10 years of Meeting C++

published at 10.07.2022 15:42 by Jens Weller
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Celebrating 10 years of Meeting C++: Around these days 10 years ago Meeting C++ 2012 was announced.

Back then C++11 was new, and one of the core motivations in starting Meeting C++ has been to make information about C++ more accessible. From my own view point back then, C++11 seemed like the standard for this new decade. And folks should be able to learn about it, but also meet locally in User Groups to have a more social experience.

So, motivating folks for running and starting C++ User Groups and spreading knowledge in the form of links about C++ has become two of the core building blocks of Meeting C++. I've talked a bit about this in my 8 years of Meeting C++ installment 2 years ago.

In Spring I shared a post about how we are again in a similar situation like 10 years ago. C++20 introduces some quite different language constructs, which complement some of the earlier added ones. Like if constexpr is great, but a "side effect" of Concepts is letting you mostly get rid of SFINAE after all. And these new foundational building blocks of C++ like concepts, modules, coroutines and ranges will be the new base for this era of C++. They will spread into our code bases over the coming years, complemented by a C++23 standard taking off some of the rough edges of C++20.

10 years is a long time, and for a conference, Meeting C++ has had the luxury to mostly exist in a time where things moved along nicely. And when they didn't, we got lucky. A lockdown literally saved Meeting C++ in 2020, with the hotel closing down and hence invalidating that contract. This experience and the insight that it was very likely that the pandemic wasn't fully over made me organize Meeting C++ 2021 as an online only event. This was met with mixed reactions from the C++ community, as especially some speakers wanted to return to onsite speaking, and hence did no submit their talks in this year. Still, with 48 submissions and a great mix of new and seasoned speakers the 2021 edition was the best online conference Meeting C++ has ever organized. It likely will also be the only one, as this years event is hybrid, this may become the new default.

For this years event the voting on the talks will start soon. Meeting C++ 2022 was orginally planned to be the great party event Meeting C++ deserves. With many new and well known speakers, and maybe a 2nd set of keynotes. I had many ideas when the planning started, but during winter it became clear, that we'd be back in the pandemic in fall, not as tough as in 2021, but still serious enough. So the plans for 2022 have changed, also the spring has shown that roughly 1/3 is the size of this years conferences onsite compared to 2018/19.

So this years Meeting C++ conference will be a unique experience, where we'll be going back to the beginning in hosting a smaller event on site. With a difference being, that space is not going to be a premium, I want attendees to feel comfortable while attending the event on site. To have their own space. I will go more into the details once Meeting C++ 2022 comes closer, at the moment some things are still in the uncertaincy of the pandemic.

Looking at the 75% of the decade that are still ahead, I personally think that we will be affected by the pandemic until 2025. There will be no quick recovery, no magical return of 2019. Meeting C++ will adjust to this. On the other hand a core focus in the coming years will be to finish some of the infrastructure and new elements of Meeting C++ to complement Meeting C++ as a platform for C++.

One of the first upcoming changes will be to merge the employer listing with the job fair it self. 2022 has made it clear to myself, that I'd only like to advertise and organize one thing for recruiting. Also, this will make it a better offering to companies, and be for them and myself more efficient. And efficientcy is something a C++ programmer always likes.

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