Report on Qt Developer Days 2014 Berlin
I recently returned from the Qt Developer Days Europe conference and I wanted to share a brief report on some of the highlights of the show.
The event was held from October 6 through 8 in Berlin, Germany. The conference was held at a new venue this year, the Berlin Congress Center. The conference last year outgrew the Cafe Moskau as it offered limited space for seating during the keynote within the main building. The new location allowed for more attendees and offered a better layout for the presentation rooms, vendor booths and break areas.
Similar to other years, the conference started off with an optional training day on Monday where attendees could take full day courses on Qt-related topics. This was followed on Tuesday and Wednesday by the conference proper.
The keynote, given by Qt Chief Maintainer Lars Knoll, reviewed the recent achievements of the Qt Community and upcoming development plans. There were no major surprises here, reflecting the fact the Qt is now being openly developed using the Qt Community Process.
Over the course of two days, the conference offered over fifty full length technical talks within several tracks. There was a good balance of introductory and advanced talks, with coverage of desktop, mobile and embedded applications for Qt.
Once again, Lightning Talks were on the agenda, providing an opportunity for shorter talks that could fit into a maximum of 10 minutes. The talks were well received and, as last year, the audience was asked to vote for their favorite presentations.
The vendor area had a number of Qt companies showcasing their goods and services. Seven people from ICS attended the show and when not watching or giving technical presentations, we manned our booth. This year we demonstrated an Intel In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) system developed in Qt and running under the QNX RTOS on Freescale hardware. ICS also displayed a Panasonic in-flight entertainment demo, our very own ViewPoint Interactive Kiosk software and a presentation of our user experience (UX) design capabilities.
Digia's booth reflected its new branding as The Qt Company.
Also new this year was the Qt Champions award. A number of individuals were nominated and the first recipient was announced: Samuel Gaist.
We are now looking forward to Qt Developer Days North America to be held in San Francisco November 3-5 and organized by ICS. This year will feature many of the same talks as Berlin, including training options following the conference as well as some different choices as well. We hope to see you there!
