Looking back on 2015 has humbled us here at Gopher Academy. What an amazing year we’ve had. Let’s review some of the highlights:

• We’ve published dozens of community-written articles.
• The Go community created and ratified a Code of Conduct.
• We organized the third “Advent” series of articles, this year going all the way through the end of December.
• GopherCon attendees and supporters raised over $6,000 USD for the GopherCon scholarship fund.
• We used that scholarship fund to provide varying assistance from free tickets to full room and board for aspiring Gophers from all walks of life.
• GopherCon 2015 was a huge hit, with almost 1400 attendees - DOUBLE 2014’s attendance levels.
• Sponsors came out to support GopherCon from all corners of the business world. It was amazing to see the variety of companies using Go!

2016 is going to be just as amazing for Go, and for Gopher Academy. We’re not going to sit back and revel in our success as a community for too long; we’ve got work to do.

Here’s what you can expect in 2016:

• More awesome content contributed by people just like you.
• Changes to GopherCon based on your feedback
• More ways for you to support the GopherCon scholarship fund
• More activities and events during GopherCon, including one or two that might even be gasp outside – it burns my eyes!

We have said before that it takes a village to raise a Gopher. As this village grows, we at Gopher Academy will keep doing our best to keep the Public Library stocked with great things to read and make sure the professors at the University are the best and brightest around. That metaphor might have been a little too much. Blame the New Year’s punch.

Acknowledgements

The December Blog Series was a tremendous success with over 70,000 page views so far. I’d like to personally thank each author for taking the time to share their knowledge with the Go community. Reading the blog every day was like opening a new present.

Dave Cheney, Matt Farina and Nathan Youngman were especially helpful this year, editing, reviewing and publishing posts for the Series. My heartfelt thanks to you all.

GopherCon 2016

https://gophercon.com/

Early bird tickets for GopherCon 2016 go on sale January 1st, 2016. You can also submit a proposal to speak starting on January 1st. Our CFP will be open from January 1st through January 31st this year. That’s a little earlier than last year, and a little shorter too. Don’t let your opportunity to speak pass you by. Submit that proposal!

From all of us at Gopher Academy to you, our friends, readers, teachers, and community: Thank you for 2015, and Happy New Year.