Another year, 2015, has come and gone so quickly. So I guess this would be a good time to review what has happened this year.

AT&T Developer Summit

I look forward to the AT&T Developer Summit each year in Las Vegas. A hackathon, developer conference, and CES started this year off with a bang. Neon Trees played at the afterparty.

Ireland

After enjoying Europe last September, I decided international travel wasn’t that bad. I flew to Ireland. I really enjoyed the rolling green hills and beautiful scenery as we drove around the island. And driving on the other side of the road wasn’t too hard to get used to.

Vancouver and Victoria

Traveling up north to Canada was also pretty amazing.

SpaceX 6 Launch

I visited NASA Ames to watch a livestream of the launch of SpaceX CRS-6 Dragon spacecraft. Unfortunately, as is common in spaceflight, it was delayed.

Honolulu

What better place to enjoy warm weather and beautiful sunsets than Hawaii? I got to visit a number of National Parks and Historic sites on the island.

Maker Faire

This was my second time at Maker Faire. It is inspiring to see the stuff people make. We are all makers.

Twilio Signal Conference

Twilio gave away hackpacks to attendees at the Signal conference. Connected to the littleBits, I hacked a brute force maze solver. They Might Be Giants performed at the afterparty.

Couchbase Conference

Couchbase held their conference at Levi’s stadium. It was my first time at the stadium and couldn’t believe the view from the press box.

AT&T FutureCast

AT&T Foundry in Palo Alto hosted a FutureCast with Nir Eyal, author of Hooked.

Intel IoT Roadshow

Intel hosted a IoT Roadshow at nestGSV in Redwood City and gave everyone an Intel Edison board. With support for Node.js, it’s pretty simple to hack hardware.

SFO Hackathon

Who thought my two passions, traveling and hackathons could collide? SFO held a hackathon and we used IBM Watson to match personalities of fellow business travellers in the terminal.

Levi’s Stadium IOT Hackathon

I also never imagined that I would attend a hackathon at a football stadium. Angelhack, the NFL, and Levi’s stadium hosted a hackathon around the Internet of Things.

Intel Developer Forum conference

Intel held its annual developer conference in San Francisco. Young the Giant and the Fray played at the afterparty.

Tina Seelig at AT&T FutureCast

Tina Seelig, author of InsightOut, spoke at the AT&T FutureCast held in Palo Alto.

Super Bowl Trophies

At the Art and Wine festival in Mountain View, I had the chance to see up close the Super Bowl trophies won by the San Francisco 49ers and the Oakland Raiders.

TechCrunch Disrupt hackathon

It can take some nerves to speak in front of a group of people. How about a one-minute pitch at the TechCrunch Disrupt hackathon? Check!

Box Conference

Box held it’s annual conference, and One Republic played at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco.

Money 20/20 Hackathon

Money 20/20 hosted another hackathon this year. Who doesn’t like $5k/$10k checks in return for hacking sponsor’s APIs.

Oracle Open World

After three long days at Oracle Open World, attendees were bussed over to Treasure Island for a concert by Sir Elton John. From riding a Ferris wheel to all the food you could possibly eat, to an amazing performance, this was one of the highlights of the year.

Quickbooks Connect

After the hackathon, the Quickbooks Connect conference featured keynote Oprah. She shared life lessons that she has learned. The afterparty featured the Goo Goo Dolls.

As the year comes to a close, I now realize how much I have grown this year. Sometimes we don’t remember all the adventures we have had or appreciate how much we learn and change the lives of those we come into contact with. Take the time to teach someone something new.

And I’ve realized another new goal I apparently have. If it isn’t obvious, I’ve been to quite a few conferences this year and they have had some great bands play. My goal is now to attend as many live performances of major musicians at conference after parties. I may be cheap, but I seem to be doing a pretty good job at hitting conferences with decent after parties and not paying for them.

Keep up the adventures and having fun. Happy New Years!