12 years of Meeting C++!

published at 03.07.2024 15:13 by Jens Weller
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In late June of 2012 the first announcements were made about a new C++ conference called Meeting C++. With its first edition being close to Düsseldorf and in the next year in Düsseldorf.

And 10 years ago - in 2014 - Meeting C++ held the first conference in the Andels Hotel in Berlin. Which since than has become the place where the yearly Meeting C++ conference takes place. So in fall we'll celebrate 10 years in Berlin but also 12 years of Meeting C++.

Meeting C++ today has grown into what I envisioned in 2012. I wanted to build a conference that would also be a platform for helping to spread news about C++. A mix of both has been my main job since 2014, when I went all in with this. Over the years many C++ User Groups have had their start around the conference in Berlin with folks getting to know the ideas and tools to run a User Group through Meetup and Meeting C++. Also many folks that came to Meeting C++ have become speakers and/or joined the C++ committee.

And maybe a word about the C++ committee. The committee has worked on many ideas since 2012, and back than no one would have thought that we get so many new standards. Today its a reality that the committee keeps working on improving C++. Though some times Meeting C++ is in parallel with the committee meeting in November. This is always diffcult to avoid, and when it happens I see it as a chance for all the non-committee folks in C++ to shine at Meeting C++. And in todays world, we might even be able to host some of the committee folks who attend remotely. In this year the committee meeting is after Meeting C++, so it is a unique opportunity for many folks to visit both.

This years conference

Like every year, this years conference again will be one of the best. For the first time Meeting C++ hosts 4 keynotes (Titus Winters, Hana Dusiková, Herb Sutter and Peter Sommerlad), will stream all tracks also to the online world. With over 100 submissions there is lots of interesting talks competing for a slot at the conference. Though since the pandemic C++ conferences have become a bit smaller than they used to be in 2019, with 300 - 350 folks we'll still host a good sized conference. Next is the voting on the submitted talks followed by the selection of talks for the conference. The schedule should be out in September.

And as in every year since 2012: the conference is what drives Meeting C++. Its the engine that allows me to do everything else.

Future plans?

At the moment I'm happy how things are. There is some work needed to be done, and some stuff I'd like to start working on. But for the next years I plan to keep organizing Meeting C++ and its online User Group Meeting C++ online. The C++ community survey comes into an age where the collected data over the years since 2020 becomes interesting. Though often my work today is "house keeping" for Meeting C++. In the last weeks that mostly meant integrating the API of the ticket shop into the program that is the DB Frontend of the conference. Trying to understand the code that ran for 10 years pretty well, until two years ago when that ticket service (Xing events) closed.

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