{"pageProps":{"posts":[{"date":"2019-02-03T11:43:32Z","layout":"post","title":"Join us for the nor(DEV):con 2019 Business Sessions: Running a business is hard!","author":["paulgrenyer"],"hero":"/static/images/pages/posts/2019-02-03-join-us-for-the-nordevcon-2019-business-sessions-running-a-business-is-hard/hero.jpg","tags":["NorDevCon","Announcement"],"excerpt":"Join us for the nor(DEV):con 2019 Business Sessions on Friday 22nd February! Get your Early Bird tickets here before the price goes up after Friday! Running a business is hard John Gostling Running a business is hard….harder when you don’t have much experience of running a busine...","body":"\nJoin us for the [nor(DEV):con 2019](http://nordevcon.com) Business Sessions on Friday 22nd February! Get your Early Bird tickets [here](http://nordevcon-2019.eventbrite.com) before the price goes up after Friday!\n\n## Running a business is hard\n\nJohn Gostling\n\nRunning a business is hard….harder when you don’t have much experience of running a business! 6 years ago I joined Breakwater IT as a Systems Engineer, I quickly realised there was so much potential that had yet to be tapped into, and every day since then my focus has been on releasing this, creating a better company to work with, and to work for. It’s been a constantly evolving journey, 2 steps forward, one step back (sometimes two!), but things are finally starting to fall into place.\n\nThis is a very open self-appraisal of the how we have transformed a loss making company into one that turns a profit and is currently growing at 20% year on year.\n\n### Crack the motivation code!\n\nCassandra Andrews\n\nImagine if you knew precisely what motivated each member of your team, how motivated they were and what you could do to improve their motivation!\n\nCassandra Andrews interactive workshop focuses on motivation in the workplace and introduces ‘motivational maps’, an incredibly accurate and user-friendly tool which enables us to unlock and measure employee motivation.\n\nUnderstanding exactly what motivates individuals in an organisation can be used with significant impact to support business growth and profitability by maximising employee and team motivation, retain employees and recruit the right people to complement existing teams.\n\nAt the workshop you will discover how to create high performing teams by learning:\n\n- What motivation is, how it can be measured and how it impacts the workforce.\n- About the nine motivators identified in motivational maps.\n- How to increase team performance by identifying conflicts in motivation.\n\nTo enable all delegates to get their own ‘wow’ moment from the workshop, there will be an opportunity for four attendees to win a complimentary individual motivational map with feedback/insight session and discounted motivational maps available for other attendees.\n\n### Developing an app to promote emotional resilience\n\nUEA\n\nSince summer 2017, Dr Laura Biggart and Dr Kamena Henshaw, from the School of Psychology, have been working with UEA computer science students and Steve Jones and Adam Ziolkowski from JoziTech to develop a student support app. Currently the app is focused on supporting students’ transition into Higher Education. In this session we will talk about the development of the app, the research background to the features, and the feedback since our launch in September 2018. We will conclude with a discussion of our future plans, including evaluation of the app and our plans to work with other organisations to develop bespoke OpenUp apps\n\n### Don’t fall over like Elon Musk did – How to stay energised and disrupt an industry\n\nIan Hacon\n\nElon Musk is one of the most famous workaholic cases in recent years. So much so, many others quoted him as a badge of honour when they too worked too hard. In 2018, his wheel fell off, forced to take a total break due to exhaustion. This session will help you understand how looking after your own energy is good for business and you will leave with some easily implementable steps to do so.\n\n### Orchestrated Mobility – Changing The Way We Move\n\nJohn Fagan\n\nBy late 2030, its predicted that 95% U.S. passenger miles travelled will be served by on-demand vehicles owned by fleets, not individuals, in a new business model Transport-as-a-Service (TaaS).\n\nCitizens will pay a monthly fee to go anywhere they wish, much like we do today using on demand services for music and video, like Spotify and Netflix.\n\nTaaS will unify public, private & autonomous transportation into an efficient service and is predicted to deliver a largely carbon-free road transportation system.\n\nIn this talk i will…\n\n- Vision of Transport as a Service\n- Key Drivers (Technologies, Autonomous electric vehicles, ride sharing, costs and barriers)\n- Impacts on society, economics and the environment\n- Who should be the Netflix for Transport?\n- Examples of use cases and disruption happening today\n\n### Harnessing the power of subscription technology\n\nJuliana Meyer\n\nThousands of professionals are discovering ways to transform the way they work and the way they earn a living. Leveraging the skills we each have, the talk uncovers how anyone can can build their own subscription business using the knowledge and talents they already have.\n\nI’ll go deep into the steps needed, opportunities available, the how and why, and what has worked and not worked for others. This has already been a game changer for others who learnt this from my previous talks which then transformed their lives, their living, and their opportunities.\n\nGiven the key trends of subscription, technology and self-education, I’ll explore and explain how anyone can successfully launch their own apps from home to generate a passive income and lift the lid on exchanging time for money.\n\n***\n\nGet your tickets here: ","path":"/posts/2019-02-03-join-us-for-the-nordevcon-2019-business-sessions-running-a-business-is-hard"},{"date":"2018-12-04T20:37:42Z","layout":"post","title":"Emerging talent at the DevelopHER Awards 2018!","author":["paulgrenyer"],"hero":"/static/images/pages/posts/2018-12-04-emerging-talent-at-the-developher-awards-2018/hero.jpg","tags":["Retrospective"],"excerpt":"A couple of weeks ago I was honoured to be asked to judge and present the overall winner of the DevelopHER Awards 2018. There are a number of categories in the awards, including TechStar which I also judged, and the overall winner is chosen from the winners of the other categorie...","body":"\nA couple of weeks ago I was honoured to be asked to judge and present the overall winner of the [DevelopHER Awards](https://developherawards.com/) 2018. There are a number of categories in the awards, including TechStar which I also judged, and the overall winner is chosen from the winners of the other categories.\n\nI believe that the best developers start writing code at an early age and continue throughout their lives and on through their careers. As well as learning all they can, all the time, they give back to community around them and help other people develop as well.\n\n[Federica Freddi](https://www.linkedin.com/in/federicafreddi/), who also won the Emerging Talent award, is clearly passionate about software development and is fully deserving of the DevelopHER award and I couldn’t have been more delighted to be able to present her with it on the night.\n\nFederica told me:\n\n> It is fantastic to see so many women recognised for their contribution to our industry. It is a huge honour for me to be able to represent so many talented people that are making the difference in tech. As an Emerging Talent, I still have a long way ahead and I don’t know what awaits for me in the future, however I am sure I will never forget to stop along the way to give back to people and help the next generations of tech stars to grow too.” I am hoping we’ll see Federica back in Norwich very soon.","path":"/posts/2018-12-04-emerging-talent-at-the-developher-awards-2018"},{"date":"2018-11-22T20:19:02Z","layout":"post","title":"Naked Element backs winning team at Sync the City!","author":["paulgrenyer"],"hero":"/static/images/pages/posts/2018-11-22-naked-element-backs-winning-team-at-sync-the-city/hero.jpg","tags":["SyncTheCity","Restrospective"],"excerpt":"Sync The City is an annual event that brings together budding entrepreneurs and developers to pitch and build a start-up in just 54 hours. This year our Director Paul Grenyer was a mentor for one of the teams and they had great success with their idea ‘Seren’, taking home one of ...","body":"\n[Sync The City](https://syncthecity.com/) is an annual event that brings together budding entrepreneurs and developers to pitch and build a start-up in just 54 hours. This year our Director Paul Grenyer was a mentor for one of the teams and they had great success with their idea ‘Seren’, taking home one of the prizes!\n\nPaul says:\n\n> John Fagan has asked me to be involved with every Sync the City since it started five years ago, but this is the first time I've been in a position to commit to the 2.5 day event. Originally I was providing technical support via nor(DEV): but Sync the City were short of mentors so I was embedded into team Seren. I had to put my work for Naked Element on hold but I was more than happy to do so to be part of the event. My only regret is that I wasn't able to do it sooner!\n\n[Lily Beel](https://www.linkedin.com/in/lily-beel-20507b77/), a trainee solicitor at Leathes Prior, explains the idea behind her winning pitch, saying:\n\n> the general idea was to connect those beginning to suffer from mental health conditions with those who have recovered/are in recovery. The waiting time to be seen through the NHS is 9 months for mild/moderate conditions - which means that people are likely to get worse during that period. If they had someone to talk to, who had been through similar mental health issues, it might stop them from reaching a crisis point and harming themselves or worse. I pitched it by providing figures received from different organisations about mental health and how long it takes to be seen. I explained that it would be good to have venues which allow people to connect and chat (whether about their mental health directly or about other subjects)\n\nLily and the team of eight worked together under Paul’s mentorship, to build the business start-up, but the process was not without its obstacles. “It was particularly difficult to work out how to reach those suffering and how to fund the charity. We overcame this hurdle using research and speaking to people. Contacts are invaluable - as you are limited to 54 hours, you need all the help you can get!”\n\nBut this wasn’t the hardest part of the process, as Lily had never taken part in Sync the City before, let alone made a business pitch, she found the idea of doing this in front of everyone a daunting prospect. “I wanted to make sure I got the point across as I feel really passionately about mental health and feel that more needs to be done - it was hard to keep my emotions in check when I was pitching. We had a performance workshop beforehand and my team were incredibly supportive, which really helped.”\n\n“When we came out of the workshop with the performance coach” Paul adds, “I was really pumped up, as I knew Lily had something special and the drive and talent she exhibited had the potential to go a long way.”\n\nBetween Lily, her amazing team and the support of Paul and all the other mentors and experts, team Seren took home the People’s Choice prize and £1000 between them! Paul says:\n\n> I put winning down to the amazing drive and determination of Lily Beel and to listening to the other mentors and following their advice. Sync The City is so important to Norwich and the tech community for so many reasons, but mostly because it helps get new ideas off the ground and is great for the tech community, especially the collaboration with the UEA which brings so many business and computer science students to the event.","path":"/posts/2018-11-22-naked-element-backs-winning-team-at-sync-the-city"},{"date":"2018-11-04T14:19:22Z","layout":"post","title":"Badminton","author":["paulgrenyer"],"hero":"/static/images/pages/posts/2018-11-04-badminton/hero.jpg","tags":["Announcement"],"excerpt":"When: Friday 16th November 2018 5.30pm to 6.30pm Where: 69 King St, Norwich, NR1 1QW RSVP: Many of us need more exercise! We've booked a court and will play doubles from a team of 6. £2 towards the Court.50p entry for non-members of the sports centre.£1 for racket hire. Free Car ...","body":"\n**When:** Friday 16th November 2018 5.30pm to 6.30pm\n\n**Where:** 69 King St, Norwich, NR1 1QW\n\n**RSVP:** \n\nMany of us need more exercise! We've booked a court and will play doubles from a team of 6.\n\n- £2 towards the Court.\n- 50p entry for non-members of the sports centre.\n- £1 for racket hire.\n\nFree Car Parking is available within the Blue Zone of the Centre's Car Park, see the map for directions.","path":"/posts/2018-11-04-badminton"},{"date":"2018-11-04T14:16:35Z","layout":"post","title":"How the employer voice can influence technical & vocational training","author":["paulgrenyer"],"hero":"/static/images/pages/posts/2018-11-04-how-the-employer-voice-can-influence-technical-and-vocational-training/hero.png","tags":["Announcement"],"excerpt":"When: Monday 12th November 2018 5.30pm to 6.30pm Where: The Library Restaurant, 4A Guildhall Hill, Norwich, NR2 1JH RSVP: How the employer voice can influence technical & vocational training and apprenticeships in the digital and IT skills sector over the next 5 years. Ruth Royle...","body":"\n**When:** Monday 12th November 2018 5.30pm to 6.30pm\n\n**Where:** The Library Restaurant, 4A Guildhall Hill, Norwich, NR2 1JH\n\n**RSVP:** \n\n### How the employer voice can influence technical & vocational training and apprenticeships in the digital and IT skills sector over the next 5 years.\n\n**Ruth Royle & Roz Hicks**\n\nThe Government’s agenda for the wider field of technical and vocational education alongside apprenticeships is changing. As a large FE College and apprenticeship provider we believe that employers are central to this process and our aim this evening is to start meaningful dialogue into how we can enable employers to both support and challenge us as we launch the new T Level curriculum and apprenticeship standards. We want to hear from you about the challenges you have in recruiting employees and how we can work together to fill the gap and make a difference to the next generation.\n\nThe goal of the session is to begin to investigate where local businesses could help us trial the industrial placement model and how we can develop our working relationship over a number of years and ask you as employers what should our curriculum look like?","path":"/posts/2018-11-04-how-the-employer-voice-can-influence-technical-and-vocational-training"},{"date":"2018-11-04T14:14:09Z","layout":"post","title":"Special: Azure Sphere: Intelligent Edge & Logging is Hot Again (with free food!)","author":["paulgrenyer"],"hero":"/static/images/pages/posts/2018-11-04-special-azure-sphere-intelligent-edge-and-logging-is-hot-again-with-free-food/hero.png","tags":["Announcement"],"excerpt":"When: Thursday 8th November 2018 6:15pm to 9:00pm Where: Modality Systems, Rosebery Court, Central Ave, Norwich, NR7 0HS RSVP: Azure Sphere: Intelligent Edge (plus an update on Norfolk network and smart sensor concepts) Industry largely underestimates the critical societal need t...","body":"\n**When:** Thursday 8th November 2018 6:15pm to 9:00pm\n\n**Where:** Modality Systems, Rosebery Court, Central Ave, Norwich, NR7 0HS\n\n**RSVP:** \n\n### Azure Sphere: Intelligent Edge (plus an update on Norfolk network and smart sensor concepts)\n\nIndustry largely underestimates the critical societal need to embody the highest levels of security in every network-connected device – every child’s toy, every household’s appliances, and every industry’s equipment. High development and maintenance costs have limited strong security to high-cost or high margin devices. Azure Sphere brings together the best of Microsoft’s expertise in cloud, software, and silicon—resulting in a unique approach to security that starts in the silicon and extends to the cloud. This session will give a short brief on two projects I have been working on for some time. Azure Sphere and the Norfolk wide deployment of The Things Network LoRaWAN. Both present enormous opportunities for technology solutions and broad societal impact. And honestly, I can make this fun and entertaining – I promise!\n\n**Paul Foster**\n\nSince joining Microsoft in 1994, Paul Foster has worked across a wide range of sectors and customers, providing a mix of technical and strategic guidance around the creative use of technology in relation to their business needs. Paul is currently a senior software engineer at Microsoft, focused on the building of next generation sensor webs which automate the gathering of data from disparate sources, and how to enable the creative analysis of this data to start a new era of perception. He is the initiator of The Things Network Norfolk community group. For a short-time Paul was a member of a high-wire flying trapeze circus troupe, is a keen roboticist and an international marathon runner.\n\n### Logging Is Hot Again - Gael Fraiteur (PostSharp - postsharp.net)\n\nIf you think logging is boring, stop yawning and think again.\n\nDesigned for the ages of monolithic synchronous applications running in data centers or on the desktop, traditional text-file-oriented logging frameworks such as log4net or nlog are becoming obsolete. New tools, best-practices and standards are emerging to make sense out of massively distributed and asynchronous applications that run in the cloud, in containers, or in mobile devices. Solutions for a world where storage and computing power are cheap and can be provisioned within minutes.\n\nStarting with the question:\n\n> “What do we want to log and why?”\n\nThis talk gives a bird’s eye overview of the new logging landscape. It introduces open-source solutions like Elasticsearch, Fluentd or OpenTracing, and commercial services like Application Insights. On a code level, it shows how PostSharp can help to generate highly detailed logs with minimal efforts.\n\nThe key takeaway of this talk is a broad understanding of the business of logging and application instrumentation, so you’re ready to make choices on your own.\n\n**Gael Fraiteur**\n\nGael Fraiteur has been passionately programming since childhood; building and selling his first commercial software at age 12. He is Founder and Principal Engineer at PostSharp Technologies based in Prague, Czech Republic. Gael is a widely recognized expert in aspect-oriented programming and pattern-aware compilers. He speaks at developer conferences in Europe and the United States.","path":"/posts/2018-11-04-special-azure-sphere-intelligent-edge-and-logging-is-hot-again-with-free-food"},{"date":"2018-11-04T14:12:18Z","layout":"post","title":"The Very Slow Time Machine with Jez Higgins & Me TV with Russel Winder","author":["paulgrenyer"],"hero":"/static/images/pages/posts/2018-11-04-the-very-slow-time-machine-with-jez-higgins-and-me-tv-with-russel-winder/hero.jpg","tags":["Announcement"],"excerpt":"When: Wednesday 7th November 2018 6:30pm to 9:00pm Where: Mills & Reeve, 1 St James Ct, Norwich NR3 1RU RSVP: The Very Slow Time Machine with Jez Higgins Archangel is a joint project involving University of Surrey, The National Archive, and The Open Data Institute, investigating ...","body":"\n**When:** Wednesday 7th November 2018 6:30pm to 9:00pm\n\n**Where:** Mills & Reeve, 1 St James Ct, Norwich NR3 1RU\n\n**RSVP:** \n\n### The Very Slow Time Machine with Jez Higgins\n\nArchangel is a joint project involving University of Surrey, The National Archive, and The Open Data Institute, investigating how we might help ensure the long-term integrity of digital documents stored in public archives.\n\nWhen an archive produces a physical artefact, its relatively easy to establish that it is indeed the original document, preserved unaltered since it was first deposited.\n\nBut a \\_digital\\_ artefact?\n\nA digital document can be infinitely copied without degradation, but can also be undetectably altered, inadvertently or deliberately, both with benign or malign intent.\n\nHow can we be confident that what we've presented with is, in fact, identical to the document that was first stored in archive?\n\nArchangel is trying to address this problem, and in this talk I'll describe some of the approaches and technologies we're using.\n\nSpoilers: Yes, it includes blockchains, but it's about the only blockchain application you'll hear of that doesn't immediately make you feel dirty. It might also include machine learning, but it's machine learning for justice.\n\n**Jez Higgins**\n\nYou may know Jez from such talks as A Browse Through ES6 or Chris & Jez's Old Skool Artisan Software Workshop. He's currently working for West Midlands Fire Service as software grandad-in-residence and on Archangel as a researcher, although by the time this talk rolls round he'll be looking to start filling his 2019 diary.\n\n### Me TV – a journey from C and Xine to Rust and GStreamer, via D with Russel Winder\n\nWhilst the Web and streaming has more or less stopped people being interested in watching OTA television on a computer, it remains a fun problem to work on. Me TV started life when creating software PVR and media centres was \"a thing\". MythTV and Kodi won that race and Me TV faded into obscurity. But I wanted a Freeview (UK DVB T2) player, not a PVR.\n\nThis presentation skims through some of the technical fun and hassles of picking up a \"dead project\" and working on it as a personal project, and then discovering there are users. There will be commentary on evolving vs rewriting codebases, some programming languages, some APIs and their bindings, and tool support.\n\nAssuming there is TV signal in the venue, there will be demonstrations.\n\nOh, and there will be code.\n\n**Russel Winder**\n\nEx-theoretical physicist. Ex-UNIX systems programmer. Ex-computer science academic. Ex-author. Ex-analyst. Ex-expert witness. Ex-Trainer. Not yet an ex-human being. Still interested in programming and programming languages. And concurrency and parallelism. And build.\n\nStill helps organise the ACCU conference ","path":"/posts/2018-11-04-the-very-slow-time-machine-with-jez-higgins-and-me-tv-with-russel-winder"},{"date":"2018-10-30T19:54:21Z","layout":"post","title":"Deep Tech is affecting people’s lives without them even knowing it.","author":["paulgrenyer"],"hero":"/static/images/pages/posts/2018-10-30-deep-tech-is-affecting-peoples-lives-without-them-even-knowing-it/hero.jpg","tags":["Article"],"excerpt":"Deep Tech sounds like a character from the X-Files right? While it’s not a covert government agency, Deep Tech is affecting people’s lives without them even knowing it, but it’s not something we need to be afraid of. There are lots of very technical and wordy definitions of Deep ...","body":"\nDeep Tech sounds like a character from the X-Files right? While it’s not a covert government agency, Deep Tech is affecting people’s lives without them even knowing it, but it’s not something we need to be afraid of. There are lots of very technical and wordy definitions of Deep Tech, but essentially it means technology that has an engineering aspect while having a demonstrable impact on people’s daily lives. Rather than a disruptive technology, like AirBnB or Deliveroo – apps that alter a service that already existed – a Deep Tech breakthrough could use technology to cure cancer or expand space travel. AirBnB is an intangible app, while Deep Tech often involves robots or breakthroughs in scientific or medical equipment.\n\nGood examples are artificial wombs to increase the survival chances of premature babies, or brain implants to improve the independence of stroke victims. It’s not just medical advancements that are benefitting from Deep Tech, but improvements to smart homes and cleaner cities as well as energy efficiency are all developing areas of Deep Tech. Self driving cars and lithium-ion batteries could vastly improve the environment and how we live in it and are both examples of Deep Tech.\n\nSince 2015 European investment in Deep Tech has been growing three times faster than B2C investments (Wavestone https://www.wavestone.com/en/insight/deep-tech-global-investor-survey-2017/ ) and it’s easy to see why when the impact that technology of this kind can have is made clear. Rather than just making it easier for people to order the weekly shop, or interact with a video on social media, discoveries in the Deep Tech arena make fundamental changes to how we live and survive. Researchers and scientists working in Deep Tech have not only created machines that can replicate human actions, but improve them. Like something from a science fiction movie, ‘HoloEyes’ are goggles that can provide a surgeon with a patient’s anatomy before the first incision is made, right there in the operating room. Harvard scientists have gone one further into the science fiction realm and created a brand new material, never before seen on earth. Metallic hydrogen was formed after 45 years of research and tests and has enormous potential, from space travel to superconducting abilities.\n\nDeep Tech is technology at its most advanced and it’s most useful. While it may not affect all of us at once, the advancements being made in this field have a huge impact that will influence and hopefully improve daily life on a global scale.\n\nOriginally published by [Naked Element](http://nakedelement.co.uk/deep-tech-is-affecting-peoples-lives-without-them-even-knowing-it/).","path":"/posts/2018-10-30-deep-tech-is-affecting-peoples-lives-without-them-even-knowing-it"},{"date":"2018-10-13T16:19:02+01:00","layout":"post","title":"Calling Companies - Showcase your Tech at Sync the City 54 Hour Startup event","author":["paulgrenyer"],"hero":"/static/images/pages/posts/2018-10-13-calling-companies-showcase-your-tech-at-sync-the-city-54-hour-startup-event/hero.jpg","tags":["SyncTheCity","Announcement"],"excerpt":"Sync the City is a great event in which you can promote, share and test your API's, Tools and Services. You could provide the vital ingredient that helps the startup teams Build & Launch a Startup in 54 Hours, and win the amazing cash prizes on offer! Sync the City 2018 is a 54 H...","body":"\nSync the City is a great event in which you can promote, share and test your API's, Tools and Services. You could provide the vital ingredient that helps the startup teams Build & Launch a Startup in 54 Hours, and win the amazing cash prizes on offer!\n\nSync the City 2018 is a 54 Hour event that brings together local entrepreneurs, developers, business managers, marketing gurus, graphic artists, students to pitch ideas for new startup companies, form teams around those ideas, and work to develop a working prototype, demo & final pitch (to win cash prizes).\n\nMore details [syncthecity.com](http://syncthecity.com)\n\nIn the past, we have had companies providing free access to address lookup API's, customer surveying services, hosting services, sentiment analysis API's and much more. Its a great opportunity to publicise your own SDK / APIs / Products to be used at the event, and put them to the test and get direct feedback.\n\nIf you are interested in getting involved, then email [syncthecity@norfolkdevelopers.com](mailto:syncthecity@norfolkdevelopers.com).","path":"/posts/2018-10-13-calling-companies-showcase-your-tech-at-sync-the-city-54-hour-startup-event"},{"date":"2018-08-14T21:45:09+01:00","layout":"post","title":"How to be a Rockstar Developer by Phil Trelford & Kayleigh Hall on Vue","author":["paulgrenyer"],"hero":"/static/images/pages/posts/2018-08-14-how-to-be-a-rockstar-developer-by-phil-trelford-and-kayleigh-hall-on-vue/hero.png","tags":["Announcement"],"excerpt":"When: Wednesday, September 5, 2018 @ 6:30pm to 9:00pm Where: The Elms, 300 St Faith's Rd, Norwich, NR6 7BJ RSVP: How to be a Rockstar Developer Phil Trelford You’ve seen the adverts from agents seeking rock star and ninja developers, but what does that even mean? In this session,...","body":"\n**When:** Wednesday, September 5, 2018 @ 6:30pm to 9:00pm\n\n**Where:** The Elms, 300 St Faith's Rd, Norwich, NR6 7BJ\n\n**RSVP:** \n\n**How to be a Rockstar Developer**\n\n[Phil Trelford](https://www.linkedin.com/in/philliptrelford/)\n\nYou’ve seen the adverts from agents seeking rock star and ninja developers, but what does that even mean? In this session, we’ll look at what it takes to be a true rock star developer and we’ll also venture into the space of rock star data scientists. Like true rock stars, we’ll eschew software development and instead focus on attitude, volume, tone and to a lesser extent skills.\n\nExpect a light hearted rock ballad in the key of F#, that explores the present as well as the future of rock star software development. Can your musical rock star skills be used not just in the current metaphorical sense, but also literally, to write code and explore data using type providers? Leave your laptops at home and bring in your guitar or uke instead to find out! _Spoiler alert: actually quite negative on Rockstar Developers._\n\n**Vue**\n\n[Kayleigh Hall](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kayleigh-hall-35157614)\n\nTBC","path":"/posts/2018-08-14-how-to-be-a-rockstar-developer-by-phil-trelford-and-kayleigh-hall-on-vue"},{"date":"2018-08-14T21:28:45+01:00","layout":"post","title":"The nor(DEV):biz Big Dinner","author":["paulgrenyer"],"hero":"/static/images/pages/posts/2018-08-14-the-nordevbiz-big-dinner/hero.jpg","tags":["Announcement"],"excerpt":"This event DOES NOT contain Tech! (It will contain lots of fun though!) Norfolk Developers and Barclays Eagle Lab Norwich present The nor(DEV):biz Big Dinner When: Monday 1st October, 2018 @ 6.30pm to 9.30pm Where: The Library Restaurant, 4A Guildhall Hill, Norwich, NR2 1JH How m...","body":"\n**This event DOES NOT contain Tech!** (It will contain lots of fun though!)\n\nNorfolk Developers and Barclays Eagle Lab Norwich present\n\n## The nor(DEV):biz Big Dinner\n\n**When:** Monday 1st October, 2018 @ 6.30pm to 9.30pm\n\n**Where:** The Library Restaurant, 4A Guildhall Hill, Norwich, NR2 1JH\n\n**How much:** £20\n\n**RSVP:** \n\nJoin the best Norfolk and Norwich tech companies for dinner and hear about the new nor(DEV):biz subscription model. Hear from Barclays Eagle Labs Norwich and about the amazing work carried out by the Anchorage Trust while enjoying good food and great company. To round off the evening we’ll be hearing from Jon Bradford.\n\n**About John Bradford**\n\nJon Bradford is a highly experienced early stage investor. Jon was previously the MD of Techstars London, co-founder of F6S and tech.eu, and an advisor to Dubai Future Accelerator. Jon is the Director of the John Bradfield Centre. More: \n\n**About nor(DEV):biz**\n\nThe aims of nor(DEV):biz (Norfolk Developers Business) are:\n\n- to be the go-to group for local businesses requiring a technology solution.\n- to facilitate and increase referrals and collaboration among Norfolk’s tech businesses.\n- to help close the digital skills gap.\n- to facilitate better collaboration between technology businesses and academic institutions.\n- to have a great meal with great company","path":"/posts/2018-08-14-the-nordevbiz-big-dinner"},{"date":"2018-08-14T21:10:36+01:00","layout":"post","title":"Breakfast with John Gostling - Managing Director of Breakwater IT","author":["paulgrenyer"],"hero":"/static/images/pages/posts/2018-08-14-breakfast-with-john-gostling-managing-director-of-breakwater-it/hero.jpg","tags":["Announcement"],"excerpt":"When: Tuesday, September 4, 2018 @ 7:30am to 8:30am Where: The Maids Head Hotel, Tombland, Norwich, NR3 1LB How much: £20 RSVP: John Gostling is Managing Director of Breakwater, an IT services provider offering solutions and support to a variety of organisations, from charities t...","body":"\n**When:** Tuesday, September 4, 2018 @ 7:30am to 8:30am\n\n**Where:** The Maids Head Hotel, Tombland, Norwich, NR3 1LB\n\n**How much:** £20\n\n**RSVP:** \n\n[John Gostling](https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-gostling-a461401a/) is Managing Director of [Breakwater](http://breakwaterit.co.uk/), an IT services provider offering solutions and support to a variety of organisations, from charities through to professional firms, leisure and tourism and the education sectors.\n\nBreakwater takes the approach that by identifying a ‘platform’ of technologies that work together, standardising networks and procedures, real efficiencies and increased productivity can be created. Of course, staff are the most important element and Breakwater really believe that investing in staff and culture are key to performance.\n\nJohn has been working within the IT industry for 20 years and is invested in creating a knowledge-driven team that understands their client needs. John will talk about his journey at Breakwater and the exciting innovations that have enabled their client-base to strengthen their IT infrastructures. He will give us an insight into some of the world-leading technologies partners Breakwater works with and the security, cloud and disaster recovery solutions.","path":"/posts/2018-08-14-breakfast-with-john-gostling-managing-director-of-breakwater-it"},{"date":"2018-08-14T20:55:37+01:00","layout":"post","title":"FREE Workshop: Tax and accounting for owner managed businesses","author":["paulgrenyer"],"hero":"/static/images/pages/posts/2018-08-14-free-workshop-tax-and-accounting-for-owner-managed-businesses/hero.jpg","tags":["Announcement"],"excerpt":"When: Monday, September 3, 2018 @ 5:30pm to 6:30pm Where: 4A Guildhall Hill, Norwich, NR2 1JH RSVP: Anthony will cover topics like tax efficient profit extraction, research and development tax credits, budgeting and forecasting techniques, key performance indicators etc. The aim ...","body":"\n**When:** Monday, September 3, 2018 @ 5:30pm to 6:30pm\n\n**Where:** 4A Guildhall Hill, Norwich, NR2 1JH\n\n**RSVP**: \n\nAnthony will cover topics like tax efficient profit extraction, research and development tax credits, budgeting and forecasting techniques, key performance indicators etc. The aim of the session would be for attendees to be able to take some knowledge away that they can actually use themselves in their business.\n\n[Anthony Brice](https://www.ajbriceaccountancy.co.uk/)","path":"/posts/2018-08-14-free-workshop-tax-and-accounting-for-owner-managed-businesses"},{"date":"2018-08-14T20:39:10+01:00","layout":"post","title":"Learn WordPress & build a website in ONE day","author":["paulgrenyer"],"hero":"/static/images/pages/posts/2018-08-14-learn-wordpress-and-build-a-website-in-one-day/hero.jpeg","tags":["Announcement"],"excerpt":"When: 5 Septemeber, 9am to 4.45pm Where: The Kings Centre, Kings Street, Norwich, NR1 1PH How much: £150 RSVP: WordPress is the world’s best and most popular website builder and this hands-on course takes you through from the basics, including installation and set up, to cover al...","body":"\n**When:** 5 Septemeber, 9am to 4.45pm\n\n**Where:** The Kings Centre, Kings Street, Norwich, NR1 1PH\n\n**How much:** £150\n\n**RSVP**: \n\nWordPress is the world’s best and most popular website builder and this hands-on course takes you through from the basics, including installation and set up, to cover all the most useful features and tools WordPress offers. Whether you already have a site and want to manage it properly or are starting completely from scratch, this is the course for you.\n\nYou will learn to\n\n- set up and run a great website of your own\n- add content, images and videos\n- add structure and navigation menus\n- apply an attractive design using easy templates\n- make the site search engine friendly\n- add contact forms, maps and take payments\n- add social networking and track visitorslearn to add all the features and functionality you need to run and develop a fantastic website\n- and much, much more…\n\nHow the course works\n\n- Please bring your own laptop: PC, Mac or Chromebook, any is fine. Or you can hire a laptop for the day here.\n- WiFi and power sockets are provided\n- No experience is needed – WordPress is incredibly easy to pick up and you will be free to go at your own pace throughout the day.\n- All training materials will be provided after the course, so there need be no fear of “falling behind”.This is an intensive course and assumes a reasonable working knowledge of using computers and the internet, even if you have little or no prior knowledge of WordPress. If you are comfortable with using email, copy/paste, saving files/folders and navigating the internet, you should be fine! (see more advice in our FAQ here)\n- After the course you are welcome to stay around for further discussion with your trainer Toby and with each other, about WordPress, about your website and about your business.\n- After the course, you will be sent all the course materials and clear instructions for setting up your site on its own domain name (old or new). You will have a year of free hosting, after which time it is from just £8/mo for unlimited space and bandwidth.\n\nMore details here ().","path":"/posts/2018-08-14-learn-wordpress-and-build-a-website-in-one-day"},{"date":"2018-07-15T20:54:15+01:00","layout":"post","title":"nor(DEV):con 2019 Call For Speakers","author":["paulgrenyer"],"hero":"/static/images/pages/posts/2018-07-15-nordevcon-2019-call-for-speakers/hero.jpg","tags":["NorDevCon"],"excerpt":"nor(DEV):con 2019 Call For Speakers Thursday 21st to Saturday 23rd February 2019 Kings Centre 63-75 King Street Norwich NR1 1PH nor(DEV):con, the Norfolk Developers Conference is back for 2019 and stronger than ever with new tracks and an updated format. nor(DEV):con is Norfolk a...","body":"\nnor(DEV):con 2019 Call For Speakers **Thursday 21st to Saturday 23rd February 2019** Kings Centre 63-75 King Street Norwich NR1 1PH\n\nnor(DEV):con, the Norfolk Developers Conference is back for 2019 and stronger than ever with new tracks and an updated format. nor(DEV):con is Norfolk and Norwich’s premier and most well attended conference for everyone involved in software development and business.\n\n## Call for Speakers\n\nThe call for speakers is open from now until Friday 28th of September 2018. To submit a proposal, please send an email to [paul@norfolkdevelopers.com](mailto:paul@norfolkdevelopers.com) with the following:\n\n- Session Title\n- Session abstract\n- Session topic: Pre-conference workshop, Tech, Process, Workshop, Stephen Fry, Business, Lightning talk\n- Session length: 45 min presentation, 90 minute presentation, 90 minute hands on workshop, Full day hands on workshop, 5 minute Lightning talk\n- Technical level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Business\n- Speaker(s) Bio\n- Availability for Thursday 21st (full day workshops only), Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd February.\n\nFurther information will be required if you proposal is accepted.\n\n## Conference Topics\n\n**Pre-Conference Full Day Workshops**\n\nWe’re looking for three full day pre-conference hands on workshops. These should be on a software development or process theme and we’re looking for one beginner, one intermediate and one advanced workshop. Pre-conference workshops attract between 5 and 30 people.\n\n**Tech Track**\n\nWe’re looking for 45 minute and 90 minute beginners, intermediate and advanced presentations primarily on coding, techniques and libraries. This year we’re particularly keen to include a few Blockchain sessions.\n\n**Process Track** Rather than just concentrating on Agile, this year we have a process track for any type of software development process. Yes, you can even propose a session on Waterfall if you’re feeling brave!\n\n**Stephen Fry Track**\n\nSoftware Development is more than just code and practices. It’s about people. And people are not logical entities that follow easily understood rules. We’re illogical, irrational, and tend to shy away from difficult subjects like mental illness, inequality, and bias. This track looks at the softer side of Software Development, at the people, how they interact, and how we can work with the whole gamut of humanity, because it’s not just Stephen Fry who has manic depression.\n\n**Workshop Track**\n\nWe’re looking for 90 minute hands on workshops for up to 20 people. These can be on any of the topics above and delegates bring their own laptops.\n\n**Business Track**\n\nThe business track is the track for everyone! We’re looking for business based sessions with a technical slant.\n\n**Lightning Talks** On the Friday evening during the wine reception, which will be in the main hall, we’ll also be opening the floor to lightning talks. A lightning talk is a 5 minute presentation and we encourage new speakers as well as experienced speakers to present.\n\n**Speakers Package**\n\n- Free entry to the Friday and Saturday sessions at the conference\n- Free entry to the Friday night speakers dinner\n- Travel and accommodation at the discretion of the conference organiser","path":"/posts/2018-07-15-nordevcon-2019-call-for-speakers"},{"date":"2018-05-17T18:22:43+01:00","layout":"post","title":"Norwich Gaming Festival","author":["paulgrenyer"],"hero":"/static/images/pages/posts/2018-05-17-norwich-gaming-festival/hero.jpg","tags":["Article","MeetTheCommunity"],"excerpt":"the most fantastic thing about the Norwich scene is the amount of support and events available for young people __ @NorwichGFest When talking tech we often think of software development in a commercial sense, to solve a problem or cut expenditure. But tech isn’t just about busine...","body":"\n> the most fantastic thing about the Norwich scene is the amount of support and events available for young people\n\n__\n\n[@NorwichGFest](https://twitter.com/NorwichGFest)\n\nWhen talking tech we often think of software development in a commercial sense, to solve a problem or cut expenditure. But tech isn’t just about business processes or entrepreneurial start-ups, it can also be for pure entertainment! With that in mind, the 28th May marks the beginning of the week long Norwich Gaming Festival, hosted by The Forum. Featuring classic arcade games right up to virtual reality (and even some board games) it has something for every age and every level. There’s even talks to give you the lowdown on what it takes to be a game developer and code clubs to give you a head start in the industry! And it’s all for FREE! We spoke to Dan, one of the brains behind the festival, to get the inside track and, more importantly, if he’s Xbox or Playstation (turns out he’s neither!)\n\n**When did Norwich Gaming Festival begin?**\n\nNorwich Gaming Festival started life as Retro Arcade in 2012, as a way of offering something free, interactive and unique to young people and families during the Easter holidays. Norwich Gaming Festival is a non-profit event run by The Forum Trust, a self-financing charitable organisation which manages The Forum building in Norwich. All money raised by the festival is invested back into the event.\n\n**What was the impetus for starting a festival like this?**\n\nThe original inspiration and suggestion came from one of The Forum team members who loved retro gaming and suggested that The Forum should host a retro gaming event to offering something free, interactive and unique during the Easter holidays.\n\n**Why should a whole festival be dedicated to gaming?**\n\nGaming is a fantastic medium to dedicate a festival to, as a result of the variety of experiences available - and the number of different job roles required to make games possible. From game designers, to writers, programmers & lawyers - the festival allows us to explore all the different elements of development and the games industry as a whole. We often find that although young people know they would like to look at getting into the games industry - it's often difficult to know where to start, or what roles in industry actually exist. It's also a great way to demonstrate transferable skills - as the skills required to create elements of a game can transfer into other fields. For example, one of our guest speakers turned their passion for games into a career as a games industry specialised lawyer.\n\n**What is the demographic of attendees?**\n\nWe pride ourselves in being a family friendly event – targeting demographics that other gaming events can struggle to reach. We aim to reach: Gaming enthusiasts, Newcomers keen to learn more, Young people, Families and older generations, Game developers, industry freelancers, and gaming course students and graduates.\n\n**What are some of the highlights people can look forward to this year?**\n\nThis year, we have a record number of developers joining us for the Festival - with over 50 games announced so far, and we'll be adding more games in the run up to the Festival. On the 1st & 2nd of June, we'll be running the Industry Days, presented by our Lead Educational Partners, Norwich University of the Arts; with speakers from various backgrounds in the games industry running free talks - which we'll be announcing in the run up to the Festival.\n\nOne of the additions we're most excited about is the creation of our relaxed sessions in the evenings of the 29th & 30th of May. These sessions are designed for children with additional needs, allowing them to enjoy a visit without the usual crowds, at their own pace.\n\n**Is there anything new for this year?**\n\nOne of the most interesting new additions to the Festival this year, I feel, is the GameMaker workshops delivered by game developers Shaun Spalding & Tommy Thompson. These are introductory sessions to game development where, using the audiences concepts and designs, Shaun & Tommy will be building a playable game in just an hour - which visitors will then be able to play at the Festival! We ran these sessions as part of our learning week in February and the results were fantastic - we can't wait to see what our visitors come up with!\n\n**Are there any trends in gaming you’ve noticed?**\n\nSince I first got involved with the Festival in 2015, the main trend I've noticed is people treating gaming as more of a social activity and looking for more varied and unique experiences. In the previous generation of consoles, online gaming was a huge focus, and local multiplayer games were quite difficult to find; but this niche has come back in a big way with social games from smaller studios such as Overcooked by Ghost Town games, or with experiences such as PlayLink on the PS4 with games like Hidden Agenda.\n\n**How does the Norwich tech scene compare to other regions do you think?**\n\nAs only ever having really been part of the Norwich tech scene, I'm not sure how it compares to other regions - but I think the most fantastic thing about the Norwich scene is the amount of support and events available for young people. There are so many fantastic jams & events happening over Norfolk and everyone is always happy to help to deliver more opportunities to young people, which I think is fantastic.\n\n**Do other areas have gaming festivals? How does Norwich’s fest compare?**\n\nThere aren’t as many regional gaming festivals as you might expect. We aren’t as big as London Games Festival or Insomnia but that’s a good thing as size isn’t our focus. We’re different because of our family friendly and indie developer focus.\n\n**Are you a gamer yourself? What platforms do you play on and what is your current game of choice?**\n\nAs well as being a gamer, I'm also a game developer - which means I often struggle to find the time to play games! I currently make use of my Nintendo Switch the most - as it has a tonne of great indie titles and it's portability makes the games super accessible, without having a negative impact on the experience.\n\n**Lastly, how can people get involved in Norwich Gaming Fest?**\n\nThere's a handful of ways that people can get involved with this year's festival; we offer free exhibition space to game developers hoping to show their projects, and applications are open on our website. Young developers who have made something they'd like to bring along can apply to bring their projects to our Warp Zone on the 29th of May; these projects can be anything game or tech related - and could have been crafted at home, at school, or even as part of a jam! On the evening of the 31st of May, Code Club will be running a volunteer training session for anyone confident with technology or code, and are keen to find out more about running their own Club Event.","path":"/posts/2018-05-17-norwich-gaming-festival"},{"date":"2018-03-15T20:02:13Z","layout":"post","title":"Linux & SQL Server at MigSolv a Review","author":["paulgrenyer"],"hero":"/static/images/pages/posts/2018-03-15-linux-and-sql-server-at-migsolv-a-review/highres_469062363-300x225.jpg","tags":["Retrospective"],"excerpt":" We love the MigSolv data centre out at Bowthorpe in Norwich. This was nor(DEV):’s second visit and they always make us very welcome. Walking into what feels like a massive Blakes 7 set and getting the tour,including the retina scanner and massive server hall, is incredible and s...","body":"\n![](/static/images/pages/posts/2018-03-15-linux-and-sql-server-at-migsolv-a-review/highres_469062363-300x225.jpg)\n\nWe love the [MigSolv](https://www.migsolv.com/) data centre out at Bowthorpe in Norwich. This was nor(DEV):’s second visit and they always make us very welcome. Walking into what feels like a massive Blakes 7 set and getting the tour,including the retina scanner and massive server hall, is incredible and seriously interesting (even though it’s my third time!).\n\nThe intimacy of the board room with the table down the centre and nor(DEV): members arranged each side is great for generating conversation! And when you have a humorous and huge personality like [Mark Pryce-Maher](https://www.linkedin.com/in/markprycemaher/) it encourages the banter and the discussion even more! It’s safe to say this was one of the most interactive nor(DEV): evening presentations for some time.\n\n![](/static/images/pages/posts/2018-03-15-linux-and-sql-server-at-migsolv-a-review/highres_469063833-300x225.jpg)\n\nMark was there to tell us about how you can run Microsoft SQL Server on Linux (or is that “Lynux”?). Anyone would think Mark had been on the WINE, but no, you really can run SQL Server natively on Linux now. The first question though, has to be “why?”. The answer is simple. Microsoft are going after geeks, Oracle users and Linux houses who only run Windows to run SQL server.\n\nThe second question is “how?”. Developers at Microsoft discovered that, despite the vast number of methods available from the Win32 API, there are only a small number of methods which actually talk to the operating system. These are for allocating memory, disc storage, etc. A project called Drawbridge was developed to identify these methods and port them to Linux. SQL Server can then make use of those methods to run on Linux. Simples!\n\nMark did a live demo of installing and connecting to SQL Server. Unfortunately he hadn’t made sufficient sacrifices to the demo gods and things didn’t go precisely to plan. SQL Server can be run on an Ubuntu instance on Microsoft’s Azure from about £1/day (I’m intending to try it on a Digital Ocean droplet which is slightly cheaper). It’s incredibly easy to install. You just add the necessary repositories to Ubuntu’s package manager and tell it to install SQL Server. There’s also a pre-made Docker image (if Docker is your thing) which is even quicker.\n\n![](/static/images/pages/posts/2018-03-15-linux-and-sql-server-at-migsolv-a-review/highres_469064164-226x300.png)\n\nMicrosoft have developed an open source version of the client tools called Microsoft Operations Studio . It is also very easy to install (I did it on my Linux Mint laptop over 4G while Mark was speaking), but for some reason during the demo it just wouldn’t connect to SQL Server. However, Mark talks a great talk and I’m sure with a little bit more playing it would have!\n\nWe enjoyed being at MigSolv and hearing from Mark! MigSolv would like us to go back and we’re keen to do so in the future.\n\n***\n\nThe Next nor(DEV): is on 4th April and features “A.I. and Cognitive Computing with Watson” from Colin Mower of Microsoft and “Keep Secure and Under the Radar” from David Higgins. RSVP here: ","path":"/posts/2018-03-15-linux-and-sql-server-at-migsolv-a-review"},{"date":"2016-03-14T18:45:20Z","layout":"post","title":"NorDevCon breaking down age barriers","author":["paulgrenyer"],"tags":["NorDevCon","Testimonial"],"excerpt":"NorDevCon 2016 was yet another resounding success for Norfolk Developers. With an impressive array of speakers and workshops we had more attendees than any previous year. This year, for the first time, we had students and teachers attending from some of the local schools and acad...","body":"\n[NorDevCon](http://nordevcon.com) 2016 was yet another resounding success for [Norfolk Developers](http://norfolkdevelopers.com). With an impressive array of speakers and workshops we had more attendees than any previous year. This year, for the first time, we had students and teachers attending from some of the local schools and academies as well as the usual range of techies and business people. It was great to see them mingling and discussing the various sessions they’d attended.\n\nThis year my 12 year old grandson, Nathan, also came along for the first time. I asked him to write about his experience and this is what he came up with:\n\n“The conference was very good. We met Michael Feathers when having breakfast at the hotel and he was very nice and then we walked to the conference with him.\n\nThe first activity I did was the android course by Paul Lammertsma. It was very well done and easy to follow. The tutorial he made explained everything really well and when there was something that was not working or was hard to set up he helped with it and knew how to sort any issues. By the end of the 6 hour course I had learnt how to make simple android applications. After this was the pre-conference dinner where I met a nice guy called Giorgio who was talking to me through dinner.\n\nThen the next day there was a keynote by Michael Feathers which was interesting but confusing. Then there was an OpenShift 3.1 workshop by Ed Seymour and Keith Lynch who work at Redhat. This was complicated but fun and did what it was meant to do; explained how to use OpenShift 3.1.\n\nAfter this was the session ‘Fake it Until You Make it’ by Dom Davis. It was funny, interesting and easy to follow. After that was another talk by Michael Feathers called Collection Pipeline Design Techniques. I understood a lot more of this than his first talk and found it very interesting and it taught me a lot of things.\n\nFollowing a tea break was a talk by Darren Cook called WebGL is Serious Fun! It was funny and made sense and was interesting to listen to. It helped people to get started with WebGL and was not hard to follow.\n\nAfter this was a talk by James Taylor about making passwords safer. I learnt about a usb device you can plug into your computer for 2 factor authentication which made it impossible to get into any account you own without it, so it makes hackers jobs harder. He also talked about 2 step authentication and it was all very interesting. Then there was a sponsor’s presentation by Elizabeth Scholefield who talked about mobile phones and how they were socially acceptable and it ended with an interesting video of a man rapping about how we replace phones with human interaction.\n\nAfter this presentation was a closing keynote by Jon Jagger who talked about pair programming. It explained a lot of things I did not already know and was very easy to follow. The next day there was a talk about smart wear by Paul Lammertsma and it taught you how to make a watch face for smart wear and explained the basics of making a smart wear application. It was a good tutorial and easy to understand.”\n\nI think this demonstrates well that when there is genuine interest there are no age barriers!\n\n***\n\nWords: [Caroline Hargreaves](https://uk.linkedin.com/in/caroline-hargreaves-73b12b4b)","path":"/posts/2016-03-14-nordevcon-breaking-down-age-barriers"},{"date":"2016-03-05T14:31:58Z","layout":"post","title":"A Question of Space","author":["paulgrenyer"],"tags":["NorDevCon","Retrospective"],"excerpt":"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times - Captain Kirk, Wrath of Khan 1982. From a Norfolk Developers, Naked Element and a personal point of view NorDevCon 2016 was a huge success. We had the largest number of attendees we’ve ever had by a significant margin. The Thur...","body":"\n> It was the best of times, it was the worst of times\n\n**- Captain Kirk, Wrath of Khan 1982.**\n\nFrom a [Norfolk Developers](http://norfolkdevelopers.com), [Naked Element](http://nakedelement.co.uk) and a personal point of view NorDevCon 2016 was a huge success. We had the largest number of attendees we’ve ever had by a significant margin. The Thursday workshops attracted a total of about thirty people, Friday saw over 400 and there were about 250 on Saturday. Surely the best of times.\n\nIn his presentation, “Silicon Broad: Bridges not Valleys” Jon Bradford, former MD of TechStars, said that NorDevCon needed to move to a new, larger venue and be 800 people next year. It’s true that in terms of numbers NorDevCon has come a long way from the 160 people who attended its first incarnation, SyncConf.\n\nOur current venue is almost certainly the only option for the five track conference format we use. However, with 400 people in the main auditorium the sponsors and lunch area gets a little tight. The other four rooms we use have capacities of 120, 100, 40 and 18. When you take an average that’s 80 people in each room. Immediately it’s obvious that an even distribution of people wouldn’t work. Of course, people don’t usually distribute themselves evenly. It’s difficult to know which sessions are going to be the most popular, so knowing where to put which speakers is difficult and ultimately, we get it wrong sometimes.\n\nWhile it’s fantastic that the conference is so popular, there are times when delegates can’t get to see the speakers they want because a room is full and almost every time there’s another room with only a handful of people in it. The worst of times.\n\nSo what to do about it? There are a number of options.\n\nI’ve already identified that another venue isn’t really an option.\n\nWe could ask people to specify which sessions they would like to attend in advance and place the speakers accordingly. This would take quite a bit more organisation and is difficult as the programme is often changing right up until the day.\n\nWe could restrict the number of people on any one day to about 350, that would go some way towards relieving the overcrowding.\n\nWe’ve spent a long time scaling vertically (increasing the number of people on one day). We could consider scaling horizontally (more days, with less people each day) and perhaps dropping the smallest conference room. The issue with this is people having to spend more time away from work, which, given the eco system of small companies in Norfolk, isn’t likely to be popular.\n\nThis is usually where I would present the ideal solution, drawn from a consideration of all the options. However, this is one of those problems which requires a lot more thought and discussion with experienced individuals. The discussions and head scratching continue.","path":"/posts/2016-03-05-a-question-of-space"},{"date":"2016-01-16T18:10:33Z","layout":"post","title":"Microsoft & The Guardian Join The 2016 NorDevCon Line Up","author":["paulgrenyer"],"tags":["NorDevCon"],"excerpt":"We thought you'd like to know that Microsoft and the Guardian have joined the NorDevCon 2016 line up! Building applications using the Universal Windows Platform (Friday) Paul Foster (Microsoft) Windows 10 introduces the Universal Windows Platform (UWP), which further evolves the ...","body":"\nWe thought you'd like to know that Microsoft and the Guardian have joined the [NorDevCon](http://nordevcon.com/) 2016 line up!\n\n**Building applications using the Universal Windows Platform (Friday)** Paul Foster (Microsoft)\n\nWindows 10 introduces the Universal Windows Platform (UWP), which further evolves the Windows Runtime model and brings it into the Windows 10 unified core. As part of the core, the UWP now provides a common app platform available on every device that runs Windows 10. With this evolution, apps that target the UWP can call not only the WinRT APIs that are common to all devices, but also APIs (including Win32 and .NET APIs) that are specific to the device family the app is running on. The UWP provides a guaranteed core API layer across devices. In this demo rich session, we will have some fun exploring how to build an application to run across several device families.\n\n[Read more](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#paulfoster)\n\n**Deep Impact – Agile and Analytics at the Guardian (Saturday)** Dominic Kendrick (The Guardian)\n\nThe talk will showcase the improvements and benefits that come from putting data analysis and measurement at the heart of your agile processes.\n\nI will talk about the techniques we have used on various projects across The Guardian to help us save money and improve the impact of the work we deliver, and explain how you can use these to get all aspects of your business thinking hard about what features and projects they want to deliver.\n\n[Read more](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#dominickendrick)\n\nGet your NorDevCon 2016 tickets [here](http://nordevcon2016.eventbrite.co.uk/).","path":"/posts/2016-01-16-microsoft-and-the-guardian-join-the-2016-nordevcon-line-up"},{"date":"2015-12-20T14:52:03Z","layout":"post","title":"NorDevCon 2016: Bigger and better than ever before!","author":["paulgrenyer"],"tags":["NorDevCon","Keynote"],"excerpt":"NorDevCon 2016 is bigger and better than ever before and here is why… Thursday 25th February 2016 We have some amazing pre-conference workshops for you to participate to get you in the mood for Nor(DEV):con on the 26th.An Exploration of Symbiotic Design Practicefrom Michael Feath...","body":"\n### NorDevCon 2016 is bigger and better than ever before and here is why…\n\n**Thursday 25th February 2016**\n\nWe have some amazing pre-conference workshops for you to participate to get you in the mood for Nor(DEV):con on the 26th.[An Exploration of Symbiotic Design Practice](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#michaelfeathers)from Michael Feathers,[Taste of Chef on Azure](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#chefio)from Chef.io and[Android workshop: From Zero to Hero](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#paullammertsma)delivered by Paul Lammertsma.\n\nAfterwards there is even more nor(DEV):con appetizers in the form of Letitia Fearon’s \"Observe, assume and experimentand\", [Ashwini Laxminarayana](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#ashwini) Fun & Games with Git & Jenkins - who will be giving us a[pre-conference special](http://www.meetup.com/Norfolk-Developers-NorDev/events/225604888/) each - at the King's Centre which kicks off at the earlier time of 5.30pm and is followed by our [pre-conference dinner](http://www.meetup.com/Norfolk-Developers-NorDev/events/226204343/) which this year will be held at the[Library Restaurant](http://www.thelibraryrestaurant.co.uk/#welcome). To attend the pre-conference special and the dinner please RSVP via[norfolkdevelopers.com](http://norfolkdevelopers.com).\n\n**Friday 26th February 2016**\n\nWe’ve Keynotes from the fantastic [Michael Feathers](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#michaelfeathers)who is coming all the way from Florida to open with Feature Orthogonality and Health In Large Code Bases for us and we’ve got the wonderful [Jon Jagger](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#jonjagger)to close the Friday of the conference with Pair Programming.\n\nWe have TechStars' [Jon Bradford](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#jonbradford) talking abou t[Silicon Broad: Bridges not Valleys](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#jonbradford), Rainbird’s [Dom Davis](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#domdavis) telling us how to Fake it until you make it, [Lisa Price](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#lisaprice) asking us Are you a code Monkey or Agile Junkie? and of course, nor(DEV):con wouldn’t be complete without [Jon Skeet](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#jonskeet)who will be telling us all about the Changing state of immutability in C#.\n\nWith all of this as well as workshops on the day from RedHat, [Letitia](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#letitiafearon) and Neon Tribe, technical sessions from [Pete Goodliffe](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#petegoodliffe), [James Taylor](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#jamestaylor) and [Darren Cook](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#darrencook). Agile Sessions from [Seb Rose](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#sebrose), [Christos Matskas](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#christosmatskas) and Unruly's[Rachel Davis and Lewis Moore](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#rachellewis) and business sessions from [Ermine Amies](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#ermineamies), [James Tarling](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#jamestarling) and [Matthew Draycott](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#matthewdraycott) plus many more.\n\nIn the lunch break there will be a buffet and we’ll be having a bit of fun by having a tech version of Radio 4’s Just a Minute hosted by Huw Sayer.\n\nAs always there is a wine reception sponsored by the Wine and Business Club that follows the conference closing keynote and this has already sold out, but there is also a [conference dinner](http://www.nordevcon.com/dinner-and-wine-reception-2016/) at the King's Centre where you can talk to your favourite speakers and have a few glasses of wine and a 3 course meal all for £35.\n\n**Saturday 27th February 2016**\n\n[Richard Astbury](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#richardastbury) will be opening with his keynote on The State of Art which will be a great start for our first Saturday Nor(DEV):con. [Dom Davis](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#domdavis) will be back for us with Agile Smagile as will [Paul Lammertsma](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#paullammertsma) with his Android session on Wears the Party, we have [Tjelvar Olsson](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#tjelvarolsson) Saving the World One Image at a Time and a Machine Learning workshop given by [Burkhard Kloss](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#burkhardkloss).\n\nSee the full agenda here: \n\nWe also have some sponsorship opportunities remaining: \n\nGet your tickets here: ","path":"/posts/2015-12-20-nordevcon-2016-bigger-and-better-than-ever-before"},{"date":"2015-12-08T12:57:25Z","layout":"post","title":"nor(DEV):con 2016 set to be bigger, bolder and better for businesses","author":["paulgrenyer"],"tags":["NorDevCon"],"excerpt":"Following the success of last year’s Norfolk Developers Conference(nor(DEV):con), which attracted an unprecedented 263 speakers, delegates and sponsors, nor(DEV):con 2016 promises to continue the record breaking trend. Run by Norwich-based web, mobile and enterprise software serv...","body":"\nFollowing the success of last year’s [Norfolk Developers Conference](http://www.nordevcon.com/nordevcon2015/)(nor(DEV):con), which attracted an unprecedented 263 speakers, delegates and sponsors, [nor(DEV):con 2016](http://www.nordevcon.com/) promises to continue the record breaking trend. Run by Norwich-based web, mobile and enterprise software services provider [Naked Element](http://nakedelement.co.uk/), the Winter conference is in it’s fourth year and will bring together delegates and companies from across the whole professional spectrum.\n\nThe conference is a meeting of minds for business and technology experts, who’ll come together to explore the fundamental role technology plays in the East of England’s economy. nor(DEV):con will take place from Thursday 25th to Saturday 27th of February 2016 at the [King’s Centre](http://www.kings-centre.com/) on King Street in Norwich.\n\nBack by popular demand, the conference will feature the dedicated business presentation stream to highlight how essential technology is for the wider business economy. The [2016 agenda](http://www.nordevcon.com/agenda/) is peppered with business-centric sessions (indicated by blue briefcase icons).\n\n[Paul Grenyer](https://www.facebook.com/Paul-Grenyer-757171474389895/?fref=ts), nor(DEV):con organiser, said:\n\n> “Once again we’re proud to lead the way with nor(DEV):con, now in it’s fourth year. It’s all about helping the tech community to reach out to the wider business community to demonstrate how we can all work together for stronger, more efficient businesses. Norfolk continues to be tipped as one to watch in the UK’s technology sector and is already considered a centre of technical excellence. Today technology is so ingrained and intertwined with the local economy that one cannot exist without the other and nor(DEV):con is a celebration of this.”\n\nThe content-rich conference will feature keynote speeches, workshops and talks from industry influencers, including:\n\n- [Jon Bradford](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#jonbradford), Managing Director of [Techstars in London](http://www.techstars.com/programs/london-program/), co-founder of F6S and[tech.eu](http://tech.eu/), will present ‘Silicon Broad: Bridges not Valleys. Jon will talk about how tech ecosystems evolve, tie that into tech and tech startups in London and the rest of the UK, and then talk about how this relates to the Valley. Jon will wrap up the session with advice for soon-to-be tech startups.\n\n\n- [Matthew Draycott](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#matthewdraycott) will be presenting ‘The Myth Buster…The Real Secrets to Building a Growth Business’. Matthew will discuss his philosophies for building effective high growth companies. Based on his own experience he will focus on five key tasks which he believes every owner and management team should be engaged in if they hope to build a successful, rapidly growing business.\n\nNorwich-based [Axon Vibe](http://www.axonvibe.com/) will be nor(DEV):con’s Elite sponsors. John Fagan, CTO at Axon Vibe said “We are excited to support another great local technology event and welcome any opportunity that builds on Norwich’s reputation as a Tech City. We hope we will further cement Norwich's position on the national and international stage by choosing Norwich as the platform for launching our mobile app SoJo - A live view of your world globally in 2016.”\n\nThe conference features a programme packed with interactive sessions demonstrating the latest and greatest advances in technology and will give businesses a real insight into how they can use technology to add value to their own business. The popular [dinner and evening wine reception](http://www.nordevcon.com/dinner-and-wine-reception-2016/) gives delegates the chance to network as well as a thought provoking Q&A sessions with the speakers.\n\nFor more information, sponsorship opportunities or to book tickets, visit [www.nordevcon.com](http://www.nordevcon.com/)","path":"/posts/2015-12-08-nordevcon-2016-set-to-be-bigger-bolder-and-better-for-businesses"},{"date":"2015-11-24T13:04:56Z","layout":"post","title":"Jon Skeet is back for NorDevCon 2016","author":["paulgrenyer"],"tags":["NorDevCon","Keynote","JonSkeet"],"excerpt":"When we speak to people about NorDevCon, do you know which speaker we get asked about the most? Jon Skeet! This is why we are delighted to be able to announce that Jon Skeet is back for NorDevCon 2016 and will be doing a regular 45 minute conference session on C#. The changing st...","body":"\nWhen we speak to people about NorDevCon, do you know which speaker we get asked about the most? **Jon Skeet!**\n\nThis is why we are delighted to be able to announce that Jon Skeet is back for NorDevCon 2016 and will be doing a regular 45 minute conference session on C#.\n\n**The changing state of immutability in C#** Jon Skeet ([@jonskeet](https://twitter.com/jonskeet))\n\nImmutability rocks, right? When a type is immutable, it’s usually easier to reason about your code, easier to share data safely, and easier to make money ooze from every USB port. That’s the promise, at least. I heard an F# developer say it, so it must be true.\n\nUnfortunately, when a language or platform isn’t designed to encourage immutability, immutability can introduce its own pain points – and sometimes they can be subtle.\n\nCome with me on a journey to explore the different options for implementing immutability in C#, see how it’s become somewhat simpler over the various versions, and consider what the future \\*might\\* have in store.\n\n**About Jon**\n\nJon Skeet is a software engineer for Google in London, who plays with C# (somewhat obsessively) in his free time. He loves writing and talking about C#, and the third edition of ‘C# in Depth’ was published in September 2013. Writing less formally, Jon spends a lot of time on Stack Overflow… where ‘a lot’ is an understatement. Give him a puzzle about how C# behaves which gets him reaching for the language specification, and Jon is a happy bunny. Jon lives in Reading with his wife and three children.\n\n[Buy your NorDevCon tickets](http://nordevcon2016.eventbrite.co.uk)","path":"/posts/2015-11-24-jon-skeet-is-back-for-nordevcon-2016"},{"date":"2015-11-09T07:44:23Z","layout":"post","title":"NorDevCon 2016 Agenda Live!","author":["paulgrenyer"],"tags":["NorDevCon"],"excerpt":"We’re a week late, but the NorDevCon 2016 agenda is now live on the NorDevCon website and you can view it here: Highlights this year include keynotes from Michael Feathers, Jon Jagger and Richard Astbury. Other highlights include Dom Davis, Jon Skeet, Letitia Fearon, Redhat, Neon...","body":"\nWe’re a week late, but the NorDevCon 2016 agenda is now live on the NorDevCon website and you can view it here:\n\n\n\nHighlights this year include keynotes from Michael Feathers, Jon Jagger and Richard Astbury.\n\nOther highlights include [Dom Davis](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#domdavis), Jon Skeet, [Letitia Fearon](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#letitiafearon), Redhat, Neontribe, [Seb Rose](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#sebrose) and [Jon Bradford](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#jonbradford)!\n\nOver the coming weeks we’ll be sending you more details of all of the sessions. You can buy your tickets here:\n\n\n\nAs with previous years we also have the Wine Reception, this year sponsored by The Wine Club and the Conference Dinner on the evening of the 26th of February.\n\nAs usual, we have the [pre-conference special](http://www.meetup.com/Norfolk-Developers-NorDev/events/225604888/), which is free to attend for everyone, on the evening of the 25th with:\n\n- Ashwini Laxminarayana Letitia Fearon\n\nAnd the [pre-conference dinner](http://www.meetup.com/Norfolk-Developers-NorDev/events/226204343/), which this year is at The Library Restaurant. Please make sure you pre-book as places are limited.\n\nNorDevCon 2016 is set to be the biggest and most exciting NorDevCon to date. We really hope you can join us!","path":"/posts/2015-11-09-nordevcon-2016-agenda-live"},{"date":"2015-09-28T15:53:16+01:00","layout":"post","title":"Michael Feather's Heads up the Keynote Speakers for Nor(DEV):con 2016","author":["paulgrenyer"],"tags":["NorDevCon","Keynote"],"excerpt":"We’re delighted to be able to announce our keynote speakers for Nor(Dev):con 2016, which is taking place at the Kings Centre, King Street Norwich, 25-27th February 2016. Michael Feathers Friday (26th) Opening Keynote Too often as software developers we take features as given - EE...","body":"\nWe’re delighted to be able to announce our keynote speakers for Nor(Dev):con 2016, which is taking place at the Kings Centre, King Street Norwich, 25-27th February 2016.\n\n**Michael Feathers**\n\nFriday (26th) Opening Keynote\n\nToo often as software developers we take features as given - EE are there to give the customers whatever they want. The thing we neglect to realize is that feature choice impacts the longevity and maintainability of systems. In this keynote, Michael Feathers will explore this idea and describe now we can move toward a model where business weighs these impacts in the context of systems development.\n\nMichael Feathers is the Founder and Director of R7K Research & Conveyance, a company specializing in software and organization design. Prior to forming R7K, Michael was the Chief Scientist of Obtiva and a consultant with Object Mentor International. Over the past 20 years he has consulted with hundreds of organizations, supporting them with general software design issues, process change and code revitalization. A frequent presenter at national and international conferences, Michael is also the author of the book Working Effectively with Legacy Code (Prentice Hall, 2004).\n\n**Russel Winder**\n\nFriday (26th) Closing Keynote\n\nUK school curriculum underwent a revolution as of 2014-09: ITC was replaced with programming. Whilst the change itself was campaigned for, and widely wanted, the way government handled the change left a lot to be desired. Some, but not all, universities and colleges have joined in realizing the change and preparing for the consequent revolution in university computer science curriculum, c.2018 onwards. Are businesses ready for the knock-on change?\n\nThis presentation will delve into some of the most important and/or obvious issues surrounding this world leading experiment in child education.\n\nRussel is an ex-theoretical physicist, an ex-UNIX system programmer and an ex-academic. He is now an independent consultant, analyst, author, expert witness and trainer also doing startups. He is interested in all things parallel, concurrent and build.\n\nRussel is actively involved with Groovy, GPars, GroovyFX, SCons, and Gant. Also Gradle, Ceylon, Kotlin, D and bit of Rust. And lots of Python, especially Python-CSP.\n\n\n**Richard Astbury**\n\nSaturday (27th) Opening Keynote\n\nRichard demonstrates three new programming languages and discusses how they will affect the future direction of computer programming.\n\nRichard Astbury builds software systems to support satellite-connected devices around the globe. He is a Microsoft MVP for Microsoft Azure, and consultant at two10degrees. Richard is often found developing open source software in C# and Node.js, and lives in Suffolk with his wife and three children.\n\n***\n\n_Ticket’s are on sale at: [http://www.nordevcon.com/](http://www.nordevcon.com/#tickets)_\n\n_Dont forget that we will be having a pre-conference session as usual on thursday the 25th of February followed by the pre-conference dinner but the venue for the dinner is TBC._\n\n_On the Friday there will be a wine Reception which is free to attend but places are limited and this will be followed by a conference speaker dinner which will be 3 courses and a few glasses of wine for £36.53._","path":"/posts/2015-09-28-michael-feathers-heads-up-the-keynote-speakers-for-nordevcon-2016"},{"date":"2015-09-23T14:53:09+01:00","layout":"post","title":"Nor(Dev):Con 2016 to support The Curly Hair Project","author":["paulgrenyer"],"tags":["NorDevCon","Charity"],"excerpt":"Autism spectrum disorders (ASD), which include Asperger’s Syndrome, have been at the centre of documentaries, an oscar winning movie starring Dustin Hoffman and a best selling novel that even went on to take Broadway and the West End by storm. But most research so far has focused...","body":"\nAutism spectrum disorders (ASD), which include Asperger’s Syndrome, have been at the centre of documentaries, an oscar winning movie starring Dustin Hoffman and a best selling novel that even went on to take Broadway and the West End by storm. But most research so far has focused on the male presentation, with the challenges facing females who are affected just starting to be explored. The [Curly Hair Project (CHP)](http://thegirlwiththecurlyhair.co.uk/) is a social enterprise with worldwide appeal, dedicated to supporting females with Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) and other autism spectrum disorders (ASD).\n\nNorDevCon 2016 will support [The Curly Hair Project](https://www.facebook.com/TheGirlWithTheCurlyHair) as its chosen good cause to help spread the word about this \\\\important project. Sam Ramsay, Associate Trainer at CHP reveals her hopes for what the exposure at the conference may mean for the project, “Firstly we’re delighted to have been invited to be a part of NorDevCon. We hope that we are able to use this forum to raise awareness in the technology industry of the challenges that those on the autistic spectrum face on a daily basis, from an industry that is very \\\\important to those on the spectrum. The online community provides great support for those with Autistic Spectrum Disorder, and it is suspected that there are many undiagnosed with ASD in technology and IT industries. The Curly Hair Project aims to educate those both on the spectrum and their neurotypical loved ones of the benefits that can be gained through understanding and improved communication.”\n\nNorDevCon presents a unique opportunity for many businesses across a wide variety of sectors. We asked Sam why she thinks NorDevCon offers such a valuable opportunity for CHP; “This is a unique opportunity to reach a community who may not all have seen the amazing work that the Curly Hair Project does, for those on the Autistic Spectrum and their neurotypical loved ones.\n\nMany people with ASD are great with technology and we would like to improve awareness of what someone with ASD can offer an organisation. We hope to educate employers when considering ASD applicants – you will gain a highly focused, reliable and dedicated employee with a real gift for attention to detail. The ASD employee is also likely to have very logical thought processing skills – a real asset for the technology and IT industry. So don’t dismiss them because they have ASD, shortlist them!”\n\nThe NHS define ASD as “a condition that affects social interaction, communication, interests and behaviour. It includes Asperger’s Syndrome and childhood autism.” Living with the condition, or living with someone with the condition can be challenging but also very rewarding. The Curly Hair Project (CHP) reaches people through a whole range of media from books to workshops and social media to blogs. Even if you’re not directly affected by ASD at home, Sam believes that “it is still really helpful to learn more about the condition in order to be more understanding of others at work and in social settings.”\n\nPaul Grenyer, NorDevCon organiser and director at [Naked Element](http://nordevcon.com), explains:\n\n> My eldest son was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome just over a year ago, so I wanted to find out more about about what it is and what it means for him. My wife did some research, came across The Girl with the Curly Hair book and suggested I read it. I found that it was a really useful tool in understanding the disorder and some really important things, like why he reacts the way he does to certain things. In fact I found the book so insightful and useful in my own search for information about Asperger’s Syndrome, that the Curly Hair Project was the natural choice as the good cause to support at NorDevCon 2016.\n\nFrom speaking with Sam it’s clear that her passion for CHP transcends into its efforts to raise awareness of ASD as well as the \\\\important work the project do for the female ASD community. Sam reaffirms\n\n> The Curly Hair Project is thrilled to be the good cause of choice this year as we are keen to reach a new section of the community who may not have seen our work before. We are grateful for the opportunity to work alongside NorDevCon and by doing so, will hopefully add a new dimension to the world of technology in East Anglia and beyond. Thank you for inviting us, we look forward to meeting you all!\n\n***\n\n_**NorDevCon 2016 will take place from the 25th - 27th February 2016 at The King’s Centre in Norwich. To buy tickets or find out about sponsorship opportunities go to [www.nordevcon.com](http://www.nordevcon.com/)**_","path":"/posts/2015-09-23-nordevcon-2016-to-support-the-curly-hair-project"},{"date":"2015-06-18T14:59:19+01:00","layout":"post","title":"Tickets On Sale Now!","author":["paulgrenyer"],"tags":["NorDevCon"],"excerpt":"Tickets for the 2016 nor(DEV):con are now on sale, so if you want to get ahead of the game and grab a Super Early Bird ticket now's your chance! Growing in popularity and still attracting visitors from across the country, as well as the world, nor(DEV):con has expanded to run ove...","body":"\nTickets for the 2016 [nor(DEV):con](http://www.nordevcon.com/) are now on sale, so if you want to get ahead of the game and grab a Super Early Bird ticket now's your chance!\n\nGrowing in popularity and still attracting visitors from across the country, as well as the world, nor(DEV):con has expanded to run over two and a half days. Thursday will see a full day of workshops, while Friday and Saturday will hold the conference talks, and we've already secured some big names.\n\nThere are limited numbers of the Super Early Birds, which are available at a very reduced rate, but once they're gone, they're gone! Tickets start from £20 and [are available here](http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/nordevcon-2016-tickets-15843460216) and there are 500 tickets available in total for conference spaces.\n\nTicket types and availability -\n\n- Super Early Bird for Friday & Saturday. Price £55. **50 available**\n- Super Early Bird for Friday only. Price £45. **15 a****vailable**\n- Super Early Bird for Saturday only. Price £20. **15 a****vailable**\n\n- Early Bird for Friday & Saturday. Price £95\n- Early Bird for Friday only. Price £80\n- Early Bird for Saturday only. Price £35\n\n- Standard for Friday & Saturday. Price £250\n- Standard for Friday only. Price £210\n- Standard for Saturday only. Price £95\n\nAs previously, Super Early Bird and Early Bird tickets will only be available until two weeks before the conference. After this date only the standard tickets will be available to purchase. This is to encourage everyone to get their tickets in plenty of time so we can focus on the conference nitty gritty!\n\nIf you would like to support us and the tech community by offering sponsorship, please see our [available packages here.](http://www.nordevcon.com/sponsorship/) We have something suitable for every budget.","path":"/posts/2015-06-18-tickets-on-sale-now"},{"date":"2015-06-09T11:57:56+01:00","layout":"post","title":"nor(DEV):con 2016 Sponsorship Packages","author":["paulgrenyer"],"tags":["NorDevCon","Sponsorship"],"excerpt":"We're gearing up for nor(DEV):con 2016 with the release of our sponsorship packages. We have various levels of sponsorship available for companies who would like to support Norfolk's tech conference and reap the benefits, in February next year, and now that the main conference is...","body":"\nWe're gearing up for [nor(DEV):con](http://www.nordevcon.com/) 2016 with the release of our sponsorship packages. We have various levels of sponsorship available for companies who would like to support Norfolk's tech conference and reap the benefits, in February next year, and now that the main conference is expanding to two days, there are more chances to reach your target audience! Options start from just £250. From sponsoring the sandwiches to naming a conference room, there's something for every budget.\n\nYou can find more details of our [packages here](http://www.nordevcon.com/sponsorship/) and download the [brochure here.](http://www.nordevcon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/norDevConSponsorship.pdf)","path":"/posts/2015-06-09-nordevcon-2016-sponsorship-packages"},{"date":"2015-04-28T11:22:27+01:00","layout":"post","title":"Nor(DEV)con: 2015 Survey Results and Winners!","author":["paulgrenyer"],"tags":["NorDevCon","Retrospective"],"excerpt":"As nor(DEV):con continues to grow and attract higher numbers of attendees, we began to consider running the conference over two days. To find out if this was something the tech community would be interested in, we conducted a survey of nor(DEV):con 2015 visitors. We were very ple...","body":"\nAs nor(DEV):con continues to grow and attract higher numbers of attendees, we began to consider running the conference over two days. To find out if this was something the tech community would be interested in, we conducted a survey of nor(DEV):con 2015 visitors.\n\nWe were very pleased to see that two thirds of the 93 respondents would like to see nor(DEV):con happen over two days.\n\nThe majority of those surveyed would prefer Thursday and Friday to any other combination of days, with Friday and Saturday morning coming in second, head and shoulders above the other options.\n\nBased on this feedback and the direction we would like to take the conference, we have decided to run a number of parallel, hands-on workshops on the Thursday and the regular conference on Friday, with a keynote followed by five streams on the Saturday morning.\n\nWe are very pleased to announce that[Michael Feathers](https://twitter.com/mfeathers) is joining us from the US to give the opening keynote on Friday, as well as running a workshop.\n\n[Russel Winder](https://twitter.com/russel_winder), who spoke at the inaugural Nor(DEV):con, will be giving the closing keynote for 2016 and the conference will finish lunchtime on Saturday.\n\nOn Saturday[Richard Astbury](https://twitter.com/richorama) will present the day’s keynote, which will be followed by five tracks, four of which will be lecture style presentations of 45 or 90 minutes. The fifth track will run at the same time and will comprise a 90 minute hands-on workshop.\n\nWorkshop tickets will be sold separately and individually for each workshop. We will offer tickets for Friday and Saturday morning as well as day tickets for those who only want to attend Friday or Saturday. The pre-conference special, the pre-conference dinner and the conference dinner will all be the same as before.\n\nThose who completed our survey also went into a draw to win tickets to nor(DEV):con 2016 and our five winners are:\n\n- Luke Kittridge\n- Paul Cutting\n- Matthew Dunn\n- Tracey Tutt\n- Roberto Bezzi\n\nWe look forward to seeing everyone next year!","path":"/posts/2015-04-28-nordevcon-2015-survey-results-and-winners"},{"date":"2015-03-19T09:49:16Z","layout":"post","title":"Sync Norwich - Liftshare","author":["paulgrenyer"],"tags":["SyncNorwich","Liftshare"],"excerpt":"Tonight we were treated to an extra session, as Liftshare opened their office (and their slide) for a special Sync Norwich evening. The office was secreted away in a huge, mainly disused building in Norwich city centre, the door to which many people probably walk past daily witho...","body":"\nTonight we were treated to an extra session, as [Liftshare](https://liftshare.com/uk) opened their office (and their slide) for a special [Sync Norwich](http://www.meetup.com/syncnorwich/) evening. The office was secreted away in a huge, mainly disused building in Norwich city centre, the door to which many people probably walk past daily without noticing it even exists. After being buzzed in through what could have been the entrance to a secret club, I was presented with a beer (always a good start) and a chair right at the front. The small office had been turned into a mini-auditorium with a good 30 or more people in attendance and the slide show had already begun.\n\nI don’t know what the collective noun is for people named Sergio, but we had two present. After an introduction from founder Ali Clabburn, Sergio from Liftshare took the floor. He talked us through some of the pitfalls and issues they experienced in the process of creating their app, something they had wanted to create for four years or more. Then Sergio from “classic mega large agency” (his words) [DigitasLBi](http://www.digitaslbi.com/uk/) talked about their collaboration with the company and the difficulties of working and communicating remotely. Overall the two main headaches that came out of the hour-long talk, were the amount of trouble that dealing with legacy brought about and finding a reliable company to deal with payments cost effectively.\n\nThe highlight for me was the slide with Sergio and Sergio beaming with pride, their fingers hovering over the ‘submit’ button of their app to iTunes. A few people downloaded the app and played around with it during the course of the evening, with some picking up bugs. Liftshare’s Sergio welcomed any feedback or bug-spotting, offering his email address to send details to ([Sergio@liftshare.com](mailto:Sergio@liftshare.com)).\n\nWhile I didn’t get to go down the slide (to be honest it looked like an industrial airduct with a steep enough gradient to shoot me at high speed out the other end), the evening was a well-attended and social one.","path":"/posts/2015-03-19-sync-norwich-liftshare"},{"date":"2015-03-12T11:22:23Z","layout":"post","title":"Bristow Holland on the nor(DEV):con 2015","author":["paulgrenyer"],"tags":["NorDevCon","Testimonial","Sponsorship"],"excerpt":"Bristow Holland had some kind words: We were delighted to be involved NorDevCon 2015 as a sponsor, the format was excellent with a range of topics and subject matter for everyone, we particularly enjoyed the business track which offered really accessible insight into the business...","body":"\nBristow Holland had some kind words:\n\n> We were delighted to be involved NorDevCon 2015 as a sponsor, the format was excellent with a range of topics and subject matter for everyone, we particularly enjoyed the business track which offered really accessible insight into the business tech community. We met some great contacts and learnt a lot, including several enquiries from prospective customers which we are busy following up on, the facilities were excellent and the food and drink were great too – all in all a fantastic effort from the Naked Element team, roll on 2016!","path":"/posts/2015-03-12-bristow-holland-on-the-nordevcon-2015"},{"date":"2015-03-12T07:15:05Z","layout":"post","title":"QI at nor(DEV):con","author":["paulgrenyer"],"tags":["NorDevCon","Specials"],"excerpt":"...","body":"\n","path":"/posts/2015-03-12-qi-at-nordevcon"},{"date":"2015-03-12T07:12:06Z","layout":"post","title":"MigSolv hail NorDevCon 2015 a sponsorship success","author":["paulgrenyer"],"tags":["NorDevCon","Testimonial","Sponsorship"],"excerpt":"It was great being at this years NorDevCon event in Norwich. Held at the Kings Centre in central Norwich it attracted an amazing amount of creative people and business opportnuities. We believe it is the event to be at for local tech businesses wanting to be seen and take part in...","body":"\nIt was great being at this years NorDevCon event in Norwich. Held at the Kings Centre in central Norwich it attracted an amazing amount of creative people and business opportnuities. We believe it is the event to be at for local tech businesses wanting to be seen and take part in Norwich’s growing tech community, now being an officially announced national tech city. As a local data centre provider, technology companies are, and will be, our obvious business partners, and we certainly had great conversations with a number of them. We are progressing some and a good conversation with AWS has lead to more meetings – who knows where this will go?\n\nWe are optimistic and will be here again next year.","path":"/posts/2015-03-12-migsolv-hail-nordevcon-2015-a-sponsorship-success"}],"slug":"paulgrenyer"},"__N_SSG":true}