From July 14 to 17, the .NET Developer Conference (DDC), Mobile Developer Conference (MDC), and Web Developer Conference (WDC) took place in Nuremberg as part of Developer Week 2014 (DWX). It was the first time I spoke at a conference with such broad topics and such a large audience.
Accordingly, I traveled to the Speakers Meet & Greet on Sunday already excited and curious about what these four days of concentrated knowledge sharing would bring.
The Meet & Greet was a great opportunity to talk with all the old and new DWX speakers, network, and exchange views on current topics. The organizers did everything imaginable to create a truly pleasant atmosphere. From cold beer to excellent food, everything was taken care of with what felt like a three-star menu. The fourth star was then brought home by the German national football team that evening. A wonderful evening and a great start to Developer Week 2014.
My first day at DWX started with ASP.NET Web API and OWIN from two speakers I already knew, Marius Schulz and Robert Mühsig. The following session about communication between iOS and hardware such as Arduino will probably be what finally motivates me to dust off my Raspberry Pi again. With one exception, most of the sessions I attended that day were mobile- or .NET-focused. I would especially like to highlight the talk What Is an Event Store? by Jan Fellien, where we learned a lot about his life, actions, and decisions as a way of explaining the topic. Good thing some things expire while others outlive us. ;-)
On the second day of Developer Week 2014, I attended fewer sessions because I still needed time to prepare for my own talk. The plan was to fine-tune the slides and run through the demo again. There was, however, one session I definitely did not want to miss: Cross-Platform Development with C# by the creators of the well-known to-do list app Wunderlist. It was a really insightful talk about the new possibilities of universal apps, shared projects, and more. Many thanks at this point for the mention of my own talk later that day.
And then the time had come. My big appearance turned into a home game thanks to the attentive audience and the good questions they asked. Even though it was the last talk of the day, there were plenty of listeners interested in Xamarin, with only a few seats in the front row left empty.
Community Night added another highlight to Developer Week. Besides Pecha Kucha, where developer topics were presented briefly and concisely, there was also PowerPoint Karaoke. I drew the lucky card of going first and giving a completely improvised presentation on the topic of Cloud using slides I had never seen before. Apparently it went over well, judging by the standing ovations.
Unfortunately, I had to leave rather early on the third day. For that reason, I used the time to take a look at the many exhibitors' booths. There was still enough time for small talk before I headed back home.
The world of software development keeps moving, so I am certain that DWX 2015 will once again have plenty of interesting topics to offer. Thanks to the great organization and the atmosphere throughout the conference, I would gladly return to Nuremberg as a speaker.
If you are curious now, I can only recommend experiencing it live yourself.
As a mobile enthusiast and managing director of Cayas Software GmbH, it is very important to me to support my team and our customers in discovering new potential and growing together. Here I mainly write about the development of Android and iOS apps with Xamarin and .NET MAUI.
Driven by a shortage of skilled labor, IT outsourcing is becoming more and more interesting for companies. We have previously shown why integrating external experts into your organization is almost inevitable in the future. By following 8 simple steps, you'll be one of the winners when working with a software development company.
In today's fast-paced business world, staying ahead of the competition requires access to specialized expertise. However, hiring full-time experts can be costly and time-consuming, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or startups. This is where the concept of Expert as a Service (EaaS) comes into play, providing businesses with on-demand access to industry-leading experts. In this article, we will explore the rise of EaaS, its benefits, and how it is shaping the future of on-demand expertise.
The idea of the Developer Walk became reality with the first actual Developer Walk. You can read here how the first walk in Saxon Switzerland unfolded.