JEEConf 2014, Kiev, Ukraine trip report

Very busy May.

This May 2014 was a very busy month for me, I was so busy at work but thankfully I have finished all my heavy-duty tasks and left other managed tasks to my team to finish it till my back from my international trips.

My Trips

In last May 2014, first I went to Tunis, Tunisia, speaking at Esprit JUG Day 2014 on 7th and 8th of May, delivering the following 4 sessions:

1- What is new in Java SE, EE, ME, Embedded world, & new Strategy?
2- Drive yourself, community with JCP & adopts to professionalism.
3- Developing Native & Hybrid Android mobile Apps, with Netbeans 7.4+.
4- Yeah, TRUE real time web applications, no more hacks (a hack session).
5- Hybrid Mobile development without IDE from CLI (Workshop) (Cordova framework).

My JCP EC F2F meeting

After that I have traveled to London, United Kingdom, to attend my JCP executive committee F2F meeting 2014 on the 13th & 14th of May as I am a JCP EC member, and delivered the following session:

1. United Nations UNHCR/WFP case study (JavaEE, JavaCard, JavaSE success story).

Trip to Ukraine

On 23th and 24th I had the opportunity for the second time, to attend and speak at JEEConf 2014 in Kiev, Ukraine. This is my one of the favourite conferences I like to attends and share my experience there as well. As I was there in 2013. Among speakers from Ukraine there were a lot from other countries like UK, USA, Switzerland, Germany, Egypt (me), Greece, Sweden, Poland, Netherlands and Russia etc.

Problems

All my friends, colleagues, and work managers advised me to not travel to Ukraine, because of the political situation it has, my only words to reply are:

We already had this experience in Egypt since three years ago, so there is nothing to worry about ☺.

I love Ukraine, especially Kiev, because I have many friends there from attendees, speakers (Victor Polischuk), colleagues from Ukraine JUG Andrii Rodionov as I am EGJUG lead and MoroccoJUG member so we attends many JUG events together, and EBAM employees Olena Syrota.

Therefore I felt that I was in my country and not as a foreign guy.

Hanging out

After my arrival by a day before the event, I have decided to hangout alone to see the city and take some pictures. Then at the hotel reception I have found my friends I have met last year from Oracle Russia Speakers (Alexey Fyodorov, Alexander Belokrylov, and Sergey Kuksenko) and others (Gleb Smirnov from Deutsche Bank, Russia) and finally Ivan Krylov from Azul Systems Russia, then we hanged out together to have a dinner a Ukrainian local restaurant.

Also we went to Khreschatyk Midan (Square), where the revolution began, and here are some pictures

My talks

I have attended many English sessions, and delivered the following sessions as well:

1- Yeah, TRUE real time web applications, no more hacks (a hack session).



2- Developing Native & Hybrid Android mobile Apps, with Netbeans 8.



The first talk (Developing Native & Hybrid Android mobile Apps, with Netbeans 8.) went okay and I have found a lot of interesting questions, and response from people.

But for the second talk (Yeah, TRUE real time web applications, no more hacks (a hack session)) there were many attendees about 100+, and I couldn't take one photo to tweet it, so I have decided to take a panorama one as the following.

It was very interesting to them, and I heard many times that the talk was the best of the day. It was a master session and there were many very good and interesting questions (around 40+ questions) to answer (Thanks God, you helped me to answer all the question and satisfies the attendees).

Therefore at the end of the session, I got many Thanks cards about 41+ cards. It was a great feeling the all attendees had the experience of the talk, mastered the topic, and the hack code (application) get their interest. download it from here, download the zip file from File --> Download, it is netbeans based project.

I think both talks received a warm welcome from the audience, but I cannot be the judge of that, of course. I have just written down what I have heard, got (Thanks cards), and seen from their faces ☺ actions.

Event and Organizers

Thanks for event organizers you did a tremendous work. The hotel was very nice providing excellent services, breakfast, speedy Internet, and complementary shuttle service to any location you would like (I have chosen to drive me to the airport).

Its location was very near from the city centre, and most popular locations, restaurants, and metro stations. The event could be reached by just 4 stations about 13 min from the hotel.

Here are some pictures from my room and hotel:

And I had this great and tasty berry pie in my breakfast at my last day for me at Ukraine

Really the event was very well organized and managed, although the country passes by critical political situation.

I need to mention that there were even lunch for attendees as well as speakers, and many interesting activities. I am so happy to be part of the event successful story.

I had the opportunity to hang out with many speakers, friends, and EPAM employees, and I have enjoyed also the guided tour to many interesting places in Kiev for around three hours with the following speakers Peter Ledbrook, Nicolas Fränkel, Evgeny Borisov and his wife.

Talk to publish

After my return I got message from EPAM Educational head manager on my LinkedIn profile, they asked about my Websocket talk link, to mention it in EPAM magazine in article about JEEConf to be one of the most interesting talk in JEEConf 2014.

My hope

Thanks for this year invitation and looking forward to be part of JEEConf 2015 ☺.