At the eighth international conference «from developers for developers» on 21/22 October 2014, software engineers from all over the world will gather. This year, the focus is on «mixed reality», «big data» and «tooling for Web apps». Reto Frey, software engineer at AdNovum and co-organizer of Jazoon'14, talks about his commitment and the conference.
What is the reason for your commitment?
Co-organizing the conference is quite exciting and includes many tasks I've never faced before. In addition, it's a nice alternative to my everyday life as a software engineer. Preparing this kind of conference involves an incredible amount of work. It's not only about content, but also about finding sponsors, identifying topics, selecting speakers and workshops.
As a member of the organization team, I'm responsible for the marketing activities and the sponsors. I'm particularly pleased that we can welcome SAP as a Gold Sponsor.
Who are the people behind Jazoon and who is the target audience?
Jazoon is organized by developers for developers. We want to provide a platform for developers to exchange their ideas and their know-how and to attract renowned speakers to Switzerland. However, the event is also appealing for other IT experts and consultants. In 2013, approx. 65% of the visitors were developers, 25% team or project managers and 10% college students.
This year, the focus is on «mixed reality/ubiquitous computing», «big data in practice» and «tooling for Web apps».
With the first topic, we venture a glimpse into the future. Our everyday life is increasingly dominated by objects that are invisibly equipped with networked computers or that may be connected to computers. Thus, the focus in IT is shifting from computers serving as a tool to computers that are both ubiquitous and invisible. In this area, there's currently a lot of innovation, as shown by the example of Google Glass.
Big data, our second topic, has been hyped for quite some time. We're interested in what it looks like today, put into practice: How do companies use big data? Which ideas prevail in practice?
Last but not least, we cover a topic that is of concern to every developer: tooling for web applications. In the last few years, not much seems to have happened here. We may be wrong, though. Pleasant surprises are always welcome.
Among the approx. 150 papers we have received in total, we will select 35 and nominate the speakers or substitute speakers. Each talk was reviewed and critically assessed by an independent programme committee. Main selection criteria are the practical benefits and the innovative power.
What are the highlights of the conference?
We succeeded in attracting Mike Milinkovic, Executive Director of the Eclipse Foundation, and Gunter Dueck, mathematician and lateral thinker, as keynote speakers. These are the «official» highlights. And this is all I want to give away for the moment.