This was the first LiveCode conference I attended and I was really excited. This year’s theme was around widgets, LiveCode 8 and open source. There were two tracks and a workshop each day.
On the first day there was a very popular networking event. It was awesome meeting so many members of the community. This was a chance for me to introduce myself to new people, and meet people with whom I talk every day in Bugzilla, the use-list or the LiveCode Forums. So I was finally able to put faces to names. Moreover, in the evening of the same day there was a party to follow, in the LiveCode office, where the fun continued with pizza, beer and games.
I was also really excited to see that the Beginners Workshop was quite popular. In fact, the people that showed up were three times as many as we initially expected.
I consider myself not only a member of the LiveCode development team but also an active LiveCode community member. I use LiveCode regularly for my own personal non-work related projects, and I enjoy offering and receiving technical help in the use-list or the forums. So speaking for myself, as both a member of the LiveCode development team and a member of the LiveCode community, this conference had a dual purpose, and I think this purpose was served.
1. From the LC team’s point of view, we wanted to inform the community about the new features in LiveCode 8, especially about widgets. A lot of people from the community were hesitant to use widgets in their projects. Some of them thought that widgets would not add any extra value to their projects, because the particular functionality they wanted to have can be achieved using the classic LiveCode controls. Others thought that the process of writing, building, testing and installing a new widget is far too complicated and/or difficult. I am quite happy to see that they have now changed their mind. Just after the conference, I have seen several people that did not use widgets in the past, discussing ideas, problems and solutions in the use-list. Keep it up!
2. From the LiveCode community member’s point of view, I wanted to meet other LiveCoders, discuss their projects with them, and share expertise, knowledge and ideas. It was really interesting to find out how other people are using LiveCode for their projects.
Another topic of the conference was Open Source. There were some useful talks on how to extend the IDE, write widgets, submit pull requests and effective bug reports, test code and update the documentation. It was really encouraging to see several community contributions on GitHub on document updating.
We (the LiveCode development team) also had several one-to-one sessions with community members. During these sessions, we had the opportunity to discuss in more detail particular issues in the community’s projects, and help them resolve those issues faster, or discuss and exchange ideas about specific bugs or features in LiveCode. What is worth noting is that I came across a couple of community members who told me that they find the process of deploying their apps into the App Stores more difficult than the actual process of developing their apps with LiveCode. This is something we have to take into account, and probably provide more guidance on the subject.
Another really interesting session was the “Flash Talks” one, where some community members presented inspiring stories and interesting insights about their achievements with LiveCode.
Since there were multiple events at the same time, unfortunately I couldn’t attend all of the talks I wanted to. But luckily, all the events are recorded so I can watch them in the live stream. Last but not least, the environment was comfortable. The venue was great, quite central with easy access. The process of speakers registration and booking a one-to-one session was straightforward. There was a paper agenda for the day. There was online coverage (~300 people were watching the simulcast) and people could interact asking questions remotely. The food was tasty, there were suitable coffee breaks, and the whole three days felt like a holiday from the day to day work we do in the office.
To conclude, I feel that this was a very successful conference. The feeling of being immersed in a crowd of people who share the same passion as you, the lessons you learn and advice you take in, are all priceless. Not to mention the chance of getting to meet old friends and the new ones you make. I think we all left this conference full of energy and zeal for LiveCode, as well as fresh ideas, and it was definitely worth all the effort and preparation we put in during the last couple of months.
I can’t wait to meet all the community members that were not able to come to this conference in the next one 🙂
I hope you enjoyed the conference as much as I did. I would love to hear your thoughts about it.
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