DevExpress’ First Visit to the Norwegian Developers Conference

Setting Sail on the DevExpress Longboat

Last week, Gary and I set sail with some of our developers to make our first visit to the Norwegian Developers Conference in Oslo, Norway.

We had a great time meeting developers who were making use of DevExpress technologies and those that were interested in finding out more about the products.

I for one was bowled over by how friendly this conference was. The organisers told us that they had over 1500 people at the conference this year, making it their biggest to date. And they did a fantastic job of presenting the attendees with all kinds of great technical content, craftsmanship opportunities and networking activities. Even with such huge numbers of attendees, sessions and activities, everyone seemed really open to chatting and talking to a big mix of people. I really felt like it was more of a community event that a big conference. It’s reassuring to know that the organisers are still able to pitch their conference in a way that makes it welcoming and accessible to newcomers as well as regular attendees. To me, that is the sign of a great conference, just like CodeMash or CodeStock in the USA.

 
Getting Out and About

I’ve mentioned the great networking opportunities that the conference team put on for their attendees and speakers. The .NET Rocks team hosted a fun event with chat, anecdotes and great music at the attendee party, and the speakers were even invited on an evening tour of the fjords on a boat cruise, where they were fed shrimp by the bucket load!

Despite him hating boats, I managed to drag Gary along and we both really enjoyed the opportunity to relax and chat to people we already knew, and people we were meeting for the first time (*virtual waves* to Jon Skeet and Udi Dahan).

Not only that, but the DevExpress team headed out sight-seeing for an afternoon just before the conference. We visited the Viking Ship Museum, the Kon Tiki Museum and the Norwegian Maritime Museum (for a cuppa ). It was while were we out-and-about that I found out that our very Roman E is a budding photographer – it’s great learning stuff about your co-workers!

Photographs for You!

Since not everyone can get to these conferences, we made sure to get a few pictures from the event. I’ve posted them to our DevExpress Facebook page. If you were there and you can see yourself in any of them, don’t forget to tag the picture.

Back in 2012

We had a great time at NDC 2011, and we want to thank the organisers firstly for inviting us, and secondly for making it a great experience.

We will be looking forward to returning in 2012, and we think that you’d enjoy it too. Keep and eye out for NDC 2012!

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