Mertech has initiated a new series of monthly, topic-specific technical sessions called Mertech Campfires. According to anthropologists, human societies likely evolved when the humans first huddled around a fire, ate food together and shared stories. Fast forward to the 21st century and we find that while we are connected to each other in many different ways, our opportunities to share personal knowledge has gone down. We have individual pockets of knowledge and unless we make it to one conference or another, we don’t often get a chance to share this knowledge with others.

This is where the campfire concept comes in. The monthly Mertech Campfire makes the best of the old and the new, combining the spirit of sharing, learning and teaching with the digital tools of the 21st century.

Each Campfire is an informal, live and interactive session and focuses on one specific topic of interest to our customers and partners. The idea is to share, teach and learn together about new technologies and how they affect our businesses. A typical campfire session lasts 45 minutes, has 15-20 attendees, is open microphone and is moderated. The first 15-20 minutes of the session is an overview of the subject matter, presented by an invited guest speaker or by someone at Mertech. The remainder of the time is spent discussing participants’ questions and thoughts on the topic. All attendees are encouraged to contribute to the conversation, so please come prepared with any questions you might have or with thoughts you might want to share with others.

Participants have enjoyed the campfires we have had thus far. In fact, one of the attendees of our first campfire on Windows 8, Shelley Davis of The TSL Group, said “It was surprisingly informative and a well-needed forum to discuss new technologies. I congratulate Mertech on initiating this medium and looking forward to the next one.” We look forward to seeing more and more of the Mertech community participate in future Campfire events.

Past Campfires

Campfire #1, November 15, 2012: Windows 8

Campfire #2, December 13, 2012: The State of Mobile Development

Campfire #3, February 14, 2013: NoSQL Databases: NoSQL or Not Only SQL?

Campfire #4, March 21, 2013: JavaScript Frameworks - Picking One From Many

Campfire #5, May 23, 2013: Designing and Developing Cross-Browser Web Applications

If you have ideas for topics that might be of interest to our community, please contact us with your suggestions.