Elixir Conf EU 2015 - Afterthoughts
Introduction
In the previous post about interesting events, I have said that more of them will come in future. I have participated in one of these - ElixirConf EU in Kraków and I must admit - it was the best conference I have ever been since Falsy Values in 2011.
It was the second in the world conference about Elixir programming language, it brings almost 200 people interested in that topic to the former Polish capital. Most of people was either from Ruby or Erlang side and I think that such mixture is a key thing related to the joy and success of that event.
Talks and Workshops
At a day before actual conference organizers prepared two workshops - one about Phoenix framework and one about OTP and Elixir. I have participated in the second one - it was a really nice experience. Workshop was full of knowledge, I have met interesting people, with very positive attitude, whom are willing to network and share their experiences.
Actual conference days was started and ended with very nice keynotes - each of them was a different experience. We have very nice and thoughtful keynote from Joe Armstrong, which explains many problems related to the programming language design, from the perspective of Elixir’s older brother - Erlang. Jose Valim presented bright future and interesting details related with Elixir evolution, and finally Chris had a very nice overview and development plans related with Phoenix framework.
But, I was also impressed by other talks. It was very interesting to see many use cases in which people used that piece of technology. I think that both groups have many valuable opinions and observations. For me, talks made by people with Erlang experience were particularly valuable, because they are coming from more mature technology. It is a different background and experiences.
Atmosphere
I would like to focus on one particular element, which makes this conference so enjoyable - people. I have never met so many nice and friendly people. I have wonderful time during networking, countless talks during breaks or lunches. And to sum it up - during lightning talks Jose Valim and Jim Freeze received a 3D printed Elixir logo designed in the finFoil software made by @hrobeers.
Amazing community!
@ElixirConfEU Thanks for the great conference. My lightning talk including the Elixir 3D file: http://t.co/m06YLIwA5h pic.twitter.com/0VJa9SDN02
— Hans Robeers (@hrobeers) April 25, 2015
Summary
It was a very good choice to invest my time and money in that event. Three days full of energy, knowledge and experience sharing. As a community we have interesting perspectives. We can derive from very experienced and stable Erlang ecosystem. We have a very nice and promising community, full of amazing and creative people. I will go definitely to the next ElixirConf EU 2016 which take place in Berlin.
See you there! 