My 4^Th Future Decoded in a Row! I really enjoyed this Microsoft conference. Each year this conference is marked in my agenda months in advance. It’s big! (I know there are bigger conferences in US). At this time Future Decoded was the biggest conference I’ve been to. In November I work on this and go to visit and speak at Microsoft Ignite! and I know it’s way bigger. But I love Microsoft Future Decoded and call it a big conference until November.

This year Future Decoded has some extra magic. I went to the conference with my best friend and General Manager of Scorpius IT Kenny Liard. Nice to know, Kenny is also part of my nonprofit DDSoft. Traveling with your BFF together is always fun!

Like last year Future Decoded was pretty much AI focused. I love it to see what’s possible with AI and how Microsoft is putting input into this field.

Sustainability

I was overwhelmed with the initiatives Microsoft takes on sustainability. Microsoft advised Future Decoded attendees to bring re-usable water bottles. There were no recyclable water cups. In stead of water cups they used cardboard cups if you didn’t brought your recyclable bottles.

At Day 1 Keynote Dr. Lucas Joppa, Microsoft’s Chief Environmental Officer gave a keynote. It made me think. Think a lot. Dr Lucas Joppa told about the actions Microsoft is taking for a more environmentally conscious approach. I don’t know for sure but Future Decoded changed my mind and I am more environmentally conscious since my last trip to Future Decoded!

Beyond earth

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If you think beyond earth I loved  the keynotes from Major Tim Peake CMG and Helen Sharman CMG OBE. I love talks form outer world. Talks form outer world does me think at people changing their life completely. The astronauts have to switch their life completely in the 2 year period before the expedition to space. When they return on earth, they life is never the same as before their trip.

This types of talks make me think at attitude, different structure, planned structures. And be honest, as a person with autism this topic is never too far away.

Thanks for inspiring me!

Accessibility

Microsoft’s big efforts on accessibility are also very visible at Future Decoded for years. This year Jenny Lay-Flurrie, Microsoft’s Chief Accessibility Officer at Microsoft was keynoting for the second year in a row at Future Decoded. I love her way of public speaking. I love her vision

But the keynote for Jenny Lay-Flurrie wasn’t the only accessibility effort from Future Decoded. There were even Braille maps of the expo hall!

Back to the Basics!

Start with the basics! A sentence that’s been said a lot of time. But an important message. At Future Decoded I learned to start with the basics in Accessibility. at DDSoft I am focusing for years on accessibility for people with intellectual disabilities and autism. But there are already a big set of basics accessibility guidelines to include and empower everyone. .The main message at this year’s conference was start with the basics in accessibility. Color Contrast, Dark Mode, captions and subtitles. use POUR principles: make Perceivable, Operable, Understandable and Robust applications and you are inclusive! My mission is to go further on this basic accessibility and include it in my mission! And I am already started to bring this in my mission! As I am!

Power Platform and Power Apps

Microsoft is putting a lot of effort in accessibility in Power Apps and in the Microsoft Power Platform in broader sense. Microsoft is putting a lot of accessibility effort in this platforms. I’m not used to work with this platforms but I love the effort!

Microsoft Office 365

Another Microsoft product where Microsoft is putting a lot of effort for Accessibility is Office 365. Microsoft works with AI to make accessible documents and documentation.

After I said that Future Decoded gave me a drill into sustainability consciousness, Microsoft also gave me a ‘Use Accessibility tools in Office 365 drill! I love this drills.

BTW Office 365 has a great suite of AI solutions, they have even a PowerPoint trainer mode for speakers! I am so sure I am going to start using this tool!

The massive expo hall

And of course conferences mean networking at the expo hall! This year the expo hall was the biggest edition I saw at Microsoft Future Decoded. I loved the expo hall. Some booths were worked out pretty well. With plants, screens, huge screens, coffee trucks and this year the expo hall has 2 floors!

So I (we) really had a blast!

This was my second stop at my magic Fall, my Fall conference season. I had the amazing opportunity to speak at DevConf in Krakow, Poland. A nice conference in an amazing cinema; What means: having the opportunity to project your slide deck on a huge cinema screen. This was a dream for me, and I believe this is an awesome dream for a lot of speakers.

I had good talks with other speakers like Callum Whyte, Spencer Sneidenbach and Dylan Beattie. Meeting the same speakers during conferences throughout the year feels like a family reunion. This all because speakers at conferences are a big family!

I also met a new speaker: Johan Öbrink. I am happy that I met this person! I like his vision. So, starting from DevConf Johan is also part of my family

I like to share you some insights from some of the talks I attended:

Social topics

Privilege as a Technical Debt

Did you consider how people from all over the world use your app? Is your service accessible from all over the world? If you plan to make apps and services on a global scale, then it’s important that you consider that not everyone has a first and a last name. Which gender are you? Male / Female / Binary? Do you realize that some people can being sentenced to death because their sexual orientation?

Amr Abdelwahab is providing us insights how decisions made from our own privileges can cause negative results for other people in the world! Thanks Amr to open my eyes!

A full list of awesome falsehoods developers believe can you find here: https://github.com/kdeldycke/awesome-falsehood#human-identity

My talk: Designing Accessible Apps

I had my talk Designing Accessible apps. I was very happy to see how many people that were interested in this topic! I had a good time while presenting and I love some reactions if I show people how you can make apps for people with disabilities! It was the 3^rd time I spoke this talk in specific and the talk had a big rewrite!

My Motivation

Next three talks gave me energy to work within my nonprofit. Made me think why we made which choices. If we made the right choices? And of course, gave me insights into my future both as a speaker, Microsoft MVP and President of DDSoft

Three Rewrites – One Start Up, an Architects journey

Spencer told his story about how he went from a project in a company to a startup and even with a few rewrites in the Start Up. How do you go from Visual Basic 6 to C#? Of course, via vb.net! An important message was sharing is that you must be a consistent learner. Always learn something new. Be curious.

Architecture: In the past I went to a lot of conference talks that always taught me something new. But most sessions covered most technologies as a silo. You learn about Xamarin, about web API… In this session Spencer showed how he architected their solution. I loved these insights on architecture.

From Monolithic Monster to Majestic Microservice App

Another real-life war story was from Callum Whyte. He described how you go from a monolith to a microservice app. Also, a talk with a lot of architecture. Loved the scheme’s and the theory. Loved the insights and was inspired again.

The Art of Code

Dylan showed the beautiful parts of coding. The art parts. Dylan talks about coders making code for fun. Really inspiring! A good coder does not only code for work but codes free time / hobby projects. I love it, it inspires me. Dylan talked also about his own programming language ‘Rockstar’. Of course, Dylan doesn’t only talk about his projects but also about what other coders doing in their free time. Inspiring!

Wrap up

I want to wrap up my talk blogpost about DevConf with saying (again) that I had a really great time. I inspired people and got inspired by other people. As a speaker we were treaded very well, so what do I want more?

#DreamingIsBelieving #7ThYearMagic #MagicFall