Image credit: Universe Five (Flickr)

Last weekend I participated in the 6th Bay Area iOSDevCamp, now held at the eBay/PayPal headquarters in San Jose. It was a similar experience to Camp Organic (in the envelope-pushing, sleep-depriving sense) but at the end everyone presented finished apps or working prototypes.

I hacked all weekend and finished a simple reference app for Qigong exercises. There were around 80 submissions and only 50 got to present so I felt honored to show it off on Sunday afternoon, but didn’t win any prizes. I also walked away feeling good about creating an app I’ll be opening every day, and after my teacher from ACTCM approves it I’ll be able to share the app with my fellow practitioners.

Hacking onsite at the camp was beneficial even for team-less developers such as myself. I spent most of my time in the mentoring room where I could get quick answers to questions but also liked coding in the main hall where the camp specific turntable.fm room was playing over the speakers.

Socializing and networking was another highlight of the weekend: somewhere near 500 talented and interesting people were in attendance (Including hacker celebs like Geohot!) It was also amazing to see teams come together Friday night, then amazing again to see what the teams created. Joining a team is definitely in the itinerary when I return to iOSDevCamp next year.

Also on the team tip: designers were in high demand! Perhaps since it’s called dev camp not enough designers, UX/IA and business minded people were attracted, but all disciplines are valuable and it was evident when a project had put more than developers to work. If you fall into any of those buckets and are interested in knowing about future events, follow myself (@starpause) or @iOSDevCamp on twitter.

Jordan Gray is a Rich Media Architect at Organic