My Trip to CppCon

published at 16.09.2014 12:38 by Jens Weller
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I just returned yesterday from my trip to Bellevue/WA for CppCon. Its been 10 awesome days, and a ton of fun. It was an honor to support this idea from day one as a community sponsor. I already posted some images of CppCon 2014 at facebook and G+.

I arrived already on Thursday evening before the conf started, to get rid of the jetlag. The time difference is only 2 hours more then at C++Now in Colorado, so 1-3 days are enough to get rid of the jetlag. But I have to say, that in the first days you really get tired in the evening, everything after 7pm is really difficult. Sunlight is the best to reset your inner clock to the new timezone, so spending some time at Downtown Park Bellevue makes things easier.

The conference

There was a social event before the conference, this helped speed up registration the next day, and the get together was a first chance to talk to many old and new friends. I was looking forward to CppCon, as I could meet a lot of people in person, which I already know from email and or Twitter/Facebook/G+.

And then from Monday till Friday there was the awesome content. I had often a hard time to choose which talk to see next, as with 6 Tracks there often was a scheduling conflict. All the keynotes delivered, good content and Mike Acton really gave us something to talk about. One of the highlights in the talks was for me the talk about using boost fusion for wire protocols, also I liked the introduction into sqlpp11, a new C++11 library for database access.

Both of my talks were well received, but it seems to be a bit harder to gather people at 9 am. And I had to take some content out of my 0xBADC0DE talk to make it fit in the 60 minute time slot. I also gave a lightning talk on C++ Conferences, which I might repeat at the Qt DevDays in Berlin. The lightning talks were very well received by the audience, thanks to Kate Gregory for organizing! Unfortunately 8 am in the morning was a bit too early for me, so I missed most of them.

Highlights

A few moments at the conference became my personal highlights. As I also want to share my some moments and keynotes on the social networks, I did sit for all keynotes in the front row, so my very first highlight at CppCon was having small talk with Bjarne Stroustrup. He told me that he really likes my postings of the C++ Papers before each committee meeting, followed by some general chat about the conference. I also was looking forward to finally meeting Herb Sutter in person, I often exchanged emails about isocpp.org and other C++ related topics before. Herb thanked me for all the things I do for C++ in Europe, and introduced me to other attendees as "Mr C++ Europe". As I follow similar goals with Meeting C++ as isocpp.org and the ISO C++ Foundation does, we also spoke about a better cooperation, which you'll soon hear about. It seems as I have become a C++ Evangelist.

I started Meeting C++ after C++Now in 2012, and its since last year my full time job. So visiting a conference such as CppCon is now a lot different for me as it was before. Reading and writing tweets, meeting people and all the awesome C++ content made CppCon very special for me. I'm looking forward to next years CppCon already.

Feedback

This was the first time CppCon was organized, I still remember how the idea was born at C++Now 2013, and took slowly shape from that. I am also a member of the program committee, and as I also organize my own conference, know that things can go bad. But except for the strong Air Conditioning (something we Europeans are not used to) I hardly can complain. Things went very well, the scale of the conference with way over 500 Attendees was new und unknown Territory for all of the organizers and volunteers. They made a terrific job, and not only for being the first time, CppCon was a great event.

Things I really liked was the book table, great Idea. I hope to be able to organize something similar for Meeting C++. Also recording the sessions is awesome, this was really done professionally at this conference. I know how difficult it is, and that getting a professional service for recording is really expensive. This was only possible because the ISO C++ Foundation was willing to pay for the recordings. This is also something that has changed with CppCon, the ISO C++ Foundation has now its own conference and C++ has finally its own and independent organization.

I want to thank Jon Kalb, Chandler Carruth and Herb Sutter for making this awesome event possible. Jon organized as conference chair the event, and was usually very busy. Chandler Carruth and Herb Sutter gave the necessary backing of the ISO C++ Foundation to make an event at such a scale possible. There already are a few new ideas for next years conference, which will happen from the 20 - 25th September, again in Bellevue, Washington.

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