techblog 

I’m just back from Århus in Denmark and the JAOO conference which I blogged about last year. My posting from last time came to the attention of the conference organisers so they linked to it from their ‘Trackback Blog‘. I even had an email from one of the organisers asking me how to make the conference more appealing to UK based developers. I think that first off they need to make people aware of their existence. As it stands, this conference is mostly unheard of, despite the quality of the speakers. My colleague Matt also pointed out that they need to decide what the conference is about and make that plain. You’ll notice that the front page of the web site doesn’t tell you and that you have to go off to the About page to find out. So I think he has a point.

So how was it this time around? Good, despite the disappointment of Martin Fowler pulling out of the event. I don’t think I got as much out of it as last time though, but that was probably because the best presentations were by people whose books on the same topics I’ve read and enjoyed (Alistair Cockburn and Eric Evans).

Any gripes? Only that the tutorials before and after the conference seemed to be finalised only a month or two before they were due to take place. If you’re making the effort to come from Britain and have booked flights and hotels etc, it is irritating if the tutorials move around or get cancelled.