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One of the most exciting weeks of my life just ended.

Here's the original 'keyword catchup' I wrote:
Whether it was riding the San Francisco Trolleys, seeing Muir Park, driving over the Golden Gate Bridge, Pre-Mashup Camp Partying at the Hotel Avant on Sunday night, Mashup Camp on Monday, meeting Cory, Mashup Camp on Tuesday, meeting all of the smarter people than me who shared the same passions for technology, winning the "Best Mashup" award Tuesday evening, hanging out at the Googleplex (tour & food included), sharing conversation over great food and beer, flying to San Diego, hanging out at the EVDB/Eventful office, more food and beer :), sharing ideas, the Twiggs Bar/Coffee Shop, or hanging out with Serena, I couldn't have asked for a better experience.

And here's the "people kept asking and I got carried away recap":

We left Saturday, February 18th from Gainesville Airport to San Francisco (by way of Charlotte). It was about a 10 hour ordeal. Soon after we arrived Daniel, Mark, and I found ourselves in the Cheesecake Factory in Palo Alto. Enjoying a few drinks and the best fried calamari I've probably ever had, we brainstormed sightseeing ideas. I didn't really know what to expect over the next 7 days.

Sunday, after staying up till 4am Eastern, I dragged myself out of bed to take advantage of our only free day in San Francisco. We headed to Pier 39 to start out. Enjoyed clam chowder in a bread bowl and my first 'natural' sighting of seals (as opposed to a zoo). One of the totally touristy things I wanted to do was ride the trolley. We took it from the pier to downtown. It was the most fun I've ever had riding public transportation. I picked up a book for Kaela and a shirt for myself @ Urban Outfitters. That was my extent of shopping during the trip.

After making it back to the rental car, we headed north to Muir Woods to see some Redwoods. Unfortunately for me, I was expecting to see the Giant Sequoia (the huge ones you can drive through) and only found Coast Redwoods (tall thin ones). Still the biggest damn trees I've ever seen though. We headed home to relax a bit before the Sunday Party.

I was a bit nervous showing up, but after a beer (or two) I was engaged in interesting conversation with people from security firms, ebay, venture capitalists, and other mashuppers. The Hotel Avant (where the party was at) is just incredible. Very trendy and slick. Daniel & I watched Chris and Danny give an Eventful demo (who so lovingly managed to work Podbop into it). I was too unprepared to give a demo for Podbop (hadn't really thought about what to say besides "type in your city, cool!") but figured I should probably go home and figure that out.

Monday was the first day of Mashup Camp at the Computer History Museum. We registered at 7:30am and already snagged a free Mashup Camp shirt (logo by Chris Radcliff). Breakfast & lunch both days were sponsored, free and delicious.

The attendees gathered in the main assembly room and things started to come together. As you know this was deemed the Unconference (and for good reason). Nobody was paid to speak, and every session was really put together on the fly. If you had any idea at all for a session you could stand up on stage, speak your idea and garner interest. Popularity of your session would decide if you got a big or small room. The only other conference I've been to was last years SXSW Interactive so I don't have a whole lot to compare to, but I was quite impressed how something so casual could come together so well.

I hit up the Mashup Biz Model session and found it overall very worthwhile. It was really interesting to hear all the ideas as well as what to look out for (re API providers). Then I mostly socialized and ate until the Creative Commons session (which was really just Larry Lessig speaking and then taking questions). I never gave the whole CC thing much of my time and interest so it was quite educational for me. I really like what they are doing in making the law understandable for people wanting to license their content. Emily Chang has some great notes on his talk. Then even more socializing. I can't even count how many awesome people I met. Meeting people behind products/services you love is really exciting to say the least. Monday evening was a cocktail party sponsored by Yahoo. Open bar + ice statue made for some real fun. We headed home because Daniel and Mark were seepy :)

Tuesday morning we were back at the museum just in time to grab a bite before we assembled for today's activities. A few sessions would be wrapping up and then there would be two 1 hour (split apart by lunch) Speed Geeking sessions. This, like speed dating, was to give every attendee the chance to check out all 28 mashups (a few were added later) entered in the Best Mashup Contest. Every 5 minutes David Berlind (one of the brains behind Mashup Camp) would fire a buzzer off signaling to go to the next mashup table. Daniel and I introduced our website to dozens over the two hours. We both started to lose our voice because we weren't used to talking so much, but we recovered fairly quickly. It was a great experience, and even greater to see people enjoying Podbop. Everyone at Mashup Camp was given a wooden nickel to give to the developer they thought had the best mashup. So the Speed Geeking was also a chance to solicit wooden nickels. Then more networking convened and around 3pm the closing ceremonies began.

People ask if I expected what was next. I didn't expect it at all, but I was hoping (realllly hoping) that Podbop would win best mashup ever since I learned there was a contest going on a few weeks prior. Mind you, I signed up to Mashup Camp when there were 70+ attendees and no contest and was already excited about the event. So we gather in the assembly room and they start calling out the contest entries and asking how many wooden nickels each had. I was #6 and called out 26 nickels. As I spoke, somebody else gave me another, and I promptly yelled out 27. Then another and I yelled 28. I of course was shaking from nervousness and excitement by this time. They went on counting other entries and the mashup I was most worried about, Chicagocrime.org,
ended up with 19 nickels. The other places all hovered around 11 or 12 nickels.

They announced Podbop was the winner, I stood up, and shouted YEAH! Then, and I don't know why I didn't expect this, they asked me to come on stage and demo it. I was sitting next to Chris Radcliff and was shaking and telling him how I wish I could have his nerve right now (he gave some of the most calm and collected talks in front of people I saw at the conference). I got on stage and ended up borrowing Chris' laptop because the damn 12" Powerbooks use a tiny video output cable that nobody had. Don't even ask me what I said because I don't remember. It all went by so fast. Then Jonathon Schwartz, President and COO of Sun, came on stage and awarded Daniel and I a Sun Fire T2000 Server. This thing is ridiculous. I can't imagine what it can't handle because it is apparently the "fastest server in the world". I will try not to cause damage from drooling on it when it arrives on my doorstep.

Then things just got better. Adam Sah of Google invited us Mashup Campers back to Google for snacks and refreshments. Googleplex w00t! It was awesome. After we signed our lives away to get a visitor sticker we were in! I saw the Master Plan, the beanbags, the massage chairs, the jacuzzi, the offices, the free food *everywhere*, and even the google doctor & dentist. This place has it all. We socialized a bit more and moved on to BJ's Brewhouse for a real dinner with Cory Pinter, Daniel, Hart Rossman, and Cindy Lu. Wasn't that hungry but did enjoy a fine Amber Ale. There are so many opportunities across California to try microbrews over the week. It was awesome. We headed home and called it a night around midnight. After all we had a plane to catch to San Diego Wednesday morning.

Around noon the next day Daniel and I were picked up in San Diego by Chuck Norris and Chris Radcliff, both EVDB ninjas. We hung out at their office over the next two days. It was really enjoyable both meeting the team that makes Podbop possible and Eventful run (the best events site ever in my not so humble opinion). Hey, they even fed us. We gave them feedback about Eventful and they helped with anything we might need to help Podbop continue to grow. We're really fortunate to be mashing up EVDB because I doubt Google or Yahoo asks their mashers if they need any extra API calls or offer help in making their mashups grow.

Daniel and I hung out Thursday evening at Twiggs, one of the best coffeeshop/bars I've been to. Boy, I wish they had places like that in Gainesville. That night and the next day we hung out with my friend Serena (who was kind enough to drive up from LA). We saw some sights, drank some beer, and walked some beach. It was a great time. By Saturday morning I was sooo ready to be back in my own bed. We left San Diego at 8:45am and got into Gainesville at 10:00pm. It was a long day of travel but it was worth every second.

Best Week Ever brought to you by:
Thank you Daniel for pushing past your comfort zone as well as helping this whole crazy Podbop idea come to life. Thank you Mark for taking this trip with us and your support along the way.

Thank you to the EVDB crew who had a big, big part in making this trip enjoyable and possible. You guys are one of the most inspired, talented, and intelligent teams I have ever seen and it was really great hanging out with all of you. And your API ain't too shabby either :)

Finally, I'd like to thank David and Doug for putting on Mashup Camp (sign up for the second one, its free!) in the first place. I know you guys put hundreds of hours into this and I want you to know that you created something I will never forget.