Cologne, German Beers, German Fairgrounds and loads of fun! 25^th October I had a talk at Expert Day for Xamarin. I flew in from an evening flight on the 24^th straight after Microsoft TechDays in Sweden. I missed the speaker’s dinner but when I arrived at the Microsoft offices on the 25^th I knew I was with my Xamarin Family

James’ Keynote

No one less than the one and only James Montemagno was invited to speak at this conference! James was James as he always is, awesome! James showed Hot Reload, and I remember a very good demo and explanation of the Android AOT (Ahead of Time) compiler.

DevOps: Continuous delivery for Xamarin applications, Azure DevOps and App Center

In this talk Stefanija Popovska answered a question I had for a long time: “When do I use Azure DevOps or when do I use App Center?”.  I am a developer who’s longer on the Azure DevOps stack (from a long way ago since it was called VSTS Visual Studio Team Services. And if you are used to this tool stack and you are also developing other applications like web and desktop applications, then you can stay with Azure DevOps. If you are new the DevOps world and want to have a quick setup, you can use the fast and fluid set up of App Center.

If your choice is Azure DevOps, you can flavor your application with some special App Center features like Push Notifications and testing on real devices.

Really good talk!

UI Testing with Xamarin.Forms

If we go further on DevOps, I think about Testing Codrina showed us how you can make UI Tests with Xamarin.Forms. Codrina used a really good way of explaining the UI Testing methodology and concepts. A talk with the important basics to get started!

And of course, my talk: Improve people with disabilities life with Xamarin.Essentials

There was a lot of interest in my talk. I loved the huge amount of people showed up. I like to see that more and more people take time to learn about accessible software development. In this talk I spoke about Text To Speech who is a very accessibility specific function. I also talked about classes like Device Info and App Info that are very useful if you develop apps for people with disabilities’ but the caregiver, coach or parent isn’t the best IT’er and don’t know advanced device functions, like the current version of your device’s OS or the version of your app.

And we were in Germany!

And that means fairgrounds, beer gardens and a nice German culture. Honestly, I love Germany! I love the culture. For this reason, I stay a day longer and took a free day in Cologne! I went to a big fairground and made walk at the side of the Köln Messe a very important congress building!

In October I attended and spoke twice at Microsoft TechDays in Stockholm, Sweden. As I made the engagement to make a blogpost of each conference that I attend as a speaker or as an attendee I give you a rewrite.

And I know 23rd and 24^th of October is a while ago. But Last month I had a lot of conferences (and I love it!) But of course, a day has only 24 hours. So, in the future weeks I will post a lot of conference reports.

For me Microsoft TechDays Sweden was the conference linked to a big huge community feeling. I met a lot of other Microsoft MVP’s that I didn’t met since I am a Microsoft MVP.

I also met my Community Manager Tina Stenderup. I had wonderful talks. At this conference I had more networking and skipped more talks that I am used to do. But I had a great time and build on my Microsoft / Conference / Speaker Network! This is for me also very important.

But to be sure, I attended some nice talks. Here I highlight a few of them.

Work-Life Integration: 7 Effective Ways to Achieve Healthy Balance

As I am active in the Microsoft Diversity and Inclusion Community and the Microsoft Humans of IT Community, I do know Dux Raymond Sy from online life. And even before Microsoft TechDays I was already a big fan of Raymond!

Raymond presented a talk about Work-Life integration. Raymond’s vision fits completely in my vision. My key take-aways is that you must be your whole self. Bring your whole self to work and to private life.

Another key vision is to be real! Be authentic and be real in your complete life.

And mix both with being innovative and use tools like MyAnalytics in Microsoft Office 365 and you are on the good way!

Thanks Raymond!

Inclusive workplaces – a room for all

This was a panel session about inclusive workplaces. Which adjustments at the workplace are needed to be more inclusive? The were board members with gender diversity, people with migration background, LGBTQ+. In this board the board members spoke about the need of inclusive workplaces for this people and what you can do.

I did like the board, but advice that in future board they also invite a board member on the neurodiversity / disability spectrum (like autism). I missed this group in the discussion. But I have good news, I know somebody who invited himself to be in the board next time. (And that’s me!)

And of course, my talks

The Power of Inclusion

I presented my talk The Power of inclusion, the talk that started my speaker career. I did quite a big rewrite. I still see the need of inclusive apps and inclusion of people with disabilities in normal life of everyone else. And I believe the best way to achieve this is via accessible software. So I am proud and happy to share my slides here.

Autism: From Bullying to MVP

I was also invited to do a ‘Tech Talk’ a concept of talks of 20 minutes. I presented my personal life story Autism: From Bullying to MVP. I got a lot of emotion with this talk and I am going to work this talk out to a full 60 min talk for conferences starting 2020!

Wrap up

I had a good time, I really loved TechDays Sweden! I learn nice insights and have new ideas to investigate deeper. Thanks for everyone made this possible.