Thursday, November 25, 2010

No. Sleep. 'Til Stockholm!

Ten events in seven cities across six countries in twenty-two days.

The slides for "Being Epic: Best Practices for Android Development" are on SlideShare, and you can see me presenting them at GDD Prague. I also had the pleasure of co-presenting "HTML5 of Android for Mobile Development?" with Michael Mahemoff - you can watch the video and / or check out the slides for that too.

Starting with Droidcon UK on the 28th, I spent every day of the following 3 weeks either in the air or presenting. I lost my voice at the second event (an epic all-day Android Developer Lab in Berlin), but after resting it in Florence it held up all the way until Prague (where it lasted through the keynote but started failing in the last 5 minutes of my Android presentation.)



It was a hell of a tour, filled with great events and incredible people. Starting with Yan, our host at C-Base and the man with the megaphone herding cats to successfully lead the Blinkendroid world record at GDD Munich.

From Berlin we flew down to Florence - thanks in no small part to Andrea forcefully insisting that we hold an ADL in Italy. Francesca and the Firenze GTUG then took us out to an incredible meal (featuring 4 entrees) at a wonderful tratoria before we headed out for Munich and the GDD events.

One of the most interesting aspects of doing so many events in close succession is learning what resonates best with different audiences. The best reaction I got was by imploring Czech developers not the be "Hovados". Explaining (in German) to the Munich attendees that my German was terrible, and as a result I'd be completing my presentation in English, seemed to get the crowd on-side.

Moscow is always a highlight of any GDD trip - and we got the incredibly warm welcome we've learned to expect. A special thank you goes out to the folks at Andrstore in Russia, who provided the latest addition to my plushy Android collection (pictured above).

We ended the tour at the Ice Bar in Stockholm, after Peter Svensson let us take part in a special Android themed GTUG event that was the perfect end to a long, rewarding expedition.

There will be more detailed posts on the Android Developer blog and Google Code blog, but for now I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who helped make this possible. From the GTUG organizers, to my fellow Googlers, and most of all the participants - you guys make the endless travel worthwhile. Thanks for coming out!

Time for New Material

I'm now heartily sick of my slides and it's time for some new material. So tell me, loyal Android developers, what would you like to hear more about? Let me know in the comments!

Sunday, November 07, 2010

Google Developer Day Bound

It's Autumn in Europe, and for me that means two things:
  • The view from my apartment goes from an ocean of green to a riot of reds, oranges, and yellows.
  • It's time to head to the continent for the annual Google Developer Days!
This year we're holding events in Munich, Moscow, and Prague. I'm writing this from London Heathrow while waiting for my flight to the first event in Munich, but it's actually the second leg of my November journey.

Last week I was in Berlin and Florence taking part in Android Developer Labs. This week, I'll be attending hackathons organized on the day before each of the GDD events. The highlight of these GTUG led events is the high quality developers we get to meet (the local specialities like the visit to C-Base in Berlin and the 5 course meal arranged for us in Florence are a close second.)

It's amazing to have such wonderful organizers and committed communities that let us do events like these around the world. Without them it would be impossible to organize the logistics around the 9 event marathon I'm currently a third of the way through.

You can keep track of where I'll be and what events I'll be participating in using the awesome new Google Developer Relations event tracker. If I'm going to be in a town near you, stop by and say hi!