I'm Going to Camp ... Nerd Camp

I'm heading to Atlanta, Georgia today to attend the first couple of days of an iOS(iPhone/iPad) developer training class at Big Nerd Ranch. I've been a virtual fan of BNR for years, ever since I discovered founder Aaron Hillegass and his excellent book "iPhone Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide" (which was just updated to a second edition and renamed to iOS Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide and is highly recommended). And now I'm going to experience it firsthand.

Aaron and I first crossed paths, non-virtually, earlier this year. I was part of a large group of people at Penton who started a cross-platform mobile developer show and one of the big challenges was finding someone who could keynote the event. Well, maybe challenge isn't the right word, because Aaron came immediately to my mind, based on my previous explorations into iOS development. He agreed to speak, so we met at the show, and then we met again at TechEd, which was coincidentally held in Atlanta this year. (Aaron also appeared on Episode 212 of Windows Weekly, since he was in San Francisco that week for Apple's WWDC show.)

Despite his allegiance to the Dark Side (kidding, kidding), I admire Aaron because of his laser-like focus, intelligence, and wit, and I'm going to interview him about his career (he worked at NeXT and then briefly at Apple before moving on to found BNR) and his perspective on mobile software development and where the market is headed. (BNR does Android and web development training now in addition to iOS and Mac developer training.) He's just a great guy.

If you have any questions you'd like me to ask Aaron, please let me know. I'm excited to speak with him again and spread the word about the great work him and his team are doing to train developers down in Atlanta.

By the way, BNR is moving to a new facility in 2012, but their Atlanta-area training classes are currently held at historic Banning Mills. I assume NZipLine is part of the iOS frameworks. :)