The Magic of the DevCon: The Attendees

I was recently asked to characterize the attendees of a typical DevCon and this is what I said:

The attendees of a DevCon are the top of the pyramid developers that not only try new things all the time, but also make design and architecture decisions for their employers and customers. Also, all of the speakers, i.e. experts in their fields, practitioners, vendor architects, etc, are also attendees, and it's wonderful to see them heckling each other.

The environment of a DevCon is one big room with everyone in it, so it's a shared experience front-to-back. As soon as any talk is over (I keep them at 45 minutes to get the maximum number of new ideas into people’s heads), the buzz between people starts and only stops when I introduce the next speaker (loudly : ).

A DevCon is a wonderful mix of movers and shakers, vendors, enthusiasts, architects, practitioners and and a conference with an atmosphere and a set of attendees unlike any other that I've attended.