PhizzPop Challenge Training
I spent the last 2 days in Chicago,
IL at the Clarity Consulting office sitting
in on a special training class for the PhizzPop
Design Challenge. I felt a little out of place at first. The room
was over 1/2 designers (MacBooks galore) and the rest of the room was filled out with
developers who were teamed with the designers. And then you had the Architect
Evangelist in the room. When they did introductions they asked if you were a
Designer, A Developer or a Designer / Developer. I answered “Evangelist, which
pretty mush means I spend most of the day in Outlook”. Everything turned out
okay, as I got to spend some real hands on time with the Expression Suite and my brand
spanking new install of Visual Studio 2008.
What is the PhizzPop Design Challenge?
36 teams enter. 1 team leaves. In several cities around the United States over the
next few weeks they are going to have regional competitions were teams of 3 compete
to solve a design challenge in less than 72 hours. Team make up is up to the
company’s discretion (3 designers, 1 designer and 2 developers, etc). Each of
the regional winners will participate in a similar contest at the South
By Southwest Interactive in Austin, TX next March. They will be put through
a similar cage match there and the winning firm will get bragging rights and probably
some cool prizes as well.
So what’s next
The teams have the weekend off to absorb all that the instructors, Jared
Potter and Dale Jones from Identity Mine have
thrown at them. I hope they all have a relaxing weekend and get lots of rest.
On Monday morning everyone meets back in downtown Chicago to hear what the design
problem is (It is a closely guarded secret, Chris Bernard has not even told me what
it is). Then they have until Wednesday afternoon to design and create their
solution. Failure and a good night’s sleep are not an option. On Wednesday
everyone meets over at Underground in
Chicago to see the judging and have an awesome party. Have you registered
yet? The event is all most full!
More information
My Flickr
Photos (will be added to as the event proceeds)
Chris Bernard’s Blog
PhizzPop Twitter Feed and Chicago
Specific PhizzPop Twitter Feed
Technorati
Tags: PhizzPop
Design Challenge,Phizzpop
