Conferences

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). The whole conference is the experiences that the attendees want to have. Sometimes that means we write code together, explore new technologies, or discuss ideas. Those experiences have made a significant impact on my technical skills. We also eat together and play together which has helped me build some amazing relationships.

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. I’m sure that many of the same developers will come since it has been a yearly pilgrimage for many. But hopefully the new name helps bring an even more diverse audience this year.

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. Join us as we use code and examples to dive into the architecture and patterns for developing wearable Salesforce apps with the Salesforce Wear Developer Pack for Android Wear.

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. We will then build the UI with AngularJS.

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. Bruce and I have a few pcDuino devices that will be fun to get Scala working on. Hope to see you there!

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. What actually happens when a Web browser opens a Web page? What is the connection between session state and cookies? How do HTML, CSS, and JavaScript work together? This session starts at the beginning and walks through the Web’s fundamental building blocks.

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!

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.

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. This leads to rich discussions and collaborative project hacking. I usually bring a project I want to work on with others and then find people who want to write some code with me. This year at the Scala Summit I’ll be working on some Scala template apps for Typesafe Activator. Hopefully you can join me!

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. With Play you can build traditional page-based web apps or modern web apps using REST, JavaScript, and HTML5. This session will give you an introduction to building web applications with the Play Framework.