In many ways, CloudCamp St. Louis has been well over a year in the making. It’s been something I’ve been dying to do since Ruv, Dave, Jesse, Sara and I did the very first camp in San Francisco, back on June of ’08. The first discussions about it between Benson and I were later that summer, but alas life (work, really) happens.

I suppose I’ve always felt a bit guilty that we hadn’t done one here in St. Louis yet, given all the work I’ve done with CloudCamp the organization and helping to put on CloudCamps in other folks’ cities. I’ve kind of considered it one of those “cobbler’s children” kinds of situations, i.e. they go barefooted. (My buddy Gary Woodcock over at Hexagrid calls it establishing “band cred” — making it big someplace else and then rocking out back home. Works for me.)

Needless to say, I was pumped when Benson, Ken and I finally decided to “just do it” a little less than a month ago and committed to pull together CloudCamp St. Louis under a very aggressive time table.

It’s been a blast so far, and we’re just under a week from the big day.

The community has really rallied behind the event. We’ve got great corporate sponsors, including Savvis, Hexagrid, Oasis Digital and of course Appistry, with more to come. And we’re also supported by a number of local groups, including the St. Louis Lambda Lounge, a group focused on functional programming languages, the St. Louis-based Strange Loop conference, and the St. Louis Java Users Group.

And we’re quickly approaching 100 pre-registered attendees. Woo hoo!

So, please join us on Thursday evening, December 10th, at 6pm for CloudCamp St. Louis. The more the merrier. The event promises to offer a fantastic evening of cloud computing education, discussion and networking (and of course food and drink!!) You’re guaranteed to have a great time, or your money back!!! (By the way, it’s totally FREE.

See you at CloudCamp!