Friday, October 5, 2012

BlackBerry Jam Americas 2012 recap

I was invited to this year's BlackBerry developers conference in San Jose California. I think they invited to everyone who published an application in their App World. Anyways, I couldn't say no :) and I always like going to the west coast ;)

It was a 3 day event. So there was plenty of sessions and labs. I couldn't see the whole keynote due to a navigation error in other other words I took the wrong train :$
San Jose Convention Center
After the keynote all the sessions started. I tried to attend all the labs and the getting started sessions since I am really really new on this platform. I know I ported my Android App to the BlackBerry PlayBook but I think that is some kind of cheating since It uses the Android run-time. So basically it is Android running inside BlackBerry. I wanted to learn the native options to develop for this platform specially for forthcoming BlackBerry 10.
Using a PlayBook for registration, pretty cool ;)

I expected more attendees but I guess I am used to Google IO conferences, but that was fine so you did not have to fight for a place and the sessions and labs felt better since we were few we got better help and support.

The first 2 days were just sessions and labs. The third day was something they called the Unconference day on which the attendees decided the topics. It was a good idea but it did not have the attention required. At the end everyone was talking to everyone about their questions and curiosities. You just needed to look for a table with a good topic and that is all, you just joined them.
I really want one of these!!!

I must say that it was a good conference but I have the feeling that some of the sessions required more work and effort in the presentation. I expected more examples and code. Some were really really good but others felt like they were improvised.

I am sure RIM is trying to do its best to keep the community and developers working on BlackBerry 10 environment but I still think it is a little bit late. They are putting all their efforts on this new device and framework also they have started developer relationships all the world to keep growing its community, they are updating their blog with more and more information and examples but still it is getting really really hard to compete with Android and Apple.

In general it was an amazing experience and I got to know really smart and nice people during these 3 days. I was one of the lucky guys who got an Alpha B device so I can play and develop apps with it and for sure I will do it. I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement but that is OK with me :)
BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha B prototype :)

Pretty much all the sessions are on demand if you are interested on learning what is new on this platform.

Thanks for the invite BlackBerry and hope to see you next year!

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