In November 26^th there was a conference in Belgium called DevDay. The conference was at the Cinescope in Louvain-La-Neuve. For me this was  great reason to visit the tech community at the Fresh speaking part of Belgium.

Networking at conferences

So, as you all know I made a talk called: “Networking at conferences for autistic people and introverts”. Networking at conferences is really important for me. In fact the main reason to attend this conference was to network! I wanted to meet again with Laurent Bugnion, Henk Boelman and Nick Trogh from Microsoft. Nick wasn’t speaking at this conference but was the men at the Microsoft Booth.

AI in the battle against the fakes by Henk

This talk was an amazing war story about a real solution for solving a problem at Henk’s previous job. Henk explained how he developed an AI solution to distinguish real products from a company and fake products.

The talk was a combination of a good war story and concrete steps into action to work with Azure Cognitive Services. Personally, I loved the combination of war story with concrete steps to action!

Good job Henk!

A lap around serverless form an app developers perspective

Are you ready to go serverless? Bart and Glenn told us their story to go serverless for back-ends for mobile devices. An app with a  serverless backend can be a cheaper, more cost-effective solution. In this talk Bart and Glenn showed how they build a complete solution, but they are not only saying which tools they use but provides us a lot of insights a lot of the Azure products.

The setup of the project are some web projects hosted on Docker. Docker has advantages if you want to be scalable and are good to fix the “it works on my machine” issue.

For storage Bart and Glenn advice to use CosmosDB. CosmosDB is horizontally scalable and has a very high SLA .

The complete solution glued together with Azure Functions. Azure Functions is a serverless approach to execute code.

As good developers should advice, do Bart and Glenn advice to automate your complete development with Azure DevOps and App center.

I really loved this talk and this talks gave me a lot of insights for my next serverless backends.

Louvain-La-Neuve

As I only speak Dutch and English, and a lot of talks were in French I couldn’t attend all the talks. At DevDay a lot of talks were in French. And… It was the first time in Louvain-La-Neuve, so I made a nice city tour in the late afternoon before heading to my hometown.

I had good discussions, saw some amazing sessions (some more than the 2 I describe here and walked in a nice neighborhood. So I had a good day!

See you hopefully next year, DevDay!

A month ago, I really had the time of my life. One of my biggest wishes was becoming reality. I had the wonderful opportunity to speak at Microsoft Ignite, a big Microsoft conference in the US.

This trip was my second trip to USA in my #7ThYearMagic year. Microsoft Ignite was in Orlando, an awesome hood.

The climate is very warm and humid. Let’s say it was my second summer of 2019.

Because a lot of developers blog about Microsoft Ignite (and this is because it’s such an awesome conference) I am going to blog about a specific topic: social topics like Diversity and Inclusion.

Creating an inclusive community event

Lars Klint, a hero from Australia gave a session about building inclusive community events. Lars is the Organizer of DDD Melbourne. For Lars and DDD Melbourne it’s very important that the event is inclusive. Diversity and Inclusion is Key for them.

Lars explained about gender diversity, about newcomer speakers. I liked the session. It was good.

Lars explained about gender diversity, about newcomer speakers. I liked the session. It was good.

Recognize exclusion, design for inclusion

A talk from Bryce Johnson. People that know me already may know that I speak about accessibility and also visit often other talks about accessibility.

But this one was another one. This talk was exceptional good. My number one talk about accessibility I ever saw. And I saw in my last 2 years great talks about accessibility.

This talk was the story behind the XBOX Adaptive Controller, about how to enable people with disabilities to get engaged with their gamer friends  / community.

Bryce has a strong vision and the vision behind the Adaptive Controller can go way further. Bryce also told about the Inclusive Design Series from Microsoft and a bit about Inclusive Hiring, that people with disabilities deserve a paid job.

So folks, you all know that I am a volunteer. And I am really happy with my life. But the vison Bryce shared about being paid or not was strong.

Being a Social Developer

Scott Hanselman, a hero, a Rockstar. Scott presented a talk about being visible and on social media for developers. A talk about blog attitude (that is a working point for me!) and about personal branding.

I loved it. The talk had some awesome take-aways. And I try to blog more. (But can I say this, if this blogpost about Microsoft Ignite is already a month later?)

So I am on the good way going to this type of talks and try to be a better blogger.

Mental health, It’s time to talk

A talk by Ryan Yates from the UK. Very good talk. A talk about the explanation of having another state of mental health. And in this sentence I don’t say mental health issues .I say a different state. And this is with purpose!

A good talk with a lot of metaphors and theories in the field of mental wellbeing. Some concepts come back in the scope in support for people with autism.

I remember the Swimming pool theory. I try to explain: You could ask to your coworker (or your friend) how the level of their swimming pool is. Imagine that you stand at the ground (bottom) floor of a swimming pool? How high is the water? The lower the water is the safer and comfortable you are. But if the water comes to high you start to drown.

Another theory I liked is the Spoon theory. I try also to explain: Each person received a set of spoons. You need the spoon for each task you have to do during the day. But each person starts with a different amount of spoons. Also, the amount of spoons you need for each talk differs from task to task, person to person and mental health state to mental health state. If your spoons are empty, you cannot enjoy your day, complete you day comfortable anymore.

My talk: Building inclusive workplaces: Supporting coworkers with autism

My talk was about supporting coworkers with autism. About how to be the best coworker for your coworker with autism. And how to make most of your work situation. I give some theory about autism. Then I talk about specific issues people on the spectrum can have at work scenario and I give concrete advices for each of these situations. I say what to do, and what you better avoid.

People loved the talk. I got great feedback and awesome conversations after my talk.

What you don’t see

I end this blogpost with what you don’t see in blogpost and what not everybody know. But Microsoft Ignite is all about the hallway track, of how many speakers call it. It’s about being there and making connections. About talking to people from product groups you never met before .About experience sharing and helping each other.

And of course I visited a lot of technical sessions too. But I see most people telling, blogging and spreading the word about technical sessions already. I tried to deliver you another view of the conference. But in a conference of 6 day (5 + a pre day) you can visit a lot of technical sessions and a lot of social talks.

And the last night, it’s about partying. Microsoft rented the 2 Universal Studio’s park and everything was free. You could enjoy all rides and have some awesome drinks and foods.

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.

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

 

Last week I had the opportunity to speak at JavaZone in Oslo, Norway. It was my first conference this Fall. And I know.. Officially Fall start next Monday but for me, last week Fall is kicked-off for me. This Fall I do a lot of conferences as a speaker and at least one conference as an attendee.

So let’s talk Java?

Most of you know that I am a Microsoft MVP and developing on the Microsoft stack (in .NET and Azure). Right! I am still the same Dennie, the same Microsoft MVP and developer on the Microsoft stack. But I really want a big reach on accessibility and quality of life for people with intellectual disabilities and / or autism.  At JavaZone I presented a session about autism and communication.

And what for session? My first co-talk with my lovely mom, Ivette Marchand. We have found ways for communicating about work, limits and borders. This starts from my autism and is helpful for a lot of people.

Although even as a .NET developer I visited some talks that are really helpful. Here below I do a little series “What does a .Net developer at a Java conference?” As you will see I learned lot!

What does a .Net developer at a Java Conference:

I went to the psychologist!

What’s better to start the conference with a visit to the psychologist? Rosanne Joosten is a psychologist that transformed into a programmer. Rosanne talked about the link between how developers write code and their personality. Some parts were really confronting…

I learned about Web Assembly

Web assembly is a project started form the browser companies. Web assembly is a way for native code in the browser. Blazor, Microsoft’s implementation of Web Assembly was also covered, of course this was between the other Web Assembly solutions.

Accessibility!

And yes, there were sessions about accessibility! And this makes me happy! I saw 2 refreshing talks. I like accessibility talks with people with disabilities involved as a presenter. Tom is a person who’s blind. He was surrounded with 2 other speakers (Lotte and Tor-Martin). If I see how a blind person is learning other people how to make the web accessible then I shiver from respect! I saw interesting Aria ideas and other refreshing ideas for navigation.

Another session about accessibility was on the 2^nd day from Kamilla. Kamilla did a lighting talk about accessibility. I loved that she was including a variety of disabilities and not just the most spoken ones!

I learned to hack a cat

Nial Merrigan is also a Microsoft MVP, he’s a specialist into security. He presented a cross code  /cross platform introduction into security. Where do you need to be aware off? He gave us insights beyond traditional attack vendors. Sometimes the talk was scary, sometimes it was laughing out loud! I like this kind of talks!

I went on a survival

Patricia Aas presented “Survival Tips For Women in Tech”. This talk was my opportunity to go to a talk together with my mom. A no – code talk about woman! As an inclusive developer I like to go to a lot of talks about diversity and inclusion in the broad scene. This talk showed me how difficult it can be for women in tech as a minority. The talk opened my eyes but I saw also equal situations as for me as a person with autism in tech. The way Patricia introduced this talk, and why she needs this introduction is very equal to my intros. I love the openness how she talked about a lot of topics in being different to “white man between 30 – 50 in Tech”!

And then.. Finally.. Our talk!

I presented “How do I help my son?” the inaugural of my mom! Our first co- talk! We had a blast and ended with a standing ovation! I loved it!

In this talk I was very open about my past, why I am a volunteer in tech? We also talked a lot about the fact that I was bullied a lot in the past. How bullying, educational choices and a hard period in a factory lead to a volunteering job in tech?

People love this openness and it feels more comfortable to talk about bullying, maybe just a bit more comfortable because my mom is on my side. Or not? In the past talks I presented a few talks about autism, every time I was also about at lot of things. But being bullied is not always a topic in my talk. With my mom on my side it’s more easy!

So folks, my magic fall is started, up to the next one!

Munich, Germany! Beside of USA, visiting Germany was for me a dream destination! Why? I like the German language and the ‘meat culture’. In June I had the opportunity to talk at Xamarin Expert Day in Munich, and.. I had a blast!

I start with the culture. Germany has as I said a ‘meat culture’ and a ‘beer culture’. For me, as a Belgian, maybe I say stupid things if I say: “I like the German beer culture.” Big glasses, beer gardens, and why don’t you combine your IL beers with some meat?

Back on topic, Xamarin Expert Day! Start with the keynote! Jim Bennett – not a complete unknown Xamarin guy – was really rocking the stage! ‘Xamarin, past, present and future’ was his talk. It was a nice overview of the past, and the present. But the future was more teasing. Of course there are rules about “Microsoft’s’ internal kitchen” and MVP Summits. But for an autistic person, I was thinking the complete day about the future.. But I loved the talk and the energy!

Luce Carter gave a talk about Xamarin Shell, I really loved this concept and her explanation. I believe Xamarin Visual (a part of Shell) will help me for accessible apps!

Ulrike and Sia made another Accessibility Talk, I liked their concepts. It’s nice that the field ‘accessibility’ is so big! In their talk ‘Beyond Accessibility’ I heard a lot of renewing concepts, really helpful concepts and this concepts fit all together with mine concepts. Nice that you can apply different ‘views’, ‘angles’ of accessibility to make the most accessible solution ever!

Of course I had my talk, I presented for the first time “Improve People with disabilities’ lives with Xamarin.Essentials”. A talk how you can engage accessibility with API’s from Xamarin Essentials. I covered, Text To Speech, Settings, Device Info, App Info, Connectivity and a few more. Yes, all this API’s improve accessibility!

So I liked Munich and I loved the German culture, Xamarin Expert Day Munich as a great conference and  I really had a blast and learned new concepts!

#DreamingIsBelieving #7ThYearMagic

By the end of 2018, I realized that 2019 will be the year of #7ThYearMagic, I invented this hashtag because I believed my life-dream was going to be reality.

Why was 2019 the era of #7ThYearMagic, there’ s no ‘7’ in 19? Well, well, in 2012, 7 years ago, I made the decision to give my programming talent as volunteer. If you are like me, quite spiritual, 7 is a magic number. It’s going to happen in 2019!

My life-dream was going to USA as speaker and visit the Microsoft Headquarters! But was this my only big dream? What if the dream is over? Last month ‘my dream’ finally happened! I visited Microsoft HQ in Redmond and spoke at my first US conference #ndcminnesota.

While I was living the dream, I noticed: “this is not the end, maybe just the beginning”. Do I have other dreams? Is it over? NO! I’d love to share my knowledge as public speaker. Traveling to tell the world to be inclusive for people with disabilities doesn’t end if I visited US Once!

So proud to share next URI, my speaker site! It covers all my past and next talks. In this fall I have already 3 nice conferences! But my #7ThYearMagic dream doesn’t stop here!

http://www.ddsoft.be/speaker