Here are my very personal impressions from the Developer Conference (9-10 October), mainly intended for those who couldn't attend this year. There were parallel tracks during the conference and I only saw my humble part of it. The conference was held in Bentley office, in Hoffddorp, The Netherlands. For all I care it always meant European HQ to me. This place is just 5 minutes bus ride from the Amsterdam International Airport (and what a ride it is -- those buses go like every 5 minutes and drive on their own roads, not lanes, whole roads totally separated from any other traffic. Much faster and a lot cheaper than a taxi). The office is also close to several hotels, all of which offered discounted rates for conference attendees. I stayed in Courtyard Marriott for the less than a half of their regular price, not to mention all included extras like hi-speed Wi-Fi in the room or free shuttle to Bentley office). Very appreciated touch.According to my rough guestimate slightly above 40 attendees made it to the conference this year (or at least something in that order of magnitude). The nice side-effect of that was that it was easier than ever to grab some quality time with top-flight Bentley staff:We had some keynotes about our future, and we also had one keynote about cooperation with folks on the sales side: And we had a lot of lectures:We did some serious hacking as well:But what we also had, and had it in abundance was a lot fun:I am biased here, because I particularly like lively spontaneous presentations such as those performed by Mark. Not done, performed. They are a real performances by themselves. Actually there is usually an agenda to follow, but everybody who knows Mark knows also that his passion for the programming subjects is so strong that any strict agenda will be sidestepped right off the bat. And this is the great thing. We get a boat load of sidetracks covered in no time and this get everybody really involved. Lot of fun.And there were special moments, in a Monty Python spirit.Here is Mark explaining The Meaning Of Life. Actually The Answer To All Questions. The Life. The Universe. The Everything.The answer is... a number of 243. According to Mark this particular number explains it all. Recursively, no less.Enquiring mind like mine, but I couldn't prove him wrong. But I had this uncanny, unnerving feeling that the true answer to all these things is indeed out there... somewhere...(and "they" must knew it all the time! But don't tell this Mark. Ever.)A lot of truth to absorb. And all heat of it. We got to get outdoors and we did left Bentley office behind:Because after all hard work there is at least one truth no one need to prove - you have to replenish your energy at some point:And we did it thoroughly, courtesy of Bentley seemingly endless hospitality:To top it off, deep in the late night when the local taxi service stalled for some weird reason, some of us got ride to our hotels personally by Bentley executives. Wow! Luckily we weren't in thousands.
And finally, there was one particular person from Bentley staff I like to mention here. She was seen roaming corridors and fixing all practical details, organising beverages and cakes, doing touch downs in the reception desk on the third floor, fixing things, working out miracles for every "unsolvable" problem. Regretfully I don't have her name, nor is she on any of my photos. She really took care of all things from the deep of her heart. It was like having your own mother on the staff. She was wearing a brown dress. And she did a lot to overall atmosphere of this conference.Thank you Ton, Phil, Mark, and all your colleagues for this unforgettable happening.
Yours truly, with Bentley office as a scenery, heading for the bus.