Devoxx 2015: A Java Hipster Visits Belgium
I've been excited to show people JHipster and what it can do ever since I started using it in September 2014. I've been using its core frameworks (AngularJS, Bootstrap and Spring Boot) for a few years and believe they do a great job to simplify web development. Especially for Java developers.
When my JHipster talk was accepted for Devoxx Belgium, I told Trish we were headed back to Belgium. She smiled from ear-to-ear. Belgium is one of our favorite countries to visit. In an effort to live healthier prior to Devoxx, I stopped drinking beer a month beforehand. I mentioned this to friends the week prior.
One month ago, I stopped drinking beer. I hoped it'd help me with www.21-points.com and weight loss. Unfortunately, it did not.
I told myself I'd start drinking beer again when 1) The Bus was finished or 2) Trish and I arrived in Belgium for Devoxx. Looks like #2 will win (we land on Tuesday).
We arrived in Brussels late Tuesday morning and hopped aboard a train to Antwerp. After arriving, we were hungry so we stopped at Bier Central for lunch. The mussels and beer were splendid.
We walked to our accommodations afterward, the Gernardin Guesthouse.
We loved the small space, steep stairs and the nice use of space for the restroom in the upstairs closet. The
breakfast was delightful too.
Wednesday afternoon we found ourselves strolling on a city walk around Antwerp. It was overcast, but not chilly and we had a fabulous lunch at Món after taking some pictures from the top of the MAS.
Wednesday evening, we journeyed to the Devoxx venue to deliver my presentation. The performance went well and I heard lots of positive feedback almost immediately. This is one of the things I love about Devoxx: the audience tweets like mad and feedback is immediate. I also like that the presentation displays are like developers monitors; huge!
Devoxx made an excellent move this year: they uploaded recordings of talks to the Devoxx 2015 channel on YouTube. Amazingly, they did it within hours for each talk! Because of this modern miracle, you can see Get Hip with JHipster on YouTube or watch it below.
Near the end of my presentation, I announced the source code for 21-Points Health is available on GitHub. I've had quite a few people ask for it as part of the JHipster Mini-Book and it seemed like the right thing to do. We celebrated that night with Josh Long and other new friends at Bier Central.
Thursday we visited Bruges and had a wonderful time strolling around Minnewater, marveling at the buildings near the main square and taking a clip-clop tour through town. We barely made it to the Bruges Beer Museum before it closed and had a delicious meal at Cambrinus.
Thanks to the Devoxx crew for a fun conference and great venue. Thanks to Belgium: for being so beautiful, for making savory chocolate, brewing delicious beer and for your wonderful people. And to the Java community: thanks for being so enthusiastic and fun to talk to. We love creating lasting memories with you! 🍻😊
Hi
I have finished watching your video for this JHipster presentation. My sole complain was when trying to view the code demo. I suggest Devoxx2015 staff should consider to switch panes when in demo code. That is something any Microsoft event does.
Posted by Carlos Adolfo Ortiz Q on November 20, 2015 at 10:58 AM MST #
Carlos - this is my fault, not Devoxx's. I usually increase my font size so it's easier to read for the audience. However, during this presentation, the screen behind me was so big that the audience could easily read my default font size, which made it easier for me to live code with.
I plan to put together a screencast soon with this same demo and will make sure it's easier to read.
Posted by Matt Raible on November 20, 2015 at 11:02 AM MST #