Xamarin Evolve Event 2013

From April 14 to 17, around 600 prospects, customers, and partners met in Austin, Texas for Xamarin Evolve Event 2013. Behind them were two days of intensive training, two days of conference talks, knowledge sharing, and plenty of new contacts.

Training keynote

The training days opened with a keynote by Nat Friedman, Xamarin's CEO. He looked back over the company's 22-month history and explained how everything started with the first Xamarin DrinkUp in Munich in 2011. He spoke about how impressed he was by the enthusiastic response from the German developer community that evening and how that day, along with many more DrinkUps around the world, laid the foundation for Xamarin Evolve.

The training sessions

The training sessions and their content were divided into the categories "advanced" and "beginner" and offered new information and solution approaches for everyone. For some, it was also simply an opportunity to get to know the other platform.

All training days were recorded by a production team and are expected to be made available to attendees over the next few weeks free of charge, together with all presentation materials and sample code. Those who paid attention should be able to pass the tests for the Xamarin Certified Developer Program that had already been announced in previous weeks.

Conference keynote

After two intense days of getting to know the Android and iOS platforms, it was time for the final two days of the event. Just like the training days before them, they began with a keynote by Nat Friedman and Miguel de Icaza, Xamarin's CTO. And, as any proper keynote should, it included announcements that got the crowd excited.

Xamarin Studio iOS Interface Designer

Miguel de Icaza was on stage talking about his early days and how he came to know C#. Then, almost casually, he mentioned that an interface designer had been built into Xamarin Studio. The crowd went wild. And it became even louder when Miguel showed a short demo. For the first time they were not just providing a feature, they had actually improved on it. The Xamarin iOS Interface Designer could even display custom controls and changes made to them. That is something Apple's Interface Builder still could not do at the time.

In addition to the already known Async/Await and F# support, Nat made the second announcement that drew thunderous applause. With the Xamarin Test Cloud, a gap was being closed that had been a major hurdle not only for Xamarin customers. Because honestly, who has every possible device type available? The Android platform in particular is a major challenge for many when it comes to device testing. By acquiring the Danish company LessPainful, the team behind the Calabash framework, Xamarin gained not only expertise but also a head start in the cross-platform solutions market. If you want to learn more about Xamarin Test Cloud, you can take part in the beta phase that will begin shortly.

The Evolve feeling

In general, that would almost be enough to say about Xamarin Evolve, if it were not for the fantastic food and the great evening events that invited attendees to get to know one another and the Xamarin team. They deserve to be mentioned because they went well beyond what you would usually expect from an event of this size. Mark Probst published a nice selection of photos from Evolve on Facebook. Take a look.