Demo day! After 4 weeks of prework and 12 weeks of full-time Bootcamp, everything culminated in the presentation of our final projects on Demo Day!
Our final week was structured like this:
- Monday & Tuesday: Final days of coding.
- Wednesday: 10:30am code freeze. Work on README's and prepare Demo Day presentations.
- Thursday: Final dress rehearsal in the morning. Demo Day reception at 11:30am. Introductory speeches at Noon. Open house until 1pm.
- Friday: Retro and feedback. Breakout Games after lunch. Evening: Bootcamp Graduation party at Newton's Attic.
Final Days of Coding
Monday and Tuesday were our final days of coding. The stress levels in the room seemed noticeably lower than at the end of week 11. At the end of week 11, many of us were still trying to implement new stories, and the time crunch was bearing down on us. By Monday of week 12, if we had not yet started a new story, it was likely that that story would now be pushed to a future sprint. We were now in the process of polishing up our code and making small improvements.
Most of my major stories got wrapped up the previous Friday. The final major story that I was attempting to implement was a timer function to kick inactive users out of the queue. I got about halfway done Monday evening before determining that this was unlikely to get done this sprint, and added it to my features list for next sprint!
On Tuesday, I set about tackling my Google Cloud hosting problem. For some reason, Google Cloud did not like the fact that I used both React and Laravel in one project file. After attempting to debug this with both Justin and Ian, and with time now running dangerously low, I decided that this build would have to be run locally, and went about the process of hosting my app from my IP address. Once I got my site hosted locally (I implemented it fully sometime Tuesday afternoon), I spent my remaining time testing for bugs and bringing my code up to production standards.
Demo Day Prep
Our code freeze was at 10:30am Wednesday morning. Now that I had a demo-able project, I set about writing a blog post for the week and a README for MPM2. I then began drafting my speech for our two-minute introduction presentations. We did several rehearsals — and critiques — on Wednesday, and a final dress rehearsal on Thursday morning.
Demo Day
Around 10am, we went down and began setting up our booths. I borrowed some external speakers to play my synth sounds, and set up an external monitor for the visuals. I found that, although the app worked locally and could be run on a user's phone, it was much more stable on desktop versions. As such, Ian offered to let me use his laptop to demo the user experience. On Ian's laptop, users could control the various synth and visual parameters. On my laptop, I had the source code and MySQL database, as well as my blog and LinkedIn pages available for users to peruse. I also set up a contact sheet, laid out some resumes, and posted my name on the table!
Around 11:30am, the guests started to arrive! We then mingled and talked with friends and family for about 30 minutes. Waiting was making me a little anxious, so I was glad when the instructors began their presentations around noon. Nick, Justin, and Ian all talked about the Bootcamp and our final project development process. After they were done speaking, we each had two minutes to introduce ourselves and to talk about our projects.
Lead instructor Justin talking about the Bootcamp
The audience — ready for some Demo Day fun!
Explaining MPM2
For my presentation, I talked about my background in music making, my intention of combining this passion with our tech stack for the final project, and finally how MPM2 worked. I even had two jokes planned for my speech — one about how I cut off all my long hair, and another about the value of my project (none — it's art). They were both received well — but don't worry, no plans to go into stand up comedy anytime soon.
Talking with Wendy Trivisonno about MPM2
My Demo Day fans — Back L-R: Martha, Judi, Bob, Jon Front: Anna
After presenting, we had about an hour of open booths. I got to showcase MPM2 to several groups of people, and many of them managed to make some rather interesting sounds and visuals! It was really fun getting to talk about a project that had consumed so much of my time for the last 3 weeks. I also got some really interesting feedback and advice on where to take the project next!
Post Demo Day
After Demo Day wrapped up, we all went across the street to East End Tap and Table for a celebratory meal. Still staying true to my new Pescetarian lifestyle, I ordered the tofu siam-wich. It was really good!
It feels a little strange that the Bootcamp is over. At the start, 16 weeks seemed like a really long time — yet it mostly flew by. I really enjoyed the projects we worked on, and the occasional ping pong or melee match definitely added to the overall fun. I'm really excited to continue updating this blog, and to keep you in the loop as I kick my job hunt into high gear!