The company I work for, OveractDev, co-founded and sponsored an event in the fall of 2010 called Code Camp. It was a software application contest open to anybody in Southern Utah — students, professionals, and hobbyists alike.

For the 2011 event, I was privileged to act as the chair of the Code Camp board. I was able to gather dozens of ideas and suggestions from the 2010 event participants to drive more people to the event, create greater awareness within the community and promote entrepreneurship among a talented group of developers in the community.

The 2011 Code Camp was a huge success. We had a 300% increase in the number of participants and teams. The contest showcased a collection of Southern Utah’s brightest minds in the field of software development. Sponsored by tech and tech-minded companies and organizations, Code Camp enabled 65 participants to compete across 17 teams for the top prize.

Three engineers that I manage at OveractDev (Daniel Evans, DJ Holt and Daniel Gubler), along with Curtis Larsen, a professor at Dixie State, comprised the team that took first place. Their winning app was an iPad app that allows players of the game Clue to make highly predictable winning solutions. You can read an excellent writeup of the event by Jill Elliss here on the Utah Pulse website.