A new location is a new challenge. The anniversary edition of JavaLand attracted over 1,440 participants to the Nürburgring from April 9 to 11. Here, the ten years of JavaLand were duly celebrated with a program of over 160 interesting contributions, new and exciting community activities and a party in the evening.
Unconference & JavaLand4Kids
JavaLand kicked off with the Community Unconference on the day before, April 8. Participants were able to spontaneously discuss topics in a specific group or simply take the opportunity to hold initial discussions and get in the mood for the next few days – a bit like a warm-up at a Grand Prix.
The children and teenagers at "JavaLand 4 Kids" on Monday afternoon were enthusiastic. Here, the developers of tomorrow were able to take their first steps in programming and be creative. Among other things, small robots with sensors were designed and built, which then had to run a certain route, or programmed in Python, for example. The mentors were on hand to support the kids and answered lots of questions. At the end, the Java mascot Duke visited the children, marveled at their work of the day and took photos with them. The conclusion of everyone involved: Great, we'll be back next year!
JUG Café on Wheels
In keeping with the location, the JUG Café was also mobile this time. In the community bus, which began its "Highway to CloudLand" journey at JavaLand at the Nürburgring, JUG representatives invited guests to take part in informal discussions about regional Java user groups, the iJUG and Java in general.
Keynote
After the first early bird sessions and the subsequent welcome address by iJUG Chairman and Conference Manager Fried Saacke in the ring°arena, the first day of the conference on Tuesday, April 9 started with a keynote speech by Shelley Lambert. She talked about the parallels between building successful communities in nature and software. She encouraged us to be more aware of ourselves and to think about ways to improve projects and communities, which was very well received by the audience and thus met with lively approval among the people.
Program, Attractions & Exhibition
Afterwards, all presentations from twelve streams were available to visitors for the rest of the day. The main topics chosen this year were "Core Java & JVM Technology", "Architecture", "Methodology & Culture", "Enterprise Java", "Programming Languages", "Security", "Quality & Testing", "Container, Cloud & Infrastructure", "UI & UX", "Data, Streaming & AI", "What’s next?" sowie "Tools". The program impressed the participants across the board. Whether top speakers or newcomers – everyone shared their knowledge, experience, tips and tricks with the Java community.
Between the presentations, the participants took time to visit the exhibition in the ring°boulevard. Here, more than 30 exhibitors were on hand with informative talks and a number of fun challenges, including fantastic prizes.
Those who wanted to clear their heads after the presentations could take some time out and make use of the attractions and activities. The supporting program offered various action games – from the Pit Stop Challenge to racing simulators and a multimedia experience all about the Nürburgring – as well as a historical exhibition in the ring°werk. Under the ring°werk, the kart track was available for an adrenaline rush. The e-karts were very popular and caused euphoria on the winding track. The Trackwalks were another highlight. During the guided tours on the racetrack, participants were given exciting and surprising background information on certain sections of the track. They felt the impressive atmosphere of the legendary "Green Hell" with every step. On the grandstand of the start and finish straight, some of the real racing cars could even be marveled at during test drives – an unforgettable sound when they pass by at top speed.
Evening Event
On the evening of the first day of the conference, Jean-Pierre Derinbay & Friends delighted the crowd with live music in the Eifel Stadl after a delicious dinner. Together with Vanessa Iraci and Juan Daniél, he fired up the audience and got everyone dancing to rock and pop music. Afterwards, the party continued with drinks and DJ music until late into the night, when everyone happily fell asleep in bed, looking forward to the second day of the conference.
Community Keynote
On the second day of the conference, April 10, the machinations of large IT corporations, which on the one hand support the open source movement, but on the other hand sabotage transparency and openness in critical systems, were highlighted in an original and sharp-tongued way in a rousing community keynote. The audience was given something to think about in terms of how corporations sometimes secretly manipulate technological progress.
Training Day
Traditionally, JavaLand was concluded on the last day with the training day on Thursday, April 11. In eight training sessions, newcomers and advanced users immersed themselves intensively in their respective topics in this full-day workshop. This time, the topics included Kafka, BDD and example mapping, performance tuning, OpenRewrite, Keycloak and many more.
On-demand Offer & Save the Date
All in all, JavaLand 2024 was an entirely successful anniversary edition at the Nürburgring. We have summarized a complete review with many pictures for you on an archive page. If you missed JavaLand, we have the on-demand ticket for you, which gives you access to all lecture content and recordings for one year after purchase. Simply buy your ticket, go to the agenda, click on the presentation, scroll down and download the material or watch the video. JavaLand 2024 participants already have automatic access to all content.
Finally, we would like to thank all visitors, speakers, exhibitors, sponsors, contributors and the Nürburgring team for their participation and cooperation. We are already looking forward to next year! We will soon be publishing the save the date for JavaLand 2025 on our website and via our social media channels. Jatumba and stay tuned!
