Techorama 2014

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Editor's note: The following post was written by Community Program Manager William Jansen

 

Three men and a vision. A vision of a new type of conference. The result: Techorama.

Techorama is the brain-child of MVPs Gill Cleeren, Pieter Gheysens and Kevin DeRudder. These three community-driven techies felt it was time to bring a new view on technology to Belgium. Techorama delivered deep-dive developer sessions, numerous integration scenarios and a wide-range of best practice advice, both from world-renowned speakers and local community rock stars. 

 

Not only did Techorama sell out well ahead of the event, more than 600 people attended a total of 75 sessions presented by 50 speakers.  MVPs Maarten Balliauw and Mike Martin who were the dedicated track owners during this two-day event 

Notable is that 32 of the speakers at Techorama were MVPs from around the globe, including:

  • Belgium: Kevin Dockx, Mike Martin, Sam Vanhoutte, Xavier Decoster, Yves Goeleven
  • Canada: Richard Campbell
  • Denmark: Mark Seemann
  • Germany; Christian Wenz, Neno Loje
  • Netherlands: Fons Sonnemans, Marcel de Vries, Maurice de Beijer, Patriek van Dorp
  • Norway: Bjoern Rapp
  • Portugal: Tiago Pascoal
  • Romania: Tiberiu Covaci
  • Spain: David Rodriguez
  • Switzerland: Laurent Bugnion
  • Sweden: Alan Smith, Chris Klug and Magnus Martensson
  • UK: Andy Cross, Richard Fennel, Mark Rendle,
  • USA: Doug Finke, Grant Fritchey, Jon Galloway, Lynn Langit, Mike Wood, Mike Taulty, Nik Molnar, Phil Japikse, Wallace McClure

I caught up with the visionaries during the event, and was able to ask them a few questions:

Gill Cleeren, What was the inspiration for creating Techorama? “Having organized Community Day for 7 years in a row, I knew that developers in Belgium needed a community conference, he explained, adding “Because Microsoft is no longer organizing TechDays in Belgium, an real opportunity presented itself - an event for Belgian developers. An event for new ideas, the opportunity to learn from the masters and of course to connect with peers. This inspired me to start Techorama” he concluded.

Kevin DeRudder, What sets Techorama apart from other community events? “ Techorama is a conference organized by three techies, who are deep into the technologies they love” Kevin explained. “We are aware of what developers are doing and where their interests lie. Together with a few other specialized MVPs, we crafted an agenda full of useful sessions, in a way that they should be able to apply the information in their jobs” Kevin happily added.

Pieter Gheysens, What was your personal highlight of the event? “ It may sound a bit boastful – but at the end of the second day keynote, we received a standing ovation from the attendees!” Pieter enthusiastically told me.  “For me, that was a confirmation that we had done a good thing!” 

A full list of speakers can be found here: https://www.techorama.be/speakers/

A full list of sponsors can be found here: www.techorama.be/sponsors

Video or photo links? www.flickr.com/techorama

 

Plans for next year’s Techorama are already underway. Dates will be May 12-13, 2015

 

Verbatim feedback from attendees: https://twitter.com/search?q=techorama&src=typd