Hugge for developers, or how I went to KotlinConf

Habr, hello! My name is Maria and I am a programmer. I am writing for Android and have been doing this in Java for several years – against the background of universal advantages, it seemed to me very convenient. But progress does not stand still, and having come to Yandex.Money a year and a half ago, I got acquainted with the young language Kotlin, which turned out to be out of competition. The flexibility of the team, of which I decided to become a part, was important to me, and it was great that I got new opportunities for development here.

At the beginning of my work at the company, I heard positive reviews from colleagues who attended a conference devoted exclusively to the Kotlin language. In the IT field, you need to always be up to date with the latest ideas and developments, because everything is changing and developing quickly, and where can I learn more about what is happening in the Kotlin community, if not at KotlinConf? Also from those who develop the language itself. And so I went to her! There is no technical review of reports in this article; all materials are available for free access on YouTube. Further – about the conference itself, its organization and my impressions.

So KotlinConf 2019 in Copenhagen

Visiting this conference is not the cheapest pleasure – a participant's ticket for 2 days costs almost five hundred euros. By the way, Denmark is in first place in terms of living standards in the world, it is a country with a high level of solvency, and hence prices. It is expensive to eat, travel and live there, so I conclude that the high price of the conference is due to this. Most likely, if the company did not pay for my trip and participation, then I would be content with recordings of reports at home. And so we drove a small Yandex.Money team and personally visited the Kotlin party.

The event was held on the outskirts of the city at the Marriott Bella Center.

The transport infrastructure in Copenhagen is very convenient: the metro station, which can be reached directly from the city airport, is a two-minute walk from the conference venue. It seemed to me very successful – no distracting tourist noise. By signs and crowds with backpacks, it was easy to find the entrance to the center.

In the hall stretched a blue carpet – from the door to the place of registration of participants. The guys in T-shirts with the conference logo met the guests and helped not to get lost.

Registration did not take much time, and I was given a participant badge. The QR code on the badge is for making contacts. It leads to a page with a brief information about the participant and an inscription that you met this person at KotlinConf in Copenhagen.

By the way, when registering, they gave me only a badge – no notebooks, pens, stickers, maps and schedules, and I got used to such a set at IT conferences in St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk.

Probably, in the confusion, I missed the stand with the schedule of reports. I turned to the organizer in a T-shirt with seagulls and heard a simple and logical answer – the schedule is in the conference’s mobile application. It was even a little embarrassing, as if I were trying to navigate with a mechanical compass on a paper map. Open wi-fi in a large area of ​​a crowded conference worked perfectly, and for all the time I had no problems with the network.

In a nice native application, you could find everything you need: a map of the site, a schedule, information about speakers, their reports, and also note the materials you liked. I used this function not to get confused when and what report to go to.

From 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. there was breakfast on schedule, and part of the wide hall area between the halls was occupied by tables. Dining tables were mostly tall and without chairs – and that's great, because the rest of the time you sit on reports. Compared to other conferences, it was very nice here that you can drink coffee, for example, at any time, and not just for breakfast and lunch. As well as a snack – with fresh fruits and dried fruits and nuts, so there was no need to “eat properly at lunch, otherwise there would be no strength” (c) grandmother. However, this did not stop some participants from unceremoniously getting up 10 minutes before the end of the reports, noisily going down the stairs to the exit and going to take a turn for lunch – well, Spanish shame!

Sponsor stands began a little further in the depths of this space. There were surprisingly few stands for such a space of stands – if I’m not mistaken, there were only 7. Behind the wide counter were the hosts of the event, handed out badges, stickers and invited to a quiz where you could win the Jenga game.

Nearby were several Google stands. There you could ask questions to company representatives and receive detailed answers, and with them white T-shirts with the green head of the Android logo.

Presentations were held simultaneously in 3-4 classrooms and one spacious hall that accommodates all participants.

Everything was organized without overlays, with normal sound and image. Presentations were held in a darkened room, some speakers (not all, unfortunately) successfully prepared and made dark slides that were convenient to watch.

I noticed that the reports were of two levels – easy and medium – without in-depth topics. I regarded this as a plus, although some colleagues considered it, on the contrary, a disadvantage. I think the conference is not an event where you study a topic in detail – it is very difficult to put complex information into a small and understandable report. But at the conference you can see what tools are used, what ideas are valued, where the community is moving, how and by whom it is developing.

And the community is growing and developing, and how! The developers of the language themselves did not imagine what task they took up almost 10 years ago, but they coped well with it. According to the reaction of the participants, the significance of the work of this team was very noticeable. There were reports on how to move from obsolete technologies to relevant and advanced, and among my interlocutors there was a developer whose team was just about to give up inconvenient tools in favor of Kotlin. And this already shows how actively the community is growing, and whether else will be.

In general, I really liked the atmosphere of the event. The second day of the conference, for example, began with a lively report on the importance of working for pleasure. It is with this approach that a lot of interesting things are created that turns and moves the world, which is why progress is happening – due to the enthusiastic work of enthusiasts!

Inspiration is one of the important tasks of the conference, which the organizers and speakers managed. A portion of the Danish hugg is received: well, we are working further!

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