Yea, the vacation time sinks the week long conference idea real quick. Open source is definitely a good way to start, and you are in the middle of the states s

Yea, the vacation time sinks the week long conference idea real quick. Open source is definitely a good way to start, and you are in the middle of the states so you are in a good place to be able to get places. Not sure what kinda of drive it is to Kansas City or Oklahoma City or even St Louis, but you could do weekend trips there and find a meetup to go do. Find a hackathon in one of those cities and meet some people that way. See if you can find a startup in St Louis or KC and go see them, talk to them, we all work over weekends at least some. Usually I find people pretty cool with letting someone stop by for a short time and learn something. Hell, all they can do is say no, just keep asking around till you get a yes.