Jan 24, 2015

IT conventions for 2015: What you should look for

If you're working as a software developer, programmer or anything in between, chances are you're spending quite a lot of time in front of your computer. While it’s perfectly understandable to do so, given the nature of your work, there are times when you should just put everything on pause and get out a bit, and by "get out a bit" I mean go to a convention on a topic pertaining to your work. There are plenty of gathering, conferences and conventions throughout the year, and attending all of them would be close to impossible, but we've put together a list of the ones you should absolutely do not miss in 2015. Check them out!

Fluent

Fluent

From under the umbrella of media company O’Reilly, the Fluent is a conference focused on web technologies. Despite the fact that it’s only going to celebrate its third edition in 2015, there are several reasons to attend Fluent: full coverage of all the major web technologies of the moment (JavaScript, HTML5, WebGL, CSS3, Node.js, AngularJS, ECMAScript 6, mobile APIs, etc.), and exceptional speakers. A list of speakers has already been posted on the event’s page, and representatives of all the big names in the industry are bound to be there: Microsoft, Adobe, Salesforce.com, Mozilla, Facebook, reddit, Google, Red Hat and many others. If you’re into web technologies, Fluent is definitely worth your time.

OSCON

OSCON

The Open Source Convention, also coming from O’Reilly, is another interesting event, not only because of the large variety of topics it touches, but because you can currently register as a speaker there. That’s right – it’s your chance to share your knowledge with the world, and connect with people from the same field of work at a level you’ve never been able to do so before. While a schedule or a list of confirmed speakers for the 2015 edition of OSCON has not yet been confirmed, a simple look over the OSCON 2014 schedule should convince you that OSCON is the place to be.

GOTO Chicago

GOTO Chicago

Created "by developers, for developers", the GOTO conference is all about the new technologies trending in the development community. The line-up for GOTO 2015 is still in the works, but there are some early confirmations: Cameron Purdy (VP at Oracle), Ben Christensen (Netflix’s API platform manager), Vyacheslav Egorov (JavaScript Performance Expert and member of Google) and many others. The conference spreads over two days, followed by an additional two days of workshops.

QCon New York

QCon New York

QCon is another big name in the world of software development conferences, and the 2015 edition is definitely going to make it bigger. Everything starts with two days of tutorials (June 8th and 9th), followed by 3 days of conferences, with speeches and demonstrations held by a lot of iconic people in the industry. Some of the featured speakers are: Asif Makhani (Engineering Director at LinkedIn), Brian Goetz (Java Language Architect at Oracle), Jeff Hammerbacher (creator of Data Science at Facebook, founder of Cloudera), Swami Sivasubramanian (NoSQLGeneral Manager at Amazon), and many others.

CRAFT

CRAFT

CRAFT is a conference oriented towards software craftsmanship and everything this implies. Stretching across three days (workshop day on April 22nd and speaker sessions on April 23rd and 24th), CRAFT will be bringing some experts in the field of software developemtn on the stage. Google, Twitter, DevBootcamp, PayPal, Red Hat, IBM, Etsy, Netflix and numerous other big brands will have representatives present, discussing various aspects regarding software development and all the relevant adjacent topics. Check out the full list of speakers here.

IBM InterConnect 2015

IBM InterConnect 2015

In case you’re wondering why you haven’t heard of this IBM-branded conference yet, it’s because it’s new; well, it’s new with this name, at least – InterConnect is a refresh of IBM’s former Innovate event. Don’t think that the branding is the only thing that’s new, though: IBM has made some serious efforts to make the InterConnect one of the most memorable conferences out there. With more than 1500 technical sessions, 42 tracks and 8 streams, IBM plans to cover as much as possible in multiple inter-connecting fields. Aside from top-quality content, IBM also focused on entertainment a bit, bringing the legendary rock band Aerosmith in an exclusive concert, as well as a part of ABC’s Shark Tankmain stars. If that’s not a combination that makes the IBM InterConnect 2015 a must-go, I don’t know what is.

Author Bio: Daniel Lewis is the writer to this article. He has a great interest in writing about technology and latest tech trends. He also works for the site http://www.conosco.com which provides IT support in London and around the world for an existing team.