<div>I have loved all the LCA's I've been too and they all had their own unique flavor. Talks are always excellent but the people are the reason I keep coming back. I have been to other conferences, but LCA is the only one which has the real community spirit that is so awesome.</div>
<div><br></div>= LCA2004 --- Adelaide =<div><br></div><div>My first <a href="http://Linux.conf.au">Linux.conf.au</a>, I only ended up going because a company that I worked for was contracting NetCraft. The conference was awesome (free Golden Gaytimes for the win!). I was pretty much a noob about the community so after chatting with someone I'd get told that he is Bdale Garbee, Keith Packard or Rusty Russell. Will always have a special place in my heart as my first LCA. I even won an "I BDale, owe you one HP iPaq" :)</div>
<div><br></div><div>= LCA2005 -- Canberra =</div><div><br></div><div>My first LCA which I spoke and and organised a miniconf. Running the Embedded miniconf (back before Arduinos ;) was awesome and Bdale's talk on Software Defined radio ended up as a best of. Giving a talk was a bit daunting as I was scheduled against Keith and Shuttleworth (just after he had gotten back from the space) but they really did treat you like a king. Canberra also had some of the best keynotes with Eben and Tridge both getting standing ovations! I came away mega enthused.</div>
<div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Sadly I missed LCA2006 because I was sailing down the Nile in Egypt at the time. Apparently I missed the plague or something?</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>= LCA2007 - Sydney =</div>
<div><br></div><div>Who can forget the misspelling on the hats, bright green shoes or being yelled at in the morning? (GOOD MORNING FREEDOM LOVERS!). Running the Gaming miniconf and having Rusty strut his stuff in Stepmania on the Open Day was awesome. It really started to feel like I was part of the FOSS community in a way I had never before. Plus meeting people in person is awesome.</div>
<div><br></div><div>= LCA2008 - Sydney =</div><div><br>Again I ran the Gaming miniconf and tried to make it bigger, better and more awesome. Rusty packed a room with his talk about how his kernel hacking days were over and he was now a games programmer, "Stand back, I'm a kernel hacker!". Again it was awesome to see everyone again, I started realising that even if the conference had no talks or events and was just people standing around it still would be awesome.</div>
<div><br></div><div>= LCA2009 - Sydney =</div><div><br></div><div>The first year I didn't run a miniconf or do anything similar since 2004, yet the Gaming Miniconf survived without me which was even more awesome. 'Twas nice to just relax and be an attendee, but man was that hike up the hill to the apartments a killer.</div>
<div><br></div><div>= LCA2010 - Wellington =</div><div><br></div><div>A trip to New Zealand and getting to see everyone again, who could ask for more? The U Stay common room was full of people doing all types of cool stuff including giant chess. I foolishly agreed to run an Australian PyCon at Chris's Open Programming Miniconf (I wasn't even intoxicated!) but poor Richard didn't stand back fast enough to and I dragged him into it too. Got my first ride in an ambulance but was back in time for the closing dinner and see the performance.</div>
<div><br></div><div>= LCA2011 - Brisbane = </div><div><br></div><div>I have no idea how this conference ran perfectly with the last minute change of venue! Rockets, rockets, rockets! Never did get mine back, but it was awesome none the less. Another round of lively keynotes, including quite a bit of controversy. Managed to stay out of hospital. The talks were excellent, so many times I wanted to see multiple things at once. I guess I was pretty much a fixture at LCA, having attended seven. </div>
<div><br></div><div>= LCA2012 - Ballarat = </div><div><br></div><div>Managed to get selected for a talk for the first time since 2005 - proof that persistence eventually wears them down ;). My first time at attempting to do live streaming of the conference (others had done various forms of streaming at previous conferences), we managed to get over 100 people on Tenenbaum's talk and it lead to what we did at PyCon US a short 3 months later.</div>
<div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Anyway, there are my highlights.</div><div><br></div><div>Tim</div>