Wrap up of DevDays Johannesburg and Cape Town

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DevDays in Johannesburg and Cape Town were an absolute blast last week! Now that I’ve recovered and caught up on all the sleep I missed in the build up I thought I’d post a follow up on how things went.

Durban, you’re in for a big treat!

Johannesburg

I was really nervous before the start: it was my first DevDays as a member of the team actually running the show, I had butterflies for my demonstration in the keynote and I was worried whether people would enjoy it or not.

Attendees mingling at DevDays 2010, Johannesburg The exhibitor hall at DevDays 2010, Johannesburg

In the end, everything went well. The keynote was excellent, sessions went smoothly and everyone I spoke to on the day said that they were having a great time. My keynote demo and presentation went well too, so on a personal note I was really happy and a little relieved.

Mteto Nyati, General Manager of Microsoft South Africa delivers his keynote address. DevDays 2010, Johannesburg

About 1,000 people attended the Johannesburg event which was ahead of our expectations – thank you to all of you who attended – I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

Cape Town

The Cape Town leg of DevDays was held at the stunning CTICC. The building is an amazing place to host a conference like DevDays and the auditorium setup for the main session room was perfect for delivering a great keynote and sessions.

Preparations get under way for DevDays 2010, Cape Town The main session room setup at DevDays 2010, Cape Town

I wasn’t as nervous in Cape Town as I was in Johannesburg (maybe it’s the calming effect of Table Mountain?) but the butterflies were still there. Again, everything went smoothly and the day rocked!

Attendees pouring into the CTICC for DevDays 2010, Cape Town   The keynote team for DevDays 2010, Cape Town Cliff delivers his keynote address at DevDays 2010, Cape Town

We had around 600 developers attend the Cape Town show – again, more than we anticipated – thank you! We received some great feedback from attendees and some people said that it was the best DevDays that they had attended! That’s always great to hear! :-)

Durban

Guys, it’s all going to be happening in your city very soon! We’ve set the bar high for ourselves and we’re looking forward to doing it all over again with you. We’ll see you at the Sun Coast Casino on 12 May 2010!

Presentation slides, code samples and videos

We’ll be making all of the content from DevDays available for download in May, after the Durban gig so stay tuned to the blog to catch up on any sessions that you missed!

Feedback

As always, we want to know how we’re doing with DevDays, so leave a comment on this blog, hit us on Twitter or catch us on Facebook and give us your feedback. Let us know what you want at your developer event. That’s right, we do this for you and want to know how to make it the best event possible.

- Dario