Robert Hope’s wallet is resting a little easier than it was this time last year.

Hope, a systems architect at Bizbuysell and owner of San Luis Technology Consultants, is the founding force behind the Central Coast Code Camp, an all-volunteer effort to bring together programmers in the San Luis Obispo area for a weekend of free learning and networking.

Area tech companies – Couto Solutions, LEVEL Studios, Digital West Networks and others – have funded this year’s camp, which is the second ever.

Last year, Hope funded the event himself.

This year’s Code Camp offered about three dozen sessions on topics from hot new developments – such as Microsoft’s new Silverlight plug-in, Adobe Flex and cloud computing with Amazon Web Services – to time-tested topics such as intellectual property portfolio management.