Believe it or not, JavaOne is not the biggest Java conference in the world. In the US, the incredible developer community in Atlanta hosts the DevNexus conference in early April. The Devoxx conferences are held in various sites around Europe. Next year they will be in France, UK, Poland, and Belgium.
Brazil hosts TDC (The Developers Conference) in five cities in Brazil (Florianopolis, Porto Alegre, Sao Paulo, Recife, and Belo Horizonte) in Portuguese, as well as Colombia in Spanish. When COVID cancelled the in-person conferences, TDC was held online and they even experimented with adding an English stage to two of their regular conferences. All of these conferences are larger than the JavaOne conference and, not being tied to the Oracle conference, have a wide variety of technical topics covered.
But there are also many smaller conferences. The No Fluff Just Stuff conferences are attended by a lot of busy developers because the speakers are industry thought leaders, the sessions are technically dense, and they run over the weekend, so you don’t have to miss much work time. And they happen all over the USA, so you can probably find one in a city nearby, minimizing travel expenses.
The Agile Alliance has a very respected set of presenters and topics. They haven’t gotten back to in-person conferences yet but are hosting free online conferences for members (at a VERY reasonable price!). And their back catalog of high-quality presentations is available online as well.
If you search online for “software development conferences” you will find dozens and dozens. One is bound to be nearby you. You can also check out Meetup and Eventbrite. Check for a local user group meeting – it’s like a monthly conference on the small! Remember, it’s all about networking. Meeting great people who share your interests.
What conferences or meetups do you find helpful? Let me know!