Roger Brinkley's Blog

January 2008 Archives

MEDD - Registration is still open

You woke up Saturday morning and realized that the Java Mobile & Embedded Developer Days, the conference with 26 intermediate to advanced technical sessions, 14 lightning talks and 12 poster session that you wanted to attend since it was announced, closed it registration on Friday at midnight and you forgot to register.

Ok don't give up and don't despair, we changed our minds and have decided to keep registration open a while longer. We still have a few seats open and don't want anyone that wants to be there to miss it. That said you could help us out just a bit by actually registering sooner than later.

Register now at the conference home page. This is a great conference by developers, for developers and you don't want to miss it.

MEDD - SPOTs Away

In WWII the bombardier would yell, "bombs away" as the bombs left the airplane. Attendees at the Java Mobile & Embedded Developer Days will have an opportunity to win one of four SunSPOTs Java Developer Kit.

The Contest

Judging Criteria

• 40% Innovative use of SunSPOTs
• 20% Commercial or educational utility
• 20% Usefulness in the SunSPOTs projects in Mobile & Embedded Community
• 20% Chance for success

The SunSPOTs development team will then select a maximum of 8 projects. Those selected will be given 1 minute to present to the conference there proposal and then the conference attendees will vote on each proposal. The four sessions with most number of votes will be declared the winners. In the event of a tie, the person among the tied Entries with the highest score in innovation will be declared the winner.

How to Prepare

And Don't Forget

M & E Developer Days - Remote Broadcast

I'm happy to say that we have achieved both goals. We will be doing a live broadcast world wide using ustream.tv. If you haven't had any prior experience with this tool you are in for a real treat. In addition the live broadcast, ustream.tv has a wide range of features including chat, an applause meter, polls and comments. We'll be using all of these features when we go live at 8:30 PST on January 23.

Where to find the broadcast

We are still toying with idea of requiring an account to be able to chat so you might want to set up and account on ustream.tv in advance of event on next Wednesday.

To attend or not attend, that is the question

But it won't be the same as being there. No matter how hard we try it just is not the same as being there in person. We won't be able to cover the poster sessions. We won't cover lunch. Trust me I've watched my colleagues eat before and it is not worth covering. And of course we will not be covering the social event or the bar camp.

An former co-worker of mine once told me that the most important aspect of any conference isn't the content that you hear but the people that you meet. As we said once before the emphasis on the conference is an intimate conference where application developers get to rub elbows with other application developers along with the operators, manufactures, and platform developers. Relationships initiated here will be beneficial over the next year and beyond. Combine that with some other activities specific to attendees and you got some pretty strong reasons to attend.

I can make it

I can not make it

MEDD - Poster Sessions

I am thinking that there is a good chance that one of the most interesting presentation formats at the Mobile and Embedded Developer Days, January 23-24, won't be the technical sessions or the lightning talks but the poster sessions. We currently have 4 poster sessions time slots scheduled mid morning an mid afternoon both days of the conference.

What is a poster sessions?

A poster presentation involves showing your poster to numerous attendees at the conference in the main auditorium. As viewers walk by your poster should quickly and efficiently communicate your given topic. Unlike the fast pace of a slide show or verbal presentation, a Poster Session allows viewers to study and restudy your information and discuss it with you one-on-one. The posters should present general information and invite viewers to ask more detailed questions of the presenters.

I found the following points about posters from a George Mason University document on Developing a Poster Presentation useful:

• Posters are designed to appeal to peers and collegues at conferences and/or public displays, and to meet the organizational and informational requirements of conferences and/or public displays
• The audience of a paper is a person, the audience of a poster is people.
• A poster presentation allows for question-and answers sessions, and the exchange of ideas and information.
• A papaer presents all of the information, a poster present the most important information.

What information should I share?

What's important to you? What information would you like the attendees to know or what idea would you like to share? What feedback would you like to get back from the attendees?

Ok, some of your creative juices are wiped and you need some examples. Below are some of the posters presentations that you'll see at MEDD:

• Tira Wireless - Mobile Content Lifecycle Management
• Qusay Mahmoud - JavaME in Mobile Education
• Intel - Optimizing a Java Platform for the Mobile Internet Device
• Medio - Benefits of a Markup-Based Mobile Application
• MicroAI Engine - Artifical Intelligence using Java ME

Guidelines

• Size: Please stick to a 24" x 36" size (2x3'). If you need more space get creative with fold-outs, etc.
• Material: Choose a stiff poster board that can be hung on the wall. Use every day materials and your kids' glue and crayons. Skip the professional look, this is about creativity.
• Layout: Hummm one week to go so I'm guessing that the guidelines in
  • The Poster Session: a Guide for Preparation
  • How to Present a Poster Session
  • Writing Guides: Poster Sessions
  • How to Make a Great Poster
  • Providing Poster Session (19 links)
  
  are probably out of the question so it time to consider

  The Alternative Poster

  The professional-looking posters discussed above have an attractive counterpart. The artistically inclined can make a poster by sketching it entirely by hand. This has to follow the same design guidelines as described in the documents above, but it is produced with colored felt-tip pens on poster board of pleasing complementary or neutral color. Text material (a minimum of 18-point type) is easy to do by hand with felt markers if there are lightly penciled lines to follow. This less formal kind of poster is fast and inexpensive to do, and if neatly and imaginatively done can have a very special charm as you can see in the example to the right.
• Logistics: We want to start hanging posters on Tuesday, and alternatively starting at 7:00am Wednesday morning.
• Each presenter needs to be at their poster presentation during the four poster sessions times. Yeah, yeah we all need a bio break but do your best to be there.
• Bring a notepad. Hopefully, you will need it and if you do not bring it you will assuredly need it.

How do I sign up

Developer Days registration is still open

MEDD - Social Event

This is the first time we've done MEDD and we want the social event to be something that would be unique and memorable. We were also looking for an intimate setting where attendees could unwind for dinner and drinks at the end of 10 hour conference day. We found the perfect place just 3 miles from conference auditorium

Maria Elena's Taqueria Restaurant isn't your typical conference dinner stop. But then the Mobile & Embedded Developer Days isn't your typical conference either. Maria Elena's serves some the best Mexican dishes in the bay area. It's seating is close and cosey and the service is...well...what service should be. Once we started talking to the manager we realized it was the obvious choice.

We're going to start dinner right after the Developing and Deploying Content in the Real World panel discussion. Well right after means however long it takes us to load up in cars and drive 3 miles north (no cutting out early). Get there as soon as you can because it will be buffet style serving and communal seating. The staff will keep serving until everyone is stuffed and the cash bar should help wash everything down. Mix in some spirited table conversations and we've got exactly what we were looking for in a social event.

Now I wouldn't suggest that you should come to conference just because of Maria Elena's. You can and should go there on your own anytime your in in the bay area. But I would suggest that this is going to be an intimate social event and an itimate conference. A conference by developers for developers that you'll remember and benefit from for a long time. Sign up now at Mobile & Embedded Developer Days website. It's the best $225 you will spent this year.

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