Last weekend I had the opportunity to talk at the inaugural BuzzConf.
BuzzConf is a bit different to other technology conferences with bands & DJ’s in the evenings and a family/kid orientated track with workshops on robots and Minecraft!
The conference was held in the beautiful but somewhat cold Phoenix Park to the west of Melbourne and attendees had the choice of either camping or staying in dorm/cabin style accommodation.
Free Internet access was provided to all attendees & a number of catering vans offered drinks and food for sale.
The theme of BuzzConf is emerging technology which certainly led to some interesting talks – I have to say currently I am enjoying these type of talks a lot more than how to use a new framework or language feature style ones.
I gave a 30 min talk on brain computer interfaces which has been one of the more interesting talks I have put together.
Putting this talk together made me realize:
- Brain/Computer interfaces are further advanced than you may think
- Although it is less comfortable it is possible to put together a talk on something you have a shallow knowledge of..
- Everyday work can seem a bit trivial when compared to developers dealing with real tricky problems such as decoding optical neurological impulses
- I want an Emotiv (a consumer BCI device) to play with
You can see my slides under the download section of my site.
I only spent a short time at BuzzConf due to parental responsibilities but my favorite thing about it was there was a nice feeling of community at the event.
I left the conference feeling very optimistic after a number of inspiring talks.
BuzzConf will be held again in 2016 and you can register your interest on the main page of the site – I look forward to attending the whole weekend next time with family.
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