First, let us give you a short introduction about DevTalks for Juniors. The event was launched in 2016 with the first edition who gathered around 150 participants that attended technical talks on Web, Mobile, Embedded and IoT, and joined practical workshops on mobile development.Since then, the conference started to grow and we were happy to see how the interest of the juniors to develop new skills in IT is getting bigger.

This is how, one year later, at the second edition of DevTalks for Juniors, we met over 300 tech-savvy participants who were part of an awesome experience with insights and meaningful talks for the Junior IT Community.

The venue of the event was chosen in order to create an unconventional experience,  so DESCHIS Gastrobar was the right place to design an original meeting place where you can attend talks, interact with the other participants or have some fun in the Gaming Area.

The conference was structured on three areas of interest, so that each participant could choose the field where he wanted to develop and learn new things based on their skills.

Great Talks and Workshops

One of the Stages was dedicated to Future in Technology, IoT, AI & Robotics where local and international speakers talked about their experience and gave practical advice to the participants.

For example, Andrei Vasile and Sorin Tarmure from Small Academy presented a 45 minutes mini-hackathon for those who first learn about Java Script and then HTML or for those who read a book starting with the last page. Oana Korda and Bogdan Coman talked about #AI and #IoT beyond the buzzwords – tips & tricks for a hardware startup, and then Mat Ryer, Chief Architect at GrayMeta London spoke what he wish somebody had told him when he was starting out in tech.

After lunch time, Joe Winchester, Senior Technical Staff Member at IBM joined the event to tell us how Artificial Intelligence is changing the world. Also, there were also subjects like The Romanian Tech Scene, a Love Story, hosted by Robert Knapp, or Career Roadmap and how you can lose yourself on the way presented by Cristian Orasanu.

The other Stage was dedicated to Career Development, Web, Mobile, and Big Data on the topics such as: Angular under the spotlight with Gerard Sans, The Technologies Behind the Smart Data, with Alexandru Gatej, Senior Developer at Ubisoft Bucharest, The Future of JavaScript, a presentation given by Dan Alexandru Constantin.

After mid-day, we met Magda Miu who talked about how to use Android Room Persistence Library in the apps and Alin Miu, Senior Java Developer at Luxoft, who focused his presentation on how to learn Angular if you are a Java developer. From Ukraine joined us Michael Pustovit, who talked about Kotlin DSL in Gradle build scripts and Elena Musat from IBM, presented a new perspective about what every junior should choose: Small or big company? What’s in it for me?.

Also, at the event the participants could join 3 workshops and the topics discussed were:

• Building lists the right way in Android – Eduard Vasilache, Android Developer at mReady tried for 90 minutes to build an application from 0, providing insights into the ways of displaying lists in Android, with a focus on the RecyclerView component and why it’s a good practice to use it.

• A Gamified Approach to Get You Closer to your Desired IT Career it was about the participants individual passions, strengths and the opportunities along the way in order to obtain what they wish from the IT career. Mihaela Scarlat, HR Business Partner from Ubisoft Bucharest gave the participants the best ideas on how to do that.

• Enhancing User Activity Management: Vodafone Activity Monitoring System presented by Andrei Badea, Software Developer at Vodafone Shared Services MBB

A dedicated session of Mentors Hours

During the Lunch Break, the participants could join valuable discussions during a special session, Mentors Hours. The special guests were Cosmin Ochisor, Investment Manager at Hubraum, Robert Knapp, Co-founder and CEO CyberGhost, Cristian Orasanu, General Manager Innovations Incubator: Powered by Crossrider Plc, but also other speakers present at the event joined the discussion.

The idea came to support the attempt to empower the participants and give them all the resources they need in order to find out what should they do if they want to start a career in IT and how they should get prepared.

Here, the participants could openly ask questions and listen to real stories and useful advice from investors, mentors, and speakers. All happened in an informal set that encouraged the free talk and the participants to get over the fear of asking questions.

The Gaming & Relaxing Areas

…did not miss from DevTalks for Juniors!

During the breaks, every participant could play on PlayStation 4 and try the latest version of F1 or FIFA.

Also, for the lovers of racing, there was a Racing Simulator brought by Redbull who soon became one of the main attractions.

Another great experience was created by VR Center, the first virtual Escape Room in Romania. Here the participants could make teams of 2 players and entered in the world of the Escape Rooms where they should find solutions and unlock new tools in order to complete the mission.

Part of the virtual experience were Gateway Studio, a place where you can try and test the amazing VR technology which allows you to go where no man has been until recently: in the dreamworld. The experience adressed the participants fascinated about technology and fantastic worlds.

For the breaks, Pauza de Fructe offered fruits and relaxing massage sessions in order to stay fresh the entire day.

The Expo Area

Starting with this edition, DevTalks for Juniors also had an Expo Area designed as a get-to-know-each-other space. This Area was dedicated to the direct interaction between the participants and the IT companies or communities.

For exemple, Vodafone Shared Services designed an interactive and informal space to meet the participants, and Coder Dojo Romania, an open source, volunteer led community orientated around running free non-profit coding clubs for young people. This was a nice opportunity to create a bounding experience for the participants interested to start a career in IT and to ask questions about how their path would look like.

How would we sum up the DevTalks for Juniors event? A very complex and fun experience, where we were glad to see such a great & dedicated community of Juniors, willing to learn more, grow, and that have all the right skills to become an IT professional.

Thank you everyone for joining us and can’t wait to see you again next year! ?