The Developers Conference 2017 kicked off today.

I reached Voilà Hotel at 09h20 after dropping LUGM Installfest posters at the University of Mauritius. Knowing that the keynote is scheduled at 09h30 I rushed. On the third floor there was a small queue for badge pick-up. I greeted Mary Jane who was laboriously going through the names list for the badges, picked up my badge and again rushed… to the fourth floor. The conference room comprising of both Educator 1 & 2 was full.

Nirvan, Coralie and Yusuf from the LSL Digital team were in the front row while Jochen was busy with last minute preps with the screens not getting HDMI display. Voilà Hotel technicians came to help but the keynote was delayed by a few minutes.

Jochen addressed a welcome message and gave some quick stats about the Developers Conference registration in comparison with last year. This year there were 520 people who registered. Jochen talked about the efforts of the Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community to convert the registrations into attendees. In fact, in a last minute conversation with Jochen & Mary Jane this evening I learned that around 150 people attended today’s sessions. Not bad for day 1.

Jochen then invited Vidia Moonegan, Managing Director of Ceridian, to deliver the keynote speech. Vidia talked about the pace at which the world is changing and the challenges and opportunities that come with it. He emphasized on the opportunities of software development to meet up to the changing lives due to urbanization.

Vidia talked about fintech, mentioned the Davos meeting of the World Economic Forum, the disappearing of cash, how cash is expensive and can be conterfeited, tax evasions and took M-Pesa examples from Africa and India. He ended his speech with some comments and satisfaction on the Learn to Code event that the Ceridian Learning Centre organized recently. I quote the last line of his speech:

Let the world know that great can come out of Mauritius.

Jochen then continued explaining about the Developers Conference, members on-board and sponsors etc.

Oh, talking of sponsors, we did not get a coffee sponsor as anticipated, to the very disappointment of the geeks and nerds.

The keynote session ended at 10h01. That was ahead of the scheduled time. We took that opportunity to interview a few people around in the lounge and the terrace.

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