San Francisco! Portland! San Francisco! Boston! San Francisco! Boston! San Francisco! San Francisco! Those are some of the destinations you, and your colleagues, need to attend next year.
Yes, San Francisco comes up a lot. Welcome to the tech world! That’s how it rolls.
These are the must-attend tech events for developers and other IT professionals, in date order, if we know the date. For the huge corporate-sponsored events, good luck getting tickets. They sell out in seconds.
Dates confirmed:
1. Wearables DevCon, March 5-7, San Francisco. I love my Pebble watch, and millions of people enjoy their FuelBands, Fitbits, Jawbones and Arduino-packed clothing. Whether it’s a smartwatch or Google Glass, wearables are the future. Get in on it.
2. Game Developers Conference, March 17-21, San Francisco. If you are a game developer, this event is already on your calendar. If you are not a game developer, come here to learn cutting-edge techniques you can apply to every dev project.
3. Big Data TechCon, March 31-April 2, Boston. It seems you can’t open a newspaper or read a magazine without encountering Big Data. This training event is geared toward teaching developers, database professionals and other IT folks about getting Big Data done, and done right.
4. Microsoft BUILD, April 2-4, San Francisco. This is where you get the first peek at the latest versions of Microsoft’s desktop, server and mobile operating systems and tools. Windows 8.2? Next-gen phone and Surface tablets? Come find out.
5. AnDevCon, May 27-30, Boston. AnDevCon is the biggest, most focused event for Android developers. Handsets, tablets, embedded, it doesn’t matter: If it’s Android, you’ll learn about it at AnDevCon.
6. Cloud DevCon, June 24-25, San Francisco. The cloud is everywhere, both as a development platform and as a deployment target. Learn how to move beyond the data center to Amazon Web Services, convert CAPEX to OPEX, save money, and improve quality.
7. OSCON, July 20-24, Portland, Ore. Everything open source is at OSCON. The whole stack, from operating system to application servers to frameworks to languages to tools to clouds. Come be educated and inspired at the same time.
8. Oracle OpenWorld and JavaOne, Sept. 28-Oct. 2, San Francisco. Everything that Microsoft and Apple aren’t, you’ll find from Oracle. Huge hardware. Huge databases. Huge egos (from Larry Ellison).
9. Salesforce.com Dreamforce, Oct. 13-16, San Francisco. For a company whose motto is “No Software,” Salesforce.com has become one of the biggest players in the software business—that is, if you are 100% focused on the cloud.
Dates uncertain:
10. Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, San Francisco. Can you say iPhone 6? What comes after Mavericks? Maybe a bigger iPad? Rumor has the 2014 dates as being June 2-4, but Apple hasn’t announced them officially.
11. Google I/O, San Francisco. Get your APIs here, as well as cool hardware like Google Glass and tablets. Learn all about Android, Chrome, App Engine and, of course, everything advertising. Expect the conference in the April or May timeframe.
Have we missed your must-attend tech conference? Write me at alan@camdenassociates.com.
Alan Zeichick, founding editor of SD Times, is principal analyst of Camden Associates.