Conferences

Winter Tech Forum 2016 – My Favorite Developer Conference!

I’ve been to a TON of developer conferences and by a landslide my favorite is the Winter Tech Forum (which used to be the Java Posse Roundup). Here is why… Learning for me is experiential. Typical eyes-forward conferences are like being a passenger on a sail boat. I can watch what is happening but I could definitely not become the captain based on my experience as a passenger. This is what makes WTF different; every attendee is a captain (or maybe a skipper if you are new).

Goodbye Java Posse Roundup – Hello WTF 2015

For the past 8 (maybe 9?) years the absolute best yearly conference I’ve attended has been The Java Posse Roundup in Crested Butte, Colorado. At most conferences my favorite parts are the conversations at the bar and writing code with other attendees. The Java Posse Roundup has always been a conference just of those best parts. Even though The Java Posse is no-more, the Java Posse Roundup will live on as the Winter Tech Forum.

Dreamforce 2014: Wearables, Engagement Apps, $1M Hackathon

Dreamforce 2014 is quickly approaching and this year is going to be amazing! I’ll be presenting a few sessions and helping at the $1 Million Hackathon. Here are my sessions: Integrating Clouds & Humans with the Salesforce Wear Developer Packs As smart watches and other human-integrated devices make their way into the mainstream, developers will need to quickly ramp up to these new paradigms and interaction models. Integrating these new wearable devices with Salesforce connects users to their businesses and customers in new ways.

Going Reactive at OSCON 2014

This year at OSCON I will be leading a hands-on lab and presenting about Reactive, Play Framework, and Scala. Here are two sessions: Reactive All The Way Down (lab) - 9:00am Monday, July 21 In this tutorial you will build a Reactive application with Play Framework, Scala, WebSockets, and AngularJS. We will get started with a template app in Typesafe Activator. Then we will add a Reactive RESTful JSON service and a WebSocket in Scala.

Scala vs Java 8 at the Scala Summit

Bruce Eckel will be hosting the Scala Summit in Crested Butte again this summer. The Open Spaces conference will be September 15 - 19 which is a perfect time of year up in the Colorado Rockies. The theme of the Scala Summit this year is Scala vs. The New Features in Java 8. So there will definitely be some fascinating discussions. I’m also looking forward to working on some IoT projects during the hackathons.

JavaOne 2013 Hackathon, Presos & Webinar

Next week I will be at and around JavaOne for a number of events and presentations. Here they are: On Monday I will be leading a BYOL Hackathon at the new Typesafe office, followed by a roundtable discussion and a party. RSVP now to get a spot! On Tuesday at JavaOne I will be presenting two sessions: Web Fundamentals Many of us have worked with abstractions over Web technologies such as HTTP, but REST, HTML5, and WebSocket are requiring us to understand how the Web really works.

Building Reactive Apps at SpringOne 2013

Next week at SpringOne 2GX 2013 I’ll be presenting a session about Building Reactive Apps. Here is the description: Non-blocking, asynchronous, and reactive are all the rage today. This session will explore why the patterns are important in modern apps and how to apply them to event-driven web, mobile, and RESTful apps. To illustrate the concepts, Java, Scala, Akka, and Play Framework will be used as examples. Hope to see you there!

OSCON Workshop: 6 Minute Apps! Build Your First Modern Web App

Next week at OSCON 2013 in Portland I’ll be leading a hands-on workshop on Monday at 1:30pm where we’ll build a modern web app with Play Framework and Scala. Here are the details: 6 Minute Apps! Build Your First Modern Web App The web application landscape is rapidly shifting back to a Client/Server architecture. This time around, the Client is JavaScript, HTML, and CSS in the browser. The tools and deployment techniques for these types of applications are abundant and fragmented.

Scala Summit 2013

This summer Bruce Eckel will be hosting the Scala Summit in Crested Butte on August 19 - 21. I’ve been to many of Bruce’s events and they are my favorites. The hallway conversations at regular conferences are always the best and most educational part, so why not have a conference that is just the interactive bits? The OpenSpaces style is only interactive. The agenda at an OpenSpaces conference is determined by the attendees.

DevNexus 2013: Architecting Event-Driven Web, Mobile, and RESTful Apps & Introduction to Play Framework

At DevNexus 2013 I will be giving two talks: Architecting Event-Driven Web, Mobile, and RESTful Apps Non-blocking, asynchronous, and reactive are all the rage today. This session will explore why the patterns are important in modern apps and how to apply them to event-driven web, mobile, and RESTful apps. To illustrate the concepts, Java, Scala, Akka, and Play Framework will be used as examples. Introduction to Play Framework The Play Framework is a lightweight, stateless web framework for Java and Scala applications.