all of us.

wow just saw this....... it's a long way from Dublin....

Looked at flights... seriously tempted :)

@elaine, it would be so great to have you come! I have met David Book in person in two meet ups, and it really is an experience you will never forget. Plus, you could meet all of us at the same time!

I know, tell me about it. I want to buy David a pint its the least I owe him :) Need to juggle passport (10 days now to renew my old one and then 10 days to get a US visa) so we'll see. It'd be magic to meet all the BTers.

Hi @elaine, Hope u can make it!

Should be buying my ticket this week.... Excited.

Hey would anyone want to share resources in St. Louis. Maybe we can exchange some useful graphics ect. using external hard drives

Hmm - I need a bigger hard drive as it is - I keep getting low disk space warnings :(. Who would've thought 750gb would ever be too small?

Lol I just picked up 3tb I need to fill it up. Lol

If only that came in laptop size!

Me and my fiance will be headed over, getting tickets in a few days for hotel, driving about ten hours to st Louis (with some tips from David to survive the long car ride!). I'm so excited to meet my friends for the first time. See you all there! :-) Cheers, David.

I'll be driving about 12 hours straight west on I-64. I'm hoping to document as much of the journey and event as possible!

Time for a roll call... Are you planning on attending Buzzcon '13? The leadership team (minus Stephen) will be there in force, along with GoNorthWest and MacApple. Lots of people have also indicated they plan on being there - I've sent each of them an e-mail to confirm. So, if you didn't get an e-mail, please let me know if you're planning on attending. We need a head count to make the appropriate accommodations for the group. Also be aware that the hotel's special room rate is only guaranteed until April 1, so time is running short to guarantee that $69.99 rate. E-mail me at [email protected] and let me know your plans. Looking forward to meeting all of you!

1 week from today! David - any chance we can spend some time exploring this and maybe making some kind of a plug-in to talk to Facebook? http://developers.facebook.com/docs/getting-started/graphapi/ If not that, I'd love to spend a few hours consuming some API with the jedi master and building a dynamic BT screen out of it from the XML or JSON we get back. So many great API's out there I'd love to shove the output from into a tableview and display.

@ATRAIN53: Stoked to connect again! For sure, remind us all to discuss this topic, should be some good code, API, and other coolness that comes from the conversation. We could also do some sort-of hacking on Saturday night? d.

Sounds good- It's something I keep meaning to find the time to explore. I know a David spin on it would be huge. I'm so not a Facebook fan but so much good stuff gets posted there and that Graph API looks like the easy way to extract it. Thought maybe a look at that ahead of time might give you some ideas for BuzzCon. Good show happening Saturday night but it doesn't start until 10. Gives us plenty of time to create a market ready plugin. It's not these take a lot of time to code or test....LOL. See you on Saturday!

wish I could stay for Saturday night - would love to get on some hack-a-thon coding action!

Very excited. Cant wait.

I had to email Warren and cancel.. I won't be able to go this month. Expenses are super tight (no way we could fly), I planned on driving but now am having car troubles with my registration/insurance (let alone money for gas, my jeep is a huge gas guzzler). super super bummer.. You guys have fun. @Atrain & @Chris, we will meet someday soon. Try not to pick at each others minds too much while you're out there! Take PLENTY of pictures and videos! David.

Bummer :( Another time for sure tho. You guys can come to Chicago and stay with me and we'll hack up some code. Def excited to meet Chris too!

Wish I could be there - upon conclusion of this one, it would be great to set a date/time frame for next year. I've never met any of you in person, but would love to connect in the future. Have a terrific con folks & Stobe - thanks for documenting wha you can!

Wish I could go! In 10 years I bet you all look back and brag about being at the very first Buzzcon. It would be wonderful if there was some sort of interactive online event during the event so those not able to attend could connect a bit. If not, maybe some sessions could be recorded.

Bringing a bunch of usb drives to give away at Buzzcon. You can thank VistaPrint for misprinting a bunch for my wife's company, so to St. Louis they go! Tim

@shenry - We will be broadcasting the event sessions via GoToWebinar, and if I can get it working, by Ustream as well. GTW registration info will be posted tomorrow. We should also be recording all sessions for future posting and viewing. Sorry you can't be there to enjoy it first-hand.

@Warren Evans that's great news. I also heard on podcast that twitter hashtag is #buzzcon13 so I will be following, virtually.

@shenry - the hashtag to follow is #buzzcon13

thanks Warren, I edited my post to show correct hashtag

Warren, What's the head count for STL?

@WolfTimJ - sent you a PM...

@WolfTimJ, I could totally use a usb drive. Sweet! See you all there! ian

ian, got one with your name on it... ahh, actually a somewhat readable imprint of my last name.... anyway, you know what I mean. They're only 2GB, hopefully big enough for some hacked up files! See ya in STL!

2GB of plugins could go pretty far - lol! Can't wait to meet ya'll.

Ok - what do y'all say we move this to St James, MO? My back side is getting sore!

Dallas would have been even closer... Arrived, found a Starbucks. Caffeine levels normalizing. I think I'm going to make it.

I'm in the airport ill be there by 1030.

Just landed at 6 PM. Be at hotel within 30-mins. What's going on? :-)

Sitting here late in Australia, waiting to hear all the goings on at Buzzcon !! Where would we find info about following webinars etc online?

yeah I've been looking also. the twitter hash #buzzcon13 is pretty dead.. not sure where to find out whats going on other than the original post above mentioning the timetable! hopefully someone will report back

Hey guys. We met up yesterday, BT admin and some members went out for dinner. Then we met in the hotel, and chatted over a few beers. Each one introduced themselfs... Very cool. Finishing breakfast and getting ready for the BT schedule. Cheers

Update on live streaming - we are not going to be able to stream the event today. Not enough upstream bandwidth at the hotel to stream reliably. Sorry. However, the good news is we are recording all the sessions (Buzzcast Live! and the four event sessions) which should be available online early in the week.

Awesome Warren! Enjoy. Thanks!

I'll be posting photos of the event throughout the day. Here's where you can find them: https://plus.google.com/photos/113413409724226390225/albums/5868934479167729809 So cool to be here with all these smart, amazing people! Mark

Good news Warren! Thanks Mark! Wish I was there! You folks have fun together! Frogman

Thanks Mark!! Nice photos.. wish I was there :/

Starting the next section of BuzzCon2013. David has the floor. Having a blast! Tony Buzztouch.com Saint Louis, MO

Wish I didn't have to leave early! Enjoy the hack-a-thon tonight! It was awesome hangin out with y'all this weekend.

Nice meeting you Chris....1 :) Cheers

That's was great meeting all of you!! Learned a ton. Can't wait for the next buzzcon!

Definitely! Any great things accomplished tonight after I left?

Watched David dissect code and break it down for us. He explained step by step integration of a example plug in. It was pretty eye opening.

Awesome!

Phew - made it home - what a drive!

Chris, glad you made it back safe. It was great to meet everyone. What an awesome group! Getting to watch David work on code is always a tremendous learning experience. Now if I can just remember it...

I agree with Crown Solutions, watching David do code is like watching a master of the fine arts with the bonus of audio! I am glad Jim was paying attention, perhaps he can supplement my already degrading memory. I had asked David to show us how to integrate Kent Nguyen's KNMultiItemSelector component from GitHub. <a href="https://github.com/kentnguyen/KNMultiItemSelector" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/kentnguyen/KNMultiItemSelector</a> David showed how to overcome various obstacles such as: - Turned the "Cancel" button into the "Back" button - Be compatible with the non-ARC BuzzTouch framework - Switch it to use the BuzzTouch ViewController class - Synthesize the items array - Make a property or instance variable of the items array - Allocate memory for items - Dagnabbit, must have been a few other gems I already forgot! Bottom-line, David had a working integration of that component by the time he ran out of gas! :-) -- Niraj

What a cool weekend! Finishing late-night responsibilities after a steak-and-shake with the gang. Tons of new friends. Tons of new ideas. Tons of new opportunities. Can't wait till the next one. @Chris: You're coat turned up, woo hoo.

More pics uploaded here: https://plus.google.com/photos/113413409724226390225/albums/5868934479167729809 Includes an over-the-shoulder shot of David working on his MacBook with the display on the hotel lobby TV! And Keith hugging a fan of a rival soccer club! Can't ask for better moments than that! Mark

Good stuff. I expect a fully documented report Niraj! j/k ;)

Great meeting! Thanks to everyone, especially Warren and the team for hosting it! Cool putting a face to all the Avatars and screen names! Ready for the next one! Gonna study up on Objective C so I can get more out of the hacking sessions. Tim

Awesome time, everyone. Got home late last night, hugged the kiddos, and went right to bed. Thanks Mark for the great pictures. I think a Caption Contest is in order, lol! Met a lot of great people, and made a ton of friends. I contacted the company that makes the ScreenSteps program that Niraj showed us, and they are sending me a promo code for the Buzzcast listeners. I should have it for you when I post the new episode (hopefully tonight?) and I'll put it in the show notes. (This is for the full software, not the "Clarify-it" version that was in the MacHeist bundle. Can't wait to do it all again! -Chris

BuzzCon14 in Oxford?