Today in the DMC Speakers Interview:
- Jon Arne Sæterås
- Fokke Zandbergen
- Eamon Leonard

Jon Arne Sæterås
1.     Tell us about yourself, who are you, and what do you do in daily life?

I am a 36 years old Norwegian husband and father who has been working with mobile since the early days. Co-founded a company and invented its technology in 2004. Being a father both to a human being and a company pretty much make the day complete.

2.     What’s your favorite underappreciated piece of software?

A difficult one... the Mac app "Alfred" has managed to make its way into my subconsciousness. So I guess that one.

3.     If you could make one change (big or small) to every frontend project out there, what would it be?

Easy. Make it work on mobile devices.

4.     What’s the coolest thing you’ve seen lately, programming or otherwise?

The properties in the navigator object in the firefox OS browser. Other than that, I would have to say whateverweb.com which is the latest project I am working on.

5.     How did you become passionate in the subject of your talk?

THAT is a long story. Short version is best summarized by this picture: http://mpulp.mobi/2012/08/my-new-desktop-wallpaper/

6.     What was your first speaking experience like?

Well, one of the first I remember... I went SIGNIFICANTLY over time....way into the lunch, so I got cut off... :( I got better since then.... promise!

7.     Where do you see yourself in the future?

The future is the present, some say... Try not to think too much about the future, but will still be in the business of making the web accessible for anyone everywhere always.

Fokke Zandbergen
1.     Tell us about yourself, who are you, and what do you do in daily life?

I'm 30 years old, married to Hannah and father to 2 boys, aged 3,5 years and 8 months. I'm a freelance app developer and ambassador for Appceletator's Titanium platform - the software I use to develop native apps cross-platform. I co-lead the Dutch user group and speak at conferences and events. When I'm not doing any of those things, I probably enjoy some wine and TED talks.

2.     What’s your favorite underappreciated piece of software?

Notepad. Even on the Mac there is no equivalent to Microsoft's fast, plain text editor. It's on any Windows system, doesn't do any formatting and for this very reason probably the most advised tool by CMS instructors. Before pasting anything in a CMS system, always - always - paste-copy-paste in Notepad to remove any Comic Sans and hidden MS Word-code.

3.     If you could make one change (big or small) to every frontend project out there, what would it be?

Strip the 80% no one needs anyway.

4.     What’s the coolest thing you’ve seen lately, programming or otherwise?

I'm amazed at the maturity of JavaScript these days. It's powering front-ends, native apps and even back-ends nowadays. You should try it, really :)

5.     How did you become passionate in the subject of your talk?

As a freelancer, it's hard to 

6.     What was your first speaking experience like?

The very first time must have been on high school. I don't know if I don't remember anything of it because it went smooth or because it sucked. Later on I learned to speak for various teams of young people I led on international athletic projects. I learned that a leader or speaker first of all is someone who takes responsibility for a group. That's not so much of a skill, it's a choice.

7.     Where do you see yourself in the future?

Less programming, more consulting, still in sync with tech though.
 

Eamon Leonard
1.     Tell us about yourself, who are you, and what do you do in daily life?

I've worked on the web since the late 90's. I've worked for web agencies and startups. I've been a freelancer, the owner of a software consultancy, the founder of a product company, an executive in a pioneering cloud company, and an angel investor. My passion is helping startup and developer communities, and developing products. I've just become a Dad :)

My day job, as VP Developers³ in Engine Yard, allows me to interact with developers from all over the world. My team and I talk with and listen to developers, we try to understand the things that make them unhappy and unproductive, and we try to help where we can. Sometimes this means that our product can help make their work life easier. And sometimes it means that we can do more to help them by supporting them in what they do. 

I work with a group of very smart people, who are inventing the future for developers, every day.

2.     What’s your favorite underappreciated piece of software?

I sometimes wonder if sound engineers can ever appreciate a piece of music. Are they capable of listening to the piece as a whole, or are their too busy focusing in on small individual details, such as the different tracks, and notes. Are they too busy dissecting the music, to truly value it as a piece of art. 

In the same way, I wonder if we, as developers, ever truly take the time to appreciate the vast amount of software we use every day, that enables us to do our job. As a developers, we are so close to the moving pieces, that do we ever get to stand back and think about what is involved just to load a web page?

So, I haven't directly answered the question, but this post about the complexity of computer hardware and software makes my point nicely, and is a good read: https://plus.google.com/112218872649456413744/posts/dfydM2Cnepe

3.     If you could make one change (big or small) to every PHP project out there, what would it be?

Reinventing the wheel might be useful way to learn, but in the longrun it contributes to deep fragmentation across projects and communities.

4.     What’s the coolest thing you’ve seen lately, programming or otherwise?

Kids from Coderdojo, releasing software and giving talks at conferences around the world.

5.     How did you become passionate in the subject of your talk?

I lived it.

6.     What was your first speaking experience like?

Nerve wrecking. It was to a room of about 20 people. I had sweaty palms, a crackly voice, and wandered off topic so many times that I ran out of time. But it got easier to do the more I did it.

7.     Where do you see yourself in the future?

On a hover board. Failing that, I'll continue to work with developers and startups and to be a community activist in any way I can.

We are happy to announce that we will have a tutorial and a talk on the new mobile operating system that will make every web developer’s heart beat faster; Firefox OS! In these sessions you will learn, or even get some hands-on experience (if you join the tutorial). If you want to know how you can get your apps ready and try to take your share of this new emerging market, be sure to get your tickets before they run out!

Firefox OS is generating a lot of buzz lately, especially now that the first developer preview devices are available. Web developers around the world are gathering to test, create applications and discover what the amazing new web APIs have to offer.

At the conference Sergi Mansilla and Jan Jongboom will show you everything there is to learn. If you want to get serious with developing for this platform you can join the tutorial; if you’re just curious you can visit the talk to see what this new platform is all about.

If you’ve already booked a tutorial and want to change it to the Firefox OS tutorial just fill out the contact form indicating your order number, name and previous selected tutorial and we’ll do the rest!

It's time to share more about this year's new Hackathon. First off, Zend has been kind enough to sponsor the room, food and drinks for the event. In their honor, the event is called “The Zend PHP Hero Hackathon”. We’ll also have members of the local AmsterdamPHP group helping out throughout the evening.

Below you’ll find the rules for the Hackathon but there’s one important thing to do first. We have a limited amount of food and drink, so if you plan to participate then please register here first! This helps us plan ahead and ensures you don’t go hungry.

So, how does this work? Well, it's pretty simple:

1. There are no restrictions on what tools, libraries or frameworks you can use.

2. We'll kickoff the Hackathon at 5:30 PM on Thursday after the tutorials end. If you're attending the Symfony2 exam at the same time, don't worry: we'll save your food and help you get back into the action when you finish the exam.

3. We'll start with Matthew Weier O'Phinney presenting an example project and giving an overview of the evening. Zend is also offering free hosting on DevCloud for any projects that need it and Boaz Ziniman will give a demonstration of how it works.

4. After that, the attendees will take the stage! If you've got an idea that you'd like to assemble a team for, we'll give you a timeboxed slot on stage to pitch the audience. Try to convince other developers to code with you. Once all the pitches are complete, you can sign up for a team and start coding!

5. We'll hack away Thursday night until 10:00 PM (or until the venue kicks us out) but you can keep coding through the conference. Zend will have a support table open throughout the conference where they can help you with tough issues or integrating DevCloud with your project.

6. Your project must be online no later than 1:00 PM Saturday. Please mail the final submission to dpc-hackathon@ibuildings.nl, including the project’s URL and the Github/BitBuckt/etc repo.

7. Our judges will award prizes to different categories and all winners will be announced on stage at the closing ceremony. Teams are awarded extra points for following along with this year’s theme of REST APIs and Mobile applications. You can see the full scoring sheet for more details.

If you’re interested in the latest hackathon news, you can follow the new @dpc_hackathon Twitter account for all the latest. We’d love to hear about what you’d like to pitch or build at the hackathon, so tweet your ideas to us and we’ll share them upfront.

Of course, the most important rule: have fun! This is our first hackathon at DPC and we’re excited to see people already signing up. If you’ve got an idea or want to spend an evening coding with friends or just want to get into the conference spirit, then go ahead and register while spots are remaining.

Until June,

Above all else, one thing is at the heart of every conference out there: beer! DMC is no different and we're happy to have this year's conference social sponsored by Engine Yard. These guys have been involved in the community left and right lately so their generosity shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

The social will be hosted in downtown Amsterdam at the Escape, one of Amsterdam's best known cafes and night clubs. After the first conference day closes on June 7th, we'll break for a couple hours so everyone can have dinner downtown (i.e. devour as many fries and stroopwafels as they possibly can). Once that's done, we'll gather outside Escape at 20:30 and the party – er, networking can begin! Attendees, speakers and drink tokens a-plenty will all be there in full force.

There's only one catch: Make sure you remember to bring your badge. This is also your ticket into the social so you must have it with you. Badges for the conference days, tutorial days, or both are all valid. Until then, if you have any questions about finding the venue or the social in general, we have a Social page with all the details on it.

We look forward to seeing all of you in June!

Announcing the Mobile Hackathon

We’re pleased to announce that we’ll be adding a Hackathon to this year’s DMC, sponsored by Zend. After the close of our Tutorial Day on June 6th, attendees can meet up for an evening kick-off event, assemble teams, outline their project and start coding! This will be a mix between attendees of both the DPC and DMC which is a great opportunity to create your next breathtaking mobile client-server app. Teams have until Saturday afternoon to finish their project and deliver it to the judges. The winners will be announced on stage at the closing ceremony and will receive some great prizes from Zend.

Don’t have an idea? Come anyways and join forces with another team! Not a server-side expert? No problem, you can team up with anyone to get the right balance of expertise. The only thing you need to do is bring your A game.

We’ll be publishing all the details soon, so keep an eye on mobileconference.nl for the latest information. In the meantime, you can sign up by checking the Hackathon box when purchasing your tickets.

Unconference, Socials and more!

Unfortunately, we can’t speed up time and make DMC happen any sooner. Luckily, June isn’t far off and until then, you can still get ready:

• The unconference is already taking submissions via Twitter this year, so if you’d like a chance to speak, send your ideas to @dpc_uncon.

• We’re going to have a great conference social at the Escape lounge in downtown Amsterdam. You won’t want to miss it.

• Plan out which talks you’d like to see. We’ve got a lot of them, so take your time. Consider using your DMC ticket to learn more about server side development by seeing a few talks at over on Dutch PHP Conference tracks (just hit the checkbox at the top of the page!).

End of the Early Bird

Just a friendly reminder: it’s the last week of the Early Bird ticket sale! Make sure to book your ticket by April 28th for 15% off. This is the lowest price you can get so don’t wait.

See you in Amsterdam!

This year’s conference is going to be great so don’t wait to book your tickets. We hope you’re as excited about this year’s conference as we are, so get ready to be rocked.

Until June,

-The DMC team.

Conference checklist:

- Ticket
- Laptop
- Tablet
- Mobile phone
- ... all charged
- Crate to stand on

A crate? Yes, a crate! Got it? Yes indeed, the Dutch PHP Conference and Dutch Mobile Conference will have an Uncon for the 4th year in succession!

Of course you won't have to bring your own crate because DPC13/DMC13 will have a prepared Speakers' Corner.

At the Speakers' Corner every attendee is able to share his/her knowledge, enthusiasm, critisism about any "Mobile" or "PHP" related subject. Even if your subject is not related, but you think every attendee should hear your story grab your chance.

This editions' Uncon will be run by Jeroen van Dijk (@neorey), who you might already know from the PHPBenelux user group. On site he will be managing your 'submissions' using a whiteboard at the Speakers' Corner. Based on the input Jeroen will create the best schedule possible.

If you didn't make the cut on the Call for Papers, here's a second chance to prove the committee wrong! You can apply now for the Friday morning uncon sessions via the @dpc_uncon Twitter account. Send in your talk title and get your name on the schedule!

We are looking forward to another great (un)conference!

Registration is open now. Quickly, go and check out all the great content we have to offer this year! Once you’ve decided that you want to join us, you can go to the registration page to order your tickets. Please note that you receive a 15% early bird discount if you order your tickets before April 29th.

We are happy to announce the schedule. Quickly, go and check out all the great content we have to offer this year! Once you’ve decided that you want to join us, you can buy your tickets starting tomorrow. Please note that you receive a 15% early bird discount if you order your tickets before April 29th.

On our tutorial day we offer 14 amazing tutorials, these consist of full day and half day sessions to get you up to speed on the latest in tools and best practices! The tutorials are a great way to dive into a subject and get your questions answered by an expert.

For tutorial day (Thursday 6th June) you will have to specify which tutorial(s) you want to attend beforehand, during the registration process. If you choose a half day tutorial, you can select 2 tutorials to make it a full day program. We have dedicated rooms for the tutorials with enough space for everyone to sit at a table and do some actual hands-on work.

For the main conference days (Friday 7th and Saturday June 8th) you’re free to decide which sessions you’d like to attend on the day itself.

We hope that you’re just as excited about the schedule as we are. See you in Amsterdam!

Speakers-To-Be thanks for submitting your talks to DMC13; the response has been overwhelming. We’ve already begun the speaker selection process and hope to finish soon. We expect to notify all speakers in approximately two weeks.

When we’ve finished the selection we will start to announce the speakers and conference schedule on this site. Begin of march we will start the early bird tickets sale, so keep your attention to this site.

We look forward to seeing you all at the conference in June,

- The DMC 2013 Team

We are proud to announce the second edition of the Dutch Mobile Conference. A 3-day conference about technologies used for mobile websites and mobile web application development focussed on developers. The first day wil be packed with in-depth tutorials. On the other 2 days talks will be given on various subjects regarding mobile web development.

Our aim is to deliver an awesome quality conference to inspire, inform and teach our visitors. As a bonus all visitors will get access to both the DMC and its sibling the DPC. Ticket sales will start early March.

For more information on the DPC, please check out the website at http://www.phpconference.nl

Call for papers is open!
Speakers, the call for papers is now open! We’re looking for high-quality, technical sessions from speakers who can cover advanced topics and keep our demanding audience inspired. Tutorials are 3 or 6 hours in length (note that 6 hours is our preference) and the standard conference sessions should be 45 minutes.

As always we’re excited about all kinds of different topics. Typically you could say that as long as it’s somehow related to mobile development and you’re really excited about it, we want to hear it! It doesn’t matter who you are, this event is all about technology. We had a lot of positive feedback on the first edition, and we want to make the experience of this second edition even more overwhelming!

(Note that the DPC has its own CfP - see http://www.phpconference.nl/call-for-papers for more information)

The call for papers is open until February 17th. You can send in as many proposals as you like, so start submitting your talks! If you are accepted as a speaker we’ll pay your travel costs, put you up in a hotel and give you a pass to the conferences so you can join us during the event.

We’re very excited to see what you can come up with, and we’re looking forward to reading all the different proposals.

Your hosts,
The Ibuildings DMC team