Inspiration at jQuery Conference Portland
Eric Mann on
Last week, Jeremy Felt, Carl Danley, and I attended jQuery Conference Portland 2013. The Conference was a great chance to connect with and listen to web professionals experienced with jQuery.
From keynotes explaining the jQuery server infrastructure – an elegant use of Github and Grunt.js enabling websites to commit using pull requests – to speakers like Patrick Camacho, who detailed Twitter’s use of Backbone for Crashlytics (Carl’s conversation with Patrick about Backbone design patterns was his highlight), every speaker offered well-informed, broad, and fascinating content. In addition to solid presentations consistently interlaced with humor, participants had the chance to pick speakers’ brains.
I had the opportunity to speak before my largest audience on the importance of Unit Testing in a presentation I titled “Minutes Now Will Save Hours Later.” In contrast to presentations I’ve offered at other conferences, I’m still getting questions nearly one week later. It’s wonderful to have such an interested, interactive, and enthused crowd!
The networking opportunities were another highlight. My tech sphere tends to be limited to WordPress and Microsoft crowds; spending time with professionals from all around the open-source community was inspiring. If anything, we found ourselves working hard to take advantage of the limited time to meet so many smart people.
Having limited experience with WebRTC (the real-time communication protocol for peer-to-peer data through the browser), I had the fortunate to meet Robin Raymond during the dinner before the Conference. Robin blew my mind with his vast insight into the system’s inner workings and possibilities. Later, seeing him present an open source system using WebRTC and demonstrate a live, peer-to-peer video chat with a colleague in Canada, was incredible.
Jeremy, Carl, and I are already excited for the next jQuery event! For more pictures of the 10up at jQuery Conference, check out our Facebook page.