Make sure you read the prior post about the all day every day activities, and the post on how to check in at CodeMash.
Wow! Thursday! This is an interesting day. Fully half of the attendees are already in house, with their brains nearly full from two days of precompilers. The other half of the 2,100 attendees show up Wednesday night after 6pm (check out that post; hang out, go to the lightning talks, etc.) or they check in early Thursday morning. HINT: Check in Wednesday night to skip the massive line Thursday morning.
Make sure you get in early enough for breakfast, which is served in the Kilimanjaro Ballroom from 7am-8am.
Sessions start promptly at 8am, running through the day. They are an hour long, and have 15 minute breaks between them.
Lunch is served in an open manner, like on a cruise ship. Lunch is open from 11am-2pm, and you can drop by for lunch whenever you want, for as long or as short as you want. We do have sessions running through this period. So drop in for a long lunch, or jump in for 5 minutes to scarf food and go back to the sessions. This is our third year with this model, and it has proved out to dramatically decrease waiting times, and allowed us to book even more sessions.
After lunch there will be a special set of sponsor sessions, each 45 minutes long. We have entered the sponsor sessions into the grid this year so you can more easily select which to visit. They are all interesting topics and worth your time checking them out.
After the sponsor sessions, regular sessions will resume, ending around 6pm.
All day, on Thursday and Friday will be our Open Spaces, in the Grand Hall. Go ahead and schedule a session. The schedule board is in the open spaces area. There was a prior blog post about Open Spaces you should check out.
Dinner will be at 6pm. We do have a family dinner option this year, and you can buy your tickets now, or the day of. Tickets are $15 per person, for any family member/guest over the age of 2. Ages two and under are free. The family dinner will be in the restaurants, starting in The Great Karoo, which is in the lobby. Attendees and family adults can use the adult buffet in the family room. Children can use the child’s buffet in the family room. Families should not sit in the main dining room.
If your “family dinner” tickets are all adults, you are welcome to eat in the main dining room.
The party will continue with AfterDark sessions. These are being finalized as we write this, and will be on the main schedule. AD sessions are always quirky, sometimes funny, sometimes serious. Check them out.
During this time we will have cash bars open (attendees will receive one free drink ticket when they pick up their badge) all through the facility, as well as appetizers. Your family is welcome to attend, even the young ones. Just keep an eye on the kids, it is a party. The area near the KidzMash rooms will be kept family friendly.
Artemis will be going strong, as well as the boardgame room. We will also have a jam session on the main stage in the main dining room at 9:30pm. We have rented a whole set of instruments for you to come in and play with.
The waterpark will open for CodeMash attendees (and families) only, as a private event. About half of the rides will be operating. Many sponsors will have fun activities at various cabanas, and the KidzMash cabanas will also be up and running.
We will run the shuttles super late on Thursday to make sure everyone gets back to their hotels safe and sound.