top 10 talks GOTO software development conference Amsterdam 2019

My top ten talks from the GOTO software development conference in Amsterdam, 17-20 June 2019. Most of the talks have been recorded and (will be) published on the GotoConferences youtube channel.

1) Extreme Digitalization in China

I’m impressed by the advances China is making in terms of digitisation. Take WeChat for example, with sub-programmes such as CoffeeBox that have gained tremendous popularity. Payments using face recognition are now commonplace in China, while I haven’t seen this happening (yet) here in The Netherlands. China has a very competitive start-up scene, with long workdays (9-21h, 6 days a week). The competition is fierce, and ideas are copied by competitors. Businesses have to be the first, it does not matter if a product is only partially finished.

2) Machine Ethics

This talk by Nell Watson gives an update on the latest developments in AI.

3) Energy and Education Access for Remote Communities

This keynote was touching because it shows how much the quality of life could be improved by simply installing proper solar panels and lighting in remote (Himalayan) mountain villages.

4) Augmented Reality, Beyond Virtual Objects Floating in Physical Space

This talk gave me new ideas for applying augmented reality in software.

5) Building a Cloud-native Event-driven Microservice Platform for Crypto Currency Trading with Spring Webflux

Erwin de Gier explained how he built BLOX, a cryptocurrency trading platform using reactive technology (Spring Webflux) in a microservices architecture.

6) Boost your API Development with GraphQL & Prisma

Graph databases are new and promising technologies.

7) Taking Security Seriously

Finally a security talk that is enjoyable. Philippe gives several case studies, one is showing the fragility of open source software development.

8) Event-Driven Microservices, the Sense, the Non-sense and a Way Forward

Allard, creator of the Axon framework, provides some common sense for developers on how to go about an event-driven microservice architecture.

9) Innovate using Machine Learning and AI

Altough this is a subtle sales talk/showcase of the AI capabilities offered by AWS, it inspired me with new ideas for new functionalities in apps.

10) How we Built Google Tulip by using Serverless Technology and Machine Learning

Google Tulip was the April fools’ day joke of 2019 by Google (in The Netherlands). The team gave an energetic and humorous presentation. “Looking forward for bouquet scanning capabilities”