Our Second Keynote–Chad Jones on the Future of Mobile!

We announced a while back that Miguel Carrasco would be our first conference keynote, talking about “The Evolution of User Interfaces”. We’re thrilled to announce that Chad Jones will deliver our second keynote on The Future of Mobile!

Chad is a former Apple Engineer who worked at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California. While there Chad was involved in integral development of Apple's Mac OS X operating system. Upon his return to Canada, Chad taught Canada's first university accredited course on iPhone programming at the University of Saskatchewan. Chad was also an integral part of the team responsible for developing iUsask, Canada's first iPhone application for university students.

After the success of iUsask, Chad received requests from educational institutions across Canada, US, Europe, and Australia prompting him to found CollegeMobile in 2009. The company was established to fulfill the growing opportunities for mobile application development within both education and business markets.

He continues to instruct the mobile development course at the University of Saskatchewan and is currently developing a text book on the subject. More recently Chad’s team created FaceMobile, a FaceBook client for iPad that was featured in Apple’s New & Noteworthy section on the App Store.

If you`re wondering what the future of mobile is, come to Prairie Dev Con and find out from one of the leading Canadian mobile experts!

www.prairiedevcon.com

Prairie Dev Con…Calgary?

I’ve had some people ask me that since I’m putting on Prairie Developer Conference in Winnipeg, whether I’d be interested in putting one on in Calgary as well.

If you’re not familiar with Prairie Dev Con, I started it in Regina in 2010 and have run it there the last two Junes. I wanted to put on a technology conference that had fantastic content, great atmosphere, and an affordable price. The conference is two days with an extra day for optional post-conference workshops, and presenters have come from all over North America in various technical disciplines. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and we’ve doubled our attendance over the two Regina events. There will be another Prairie Dev Con in Regina this June.

But Calgary, like Winnipeg, is short an event now that TechDays is putting live events on only in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. Prairie Dev Con is proving to be a great replacement event here in Winnipeg, and I believe it could be in Calgary as well. What I need to know is whether people in Alberta feel the same way!

I’ve created a very quick online survey that I’m inviting people to fill out. This will help in making the decision to put on a Calgary event early next year, as well as where it will be held and the types of sessions you’d like to see.

There’s a spot on the survey to enter your name and email address, although its not mandatory. For those that do, I’ll draw a free registration to either the Calgary event if we do it, or for the Regina event – so either way you can win a free registration to a fantastic technology conference next year!

You can access the survey at the link below, and if you have any questions either leave a comment here or email me at info@prairiedevcon.com.

Click here to take survey

Thanks!

D’Arcy

www.prairiedevcon.com

New Sessions Posted!

We’ve posted some new sessions to the lineup! Check out all our fantastic sessions on our website here!

A Dash of Kanban Anyone?
Joel Semeniuk

Can you pinpoint bottlenecks on your team? Can you predict when features will be complete? Do sprints feel too rigid for your team? Kanban means Visual Board and comes from the world of Lean Thinking. Kanban has started to influence software development teams, simplifying many aspects of software process management. Why does Kanban matter and how does it work? In this session we'll explore these questions and find out how you can start with Kanban and Lean Thinking.

Want Better Estimates? Stop Estimating!
Joel Semeniuk

Estimation is hard. Some say impossible to get right. There are lots of estimation techniques, some of them easy and some of them really complex. Most of the time these techniques don't make you better at estimation. Is there a way to stop estimating and still run a team that produces predictably and reliably? Come to this talk.. and you'll find out.

Building SharePoint 2010 Workflows with Visual Studio
Frode Aarebrot

Transform your business processes using SharePoint workflow. SharePoint can automate tasks, reduce workload, save time, increase production, bring consistency and help meet audit and compliance requirements. In this session we’ll unravel the mystery of creating custom workflows with task forms including proper packaging and deployment.

PrDC Winnipeg–Powerhouse Mobile Track!

We’ve lined up some fantastic speakers to present on Mobile technology! Whether its iPhone, Android, Blackberry, or WP7 you’re looking for, we have it all at Prairie Dev Con Winnipeg!

For more information about our speakers, check out their full bios and contact info (website, twitter, email, blog) here.

Chad Jones
Chad is a former Apple Engineer who worked at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California. While there Chad was involved in integral development of Apple's Mac OS X operating system. Upon his return to Canada, Chad taught Canada's first university accredited course on iPhone programming at the University of Saskatchewan. Chad was also an integral part of the team responsible for developing iUsask, Canada's first iPhone application for university students.

Chad will be sharing his experience and insight on developing applications for various mobile platforms.

Paul Thorsteinson
Paul co-founded Big Nerds In Disguise (BNID) as well as his own company App Empire Inc. Currently the CTO at Robots and Pencils Inc, Paul spends the majority of his time pushing apps from idea to App Store.
In 2011 Paul’s first app with BNID crossed the 10,000 user mark and won a Microsoft award for best design. Through his work at Robots and Pencils, Paul has touched over ten apps that are now in the app store including an app that hit #4 top grossing (World Explorer for MineCraft). More recently Paul brokered a deal to bring one of Warner Brothers most popular games to the mobile space.

Paul will be sharing his experience developing the “Own This World” application for iPhone, Android, and WP7 platforms.

George Chen
George is a consultant with Online Business Systems in Winnipeg and has been an avid Android developer! George wrote the Android application that will be available for Prairie Dev Con Winnipeg, and will be sharing his knowledge of Sencha Touch for creating cross-platform mobile applications.

Simon Timms
Simon Timms is a founder of Wopsle and currently works as a developer for GeoTrac International. GeoTrac is a leader in GPS fleet management focusing on the oil sector in Western Canada. Simon’s background is in release management, source control and .net development but he now spends his days working on distributed systems and applying the most useful of modern programming techniques and technologies to his products.

Simon will be showing how to hack mobile devices using common development tools and frameworks – this is a must-see session!

TBD – Windows Phone 7
We’ll be featuring 5 sessions from the TechDays live events, and you can bet that at least one of those will be showcasing how to develop for Windows Phone 7! Keep watching the sessions list for updates!

Mobile Panel Discussion
The above speakers and others will be part of a mobile panel discussion where attendees can ask questions about the mobile development experience and get a better understanding of how mobile can help their organization.

Registration is Open!

Registration for Prairie Dev Con Winnipeg is now open! We’re still filling the last few session slots, but we have over 80% of the sessions posted!

Until August 31st you can take advantage of our early bird pricing of $349.99! Register a group of 3 or more and get an extra $50 off each registration!

As always, Prairie Dev Con provides the following:

- A hot breakfast and lunch on both days of the conference
- Free wi-fi available
- Free parking (ok, we didn’t have this in Regina, but we do in Winnipeg!)

We’ll also have some fun and surprises over the two days of the conference, so register early to take advantage of our fantastic early bird pricing! Click here to visit our website’s registration page!

(Note: After August, the conference price goes up to $399.99 for September, $499.99 for October, and $599.99 in November)