Road to DevSummit

Next week is the Esri Developer Summit and things are looking pretty good. They keynote speaker this year is none other than Douglas Crockford, who is always a pleasure to see speak.

There’s a packed agenda this year, where I’m sure a dev could definitely find something that interests them.

A personal year

Normally, I’d go over all the awesome user sessions I want to check out. The user sessions are always interesting, because these our the people that have been in the trenches, using and hacking the software, bending it to their will to meet the sometimes implausible if not dreamy needs of their users (or even managers) and you get to learn from their pain. There’s lots of great user sessions this year, so definitely be sure to check those out.

However this year, I don’t know if I’ll have time to attend many user sessions. This year, I’m going to DevSummit as staff. I’m involved in six sessions this year, nine with repeats. Plus working the showcase area throughout the week.

It’s interesting to be presenting at DevSummit as an Esri employee. I think I’ve only missed three DevSummits since they started. I know I missed year one because they gave out some cool messenger bags that my co-workers had and I never did manage to get my hands on one. I’ve done a handful of user presentations and lightning talks at DevSummit throughout the years and I’ve been giving all of you free content and training materials for years.

I’m no stranger to presenting to an audience.I strive to subscribe to the It’s either HELL YEAH! or no philosophy. So know that if I’m presenting on something it’s because I said Hell yeah I’ll do it! I didn’t quite know that all my suggestions would be accepted, ha!

So aside from my sessions that I think you should all go see (two Frameworks talks on Friday, before and after lunch, so we’ll finish the week on a high point), here’s a list of the top 20 sessions from Esri.

My quick picks

Here’s just a handful of sessions that I think warrant your attention, even if they conflict with mine.

• ArcGIS API for JavaScript: Building Apps that Consume Web Maps and Web Scenes - Web Maps and Web Scenes are key to the ArcGIS platform, so it would definitely benefit you to check this session out.
• ArcGIS Online and Portal: Developing Custom JavaScript Applications - Same as above, learn how to leverage the platform for your application needs!
• ArcGIS API for JavaScript: Building Web Editing Applications - Everyone wants to edit and there are some common patterns and best practices to web editing apps that you should learn.
• Automating Builds for Enterprise JavaScript Applications - I’ve stressed this plenty on this blog and tutorials, but learn how to build your apps.
• Building 3D Web Apps: A Step by Step Guide - 3D Scenes are the new hotness, so get a head start on how to use them!
• Building Interactive Web Apps Using the JavaScript API’s Geometry Engine - The geometry engine is a great tool in the JavaScript API and can do some very powerful stuff. I highly recommend this one.
• Building Your own Widget with ArcGIS API for JavaScript - A lot of what you do when you build custom apps is build widgets, so you should learn from the masters on how to leverage the tools in the JSAPI to help you do it!
• Building a Web App for Data Exploration with Smart Mapping - Smart Mapping is awesome. As devs, we sometimes forget that the data in the map means something, it’s just a data visualization so learn how to use the tools at your disposal to do it right.
• Choosing a Javascript Framework - I’m doing a frameworks session on using frameworks with the JSAPI, but this one covers how you would actually choose one and for what purposes. Highly recommended.

This year, I would also recommend checking out any, if not all of Dylan Schiemanns user presentations. Dylan is the founder of Sitepen and Dojo and is presenting some really awesome sessions this year. I’m going to miss some due to my own scheduling conflicts, which I am totally bummed about.

Be social

You have no shortage of sessions, both technical and user sessions to check out this year. Don’t forget, there’s a showcase area for all the different Esri tech where you can ask the team any tech question you might have. It’s a good time of stump the developers. There’s also the Meet the Teams on Tuesday night, I’ll also be at, so feel free to come on by and say hello.

As usual, I’ll be on twitter all week long. I’ll probably do a few random Periscope sessions and some SnapChat (#odoenet) throughout the week as well as some pics on Instagram, so feel free to connect with me via the social platform of your choosing.

Don’t forget to check out my youtube channel as I’ve been putting some more content on there recently with more to come.

It’s exciting to be involved with DevSummit for the first time as an employee and talking about some exciting stuff for all of you. As a long time attendee, I’m honored to be more deeply involved in bringing you some great new content and tools to the geo community!