Jazoon’07 a success – roll on Jazoon’08!

With 800 participants and speakers, Jazoon, the international conference for Java technology, has immediately become one of the “giants” in IT developer conferences. The courage of the initiators, Netcetera and cR Kommunikation, to turn Jazoon into a top international event, has been rewarded. The variety of the conference program was vital to its success. With around 130 keynote speeches, technical sessions, work-in-progress presentations, software demonstrations and spontaneous birds-of-a-feather sessions, the conference covered all the current trends and developments in Java and open source technologies. The event’s superb organization also contributed significantly to a smooth transfer of expertise, highlighting the lasting professional impression made by the event.

“The perfect storm” – and other highlights
Numerous highlights shaped the conference, for example, the keynote speech by Ted Neward, who maintains that a perfect storm is brewing for domain-specific programming languages. Or Roy Fielding, Chief Scientist at Day Software Holding AG, who in his keynote speech talked about the “REST way”, outlining the architectural contexts of allocated web applications. Or Philipp H. Oser, Lead Architect of ELCA, who paid tribute to the huge opportunities offered by the community’s active involvement in the development process and highlighted ways of dealing with the resulting heterogeneity. Or Erich Gamma, Distinguished Engineer at the IBM Rational Zurich Research Lab, who gave in-depth insights into the collaborative development platform JAZZ. Or Neal Gafter, Software Engineer at Google, who showed how, why and what potential consequences should be considered when adding what are known as closures to Java. Or Dan Coward, Sun Microsystems, who ventured a look ahead to the future of Java with new modularization technologies, Super JARs and Super Packages. Or the European premiere of JavaFX with a variety of new applications opportunities, ranging from cell phones and Blue Ray disc players to Internet browsers. But the participants had the last word at Jazoon’07: In a 2-minute "Jazoon Jam" session, they each had the chance to say anything they felt needed saying.

The future is secure.
After taking stock of the first ever Jazoon, the sponsors are positive about the conference – as Andreas Knöpfli, Managing Director, Sun Microsystems (Switzerland) AG comments: “With the advent of Jazoon, providers and professional users of Java solutions have now found a meeting place in Europe where they can also exchange experience in a focused manner about the latest trends and developments. So at this stage already, Sun Microsystems is also considering what major role we can play in implementing Jazoon'08.” Daniel Gorostidi, CEO of ELCA, has already pledged a continuation of the sponsoring commitment today: "Back in the nineties, ELCA was already one of the Java pioneers and we have been very committed to making this technology popular. At last, Jazoon has given us a platform again in the heart of Europe, to demonstrate what the technology, but above all the companies and people that use it, are capable of." The 30 companies presenting their Java and open source environment solutions and services in the fullybooked exhibitors’ area were also able to gain many new contacts to interested industry professionals.

Jazoon’08 from 23 to 26 June 2008 in Zurich
The particularly positive feedback calls for a continuation of Jazoon in the coming year. “After such a successful premiere, it’s easy to think about holding Jazoon ’08 already,” said Jürg Eberhard, CEO at Keynode AG. “Jazoon’08 will take place from 23 to 26 June 2008 in Zurich. Although this was a great debut, we are convinced that next year we can attract even more participants to come to Zurich from all over the world. Because one thing’s for sure: Java and open source technologies will become more and more important – and Switzerland is the perfect meeting place for the international community. But our aim is not to hold the largest Java and open source conference, but instead to create a best in class event for IT professionals in Europe."