National Youth Leadership Forum on Technology

[tbaker397]

Hey all. I just recieved an invitation to the National Youth Leadership Forum on Technology to be held in Silicon Valley next July. Now, I have never gone to something like this before so I need some input from you guys.

What all happens here, although Im guessing it has to do with learning about technology and stuff, But am curious is anyone has any first hand experiance.

Is it wortwhile? If I go, I don't want to be bored the entire time.

Any help/input from you guys would be appreciated because to me, it looks pretty interesting and am thinking about attending.

[Dilatedpeoples28]

O MAN!!!! I this post is gonna be long, but very beneficial to u. I attended that forum for technology in silicon valley for 2005 summer. I presume you have one for 2006 summer. I just recieved my invitation back as an alumni. Ok first off, it was A BLAST. its not all boring technology stuff. Infact most of it is fun tech based stuff that u will love. I live in Maryland, so it was a LONG flight to silicon valley, by myself, but that didnt bother me. When u get to ur hotel, there is 2 hotels u will be staying at either the Fairmont or the Hilton. I was in the Hilton which i think was better because I only had 1 room mate. Most people in the Fairmont had 2 other room mates. Back to when u get to the hotel, u sign in and get ur room key and everything, then u go to a seprate ballroom where u meet you "tech" talk leader. The tech talk meetings are 2 times a day, one in the morning, one at night. U become very close with the people in ur tech talk group. When u meet your tech talk leader, u get alot of info on the rules, a map of the area u will be staying, a journal that u have to right in seldumly. Then u go to the computer lab where u go through and prioritize the places u want to visit during your site visits. It is different companys that you can visit. Now i will tell you that u most likely will not get your first choice as there will be about 1,600 other students there. But the companies that u can visit are great, when i went i got to go to Nvidia, which was AWESOME. As u can imagine. Also on most of the site visits u get some free stuf, nothing major like a GPU or anything, although if u visted Sandisk they handed out 256meg mp3 players. Then you prioritze your seminars, which is basically a speaker talking to you about that topic that was assigned to you. They might be boring if u pick a seminar that u arent interested in. Every other day or so u will go to the civil auditorium where u will have the Keynote speaker, which is a bigname speaker that talks to the entire mass of students. When i went they had Jarron Lanier, Shawn Fanning, which he is not a good speaker, lol. And 2 others.

Now on to the hotels. Each one has a Gaming lab with decent computers where last year most of the people played UT2004. They have a Mac computer lab, a networking computer lab, which is REALLY fun because that is where u build a network then test it for its security and basically it always ends up that u DESTROY the computers with viruses and tojans and anything u can think of. Also they ahve a regular computer lab for email and research and IM.

When you eat, it is all Buffet style, like u pick up a plate move down the line pick wut u want. As for food quality its ok. not the greates tho. Although there are PLENTY of food places to go to in the perimeter.

One of the main reasons for your tech talk groups is about half way through u will begin your "future solutions" projects. Where you will take a current problem, research it, come up with a good solution to that problem. Then present you solution on a poster board and in a Flash animation. You will work in groups of about 8 or so, so u wont be working alone. The second to last day is when u present your projects to judges and they will score u and there is different rounds that u can make it to or not make it. Overall the project is easy, but time is an issue as we were scambling to finish on the last day.

Now for the clothing. When u got to the site visits or seminars u have to wear wits called "relaxed professional" which is like slacks and a polo shirt. Then there is casual which is at night and when ur not anywhere special. Then the only day you HAVE to have a suit, or jacket is on the presentation day of ur projects. No big deal cuz its onlly about half a day.

As I was told by many staff members during my trip u will get out of this program wut u put in. As in there are Peer 2 Peer seminars which is another student teaching u guys about anything really. If you take the time to visit these, then u will get alot more out of the program. I had a really great time and got alot out of the program. I recommend going to the NYLF website, www.nylf.org/tech, as this is where u can find out ALOT of info that u will need. I highly recommend u go, its a blast. I might be going back this year for my second time, because alumni get special privilages, . Feel free to poast any questions u have about the program, i check this site daily, and iw ill most certainly be able to answer any question u have. I hope this helps ur decision. It was just great that I could share my experience with somone on this site thats going. Feel free to post questions or anything, c ya

[tbaker397]

The price I was given, its for everything right? Air Fare, Room/board etc.... I also see that Steve Wozniak will be speaking this year. Maybe he would be better than Shawn. I will have to talk it over with my parents but I really hope on attending because it looks really interesting and just to be able in Silicon Valley.... jeez, what could be better?

[just-]

tbaker397 is there any chance you could be our reporter on site ?

have a special section of the website dedicated to the live coverage of that?

what do you think, ca3le some input into this please

btw you need to take a digital camera with you

[Dilatedpeoples28]

no that price is for the tuition only, room/board food, airfair u will have to book urself. I did mine with the travel agency that they are affiliated with. Since u have to arrive there at a certain time and depart at a certain time. They book my flights at the exact right times and everything. It will cost u more to go through them, or u can just go on a website, and get a cheaper price, usually. And yes u will DEFINETLY want a camera of some sort, because u will see speakers and u will visit San Fran, and Sants Cruz, u will really regret it if u dont bring one.

It is pretty expensive, but the experience along was well work the price. Depending on where u live, the airfare will be more expensive, like for me i live in MD so that arcross the whole nation, so on a website it was about 300, but through the agency it was about 350.

[just-]

if you dont have one start hunting for one in ebay

[Dilatedpeoples28]

Just wondering any one out there attended this forum in the past?

[tbaker397]

Thats for the advice guys. I will def. take a camera, no doubt. And Just-, id be glad to be the testmy.net reporter. Free of charge, of course . CA3LE, any input on that idea?

Also, can anyone give me a link to a decent digital camera, I don't care where its at(i mean online retailor) since ill go look for it on eBay.

Just as a side note Dilated... i live in PA about a half an hour away from cumberland.

[resopalrabotnick]

price range on that camera?

[Dilatedpeoples28]

Then ur airfare is gonna be pretty close to wut mine was, if u got the money than i recommend going through the agency they work with, makes things alot easier.

[tbaker397]

thanks for the info dilated, and under 150, 200 at the MAX

[resopalrabotnick]

thanks for the info dilated, and under 150, 200 at the MAX

kodak dx7440. on sale kodak direct 200. so cheaper elsewhere. i added 30 bucks for hicap battery. (it comes with standard battery and charger and i added a 512 meg sd card.

with the 512 meg it's good for ~250 4 MP pics in the high qual compression or 48 minutes of 320x240 25 fps quicktime.

it has a 4x optical and 4x digi zoom and a shitload of manual options to get pix just right. but good qulity snapshiot as well. file size 1.5 to 2.5 meg per 4 mp pic.