An Interview with Nick Kwiatkowski about Flex Camp Michigan

What made you decide to do a Flex Camp in Michigan? Actually, first could you tell us where this is taking place and what your website is?

We're holding it near Michigan State University, and you can read about it at http://camp.theflexgroup.org/.

A lot of people I talked to in the Michigan area don't really know what it is. They want to get started but they don't know if they can dedicate a week to get training. The camp environment is very quick – a day... In our case it will be a day and a half. It's local, it's very inexpensive, and it's an atmosphere designed for beginners.

So who's presenting at your Flex Camp?

Ben Forta is presenting. There's also me, Michael Labriola, John Farrar, just to name a few. We've got some other people from the Flex community as well.

The more that I'm talking to people, the more I see that there is some Flex, and they're trying to see where they can use it in their business. For people who have heard of Flex and know briefly what it is, this is a way for them to investigate it and walk away with a lot of good information.

What makes your Flex Camp unique?

We're doing a day and a half Flex Camp, instead of the traditional one-day or six-hour Flex Camp. Some of the people I've talked to went to other Flex camps where they felt it was a fire hose of information – a lot of information in a small amount of time to process it.

By splitting ours up into a day and a half, we're forcing people to do the overnight thing.. We have a half hour between sessions, which causes people to be able to talk to each other. The stretched out time frame works better. We're also doing more of a hands-on type of approach rather than a listen-to-lectures type of environment. In the space we've chosen, every laptop has its own ethernet plug, has access to the web, so if you want to search the web, you can do it in a very relaxed type of environment.

Is there a special call for Flex in Michigan?

There's a lot of large organizations that are investing heavily in Flex in Michigan. Some of the original companies to promote Flex, such as BlueCross Blue Shield, are in Michigan. Some of the people in my user group who work for NASA are doing Flex work as well. Some of the universities, like University of Michigan and Michigan State University, are also doing Flex. I work for Michigan State.

Why didn't you hold it at Michigan State University?

Actually, it is on an auxiliary campus for Michigan State. It's a much better setup because you have the stadium seating classrooms, comfortable seating, which you don't always get with the normal classrooms, and there's also food there. It's done by the conference center, but this conference center always wins awards for their food. Lunch and breakfast comes free at the event.

How much does it cost?

It's $25 for the single day and $40 for both days.

Well, that certainly seems like a bargain. Tell me, as the manager of the Michigan Flex User's Group, what advice do you have for people who want to get into Flex?

If you can go to a flex camp in your area, that's the easiest entry. Otherwise, I would start with the Flex Authority Magazine [Editor's Note: due out in August] and also the 360Flex conferences – the one coming up in San Jose and future ones as well. Also, Flex.org is a great resource for information on Flex.

Well, thanks for your help, Nick. It was a pleasure speaking to you.

My pleasure as well. Thanks, Judith.