What could be better than being surrounded by intelligent minds, all speaking about Java? Ok, maybe I should re-phase that… What could be better than being surrounded by intelligent minds, all speaking about Java, other than being surrounded by a scantily-clad group of perfect-10 models, enthralled by your ability to code your “Hello World” in less than 60 seconds?
Life at the JavaPolis University and Conference is truly amazing. Yesterday, on day two, the floor was filled with hundreds people meandering about, snacking on chicken curry sandwiches and dropping by the JetBrains booth to ask questions about TeamCity and IntelliJ IDEA. Today, Day Three, is even bigger. Stephan Janssen, the show organizer and leader of BeJUG, mentioned that there are over 2800 registered attendees, and there are people representing almost every European country, as well as a few others globally. What a great event.
Is it wrong that I like overhearing conversations? While writing this blog or introducing people to our team members, I constantly hear: “I do <this> in Eclipse a lot… How does IntelliJ IDEA handle it?â€, or “Hey, whoah… I can win a license for FREE? Where do I sign up?â€, or “I’d love to use IntelliJ IDEA, but my boss won’t buy it for me because he doesn’t understand how awesome it is… why do people think “free†tools are “good enoughâ€?†Ok, so maybe I exercised a little journalistic license on that last comment… but you know what i mean 
and of course, it’s always a pleasure to hear from our fans
This week, a driving force behind our inspection gadgets is with us from the Netherlands: Bas Leijdekkers from Carp Technologies, talking about code inspections, analysis, and even giving demos of IntelliJ IDEA when the booth is crowded. Starting from tomorrow, Rob Harwood (listen to his heartbeat ;)) is going to be challenging people with some Java Puzzlers, so that’s going to be interesting for visitors as well. If you’re involved in our forums, you’ve probably read posts by both of these guys, so if you’re planning to attend the show, definitely come by to meet them.
For people who have never been to JavaPolis, another interesting feature is that the entire conference is held in a movie cinema, with the rooms and screens used for presentations, and the large main lobby used for the exhibition space. There’s even a nice area for labs, which was successfully filled past capacity for Mike Aizatsky’s presentation on GWT, where we learned that spotlights + 35 developers and their laptops + a projector = Operation PowerFailure. Thankfully, the JavaPolis staff helped us out quickly, and everything got back up and running. Thanks a lot for that guys.
Right, I’d better get back to the action. If you’re at the show, and you’re looking forward to seeing a personal demo, come by the booth with the big, orange, TeamCity and IntelliJ IDEA banners. If you’re looking forward to learning more from our extremely talented developers, check out: Web 2.0 Development and Java Puzzlers Unpuzzled on Thursday, and the Future of Continuous Integration on Friday!
One last thing: If you’re a JUG Leader, Java Champion, Academic Institution, Java Trainer, or if you work on Open Source projects, you are entitled to free licenses. Talk to me about it when you get here, or follow the links above!
All the Best,
Dave Booth
