Better Software – A conference for designers, UX managers, projects managers and much more
After EuroPython, I enjoyed a free weekend in Florence – I went back to my favourite spots on Saturday and to Fiesole on Sunday. Wonderful ! not only am I red from too much sun but I am also covered in mosquito bites.
Monday, back to work with Better Software, now in its 3rd year. The organizer, Develer, experimented 2 years ago with the first Better Software conference here in Florence. The feedback was so good that they decided to repeat the performance a year after when the audience doubled. This third conference confirms their success and shows a total audience of 300 people.
This conference is aimed at designers, UX managers, project managers, start ups and many more. It is a two day event covering a variety of topics. The first day saw talks on web, mobile and cloud. The next day, topics such as agile, open source etc. were covered. An entire track was dedicated to start ups with practical workshops on business plan writing, creative project presentations etc.
Most of the titles of the talks are in Italian with a few exceptions in English –
Augmented music: a case study Gamification patterns HTML5 audio and video – lessons from the trenches Design is (ir)relevant Evolutive user experience Your browser, your database Start small, stay small Scrumban – a methodology fusion Overcoming self-organisation blocks One workshop – Storytelling for software marketingI hope these talks give you an idea of the theme of the conference.
Alex Martelli, author of Python in a Nutshell and Python Cookbook (see my last post) gave a talk entitled Le “code review”, queste sconosciute which according to Google Translate means The “code review”, the big unknown.
Paolo Perrotta, author of Metaprogramming Ruby was kind enough to sign his book during the lunch break. Paolo ‘s forecast was to sell 2/3 copies of his book during Better Software as allegedly this technology is not particularly used in Italy. Wrong we sold the lot – 12 copies – nothing like knowing your market! He also gave a talk “Java viene da Marte, Ruby da Venere” which translates as Java is from Mars, Ruby is from Venus.
The youngest speaker is only 14 years old. He wrote his first iPhone app at the age of 13. This apparently is a very simple game called “Lucky Battles”. Simple maybe but one has to be able to do it … and to think that I am just about able to switch on my computer without crying out for help!
Josette,
thank you very much for your support during the conference.
You’re great!
Antonio
Thank you Antonio. I always enjoy the conference, Florence and all my friends there – see you next year.