I was lucky enough that my employer Dynatrace sent me to the Jfokus conference in Stockholm this year.

This conference had couple of "firsts" for me. My first time in Sweden, the first time attending a Jfokus conference and actually my first time at a "pure Java" conference.

Day 1 was a pre-conference day with 6 parallel workshops/sessions in the morning and the same in afternoon. I had been a bit late with building my conference schedule and only got a seat for the big main session on micro services initially.

However, during the flight to Stockholm, I had been listening to a podcast episode on quantum computing, where this topic was covered in a very casual and approachable way. So, when I saw that this first conference day offered a session on quantum computing, I asked them to squeeze my into that workshop, which luckily was not a problem.

A quick introduction to qubits and quantum information

I had expected a gentle introduction to the topic in a similarly casual way as in the mentioned podcast episode. Maybe learning a bit about half-dead cats and things like that ... boy was I wrong 🤣.

I don't remember a single slide in this session that did not have a mathematical formula on it.

I also liked the speaker's introductory statement:

"I'd rather rewind than say everything slow"

... basically approaching his talk like you would with a YouTube tutorial.

I must say that I found it quite challenging to follow this session due to the fact that it's been quite a while since I had to wrap my head around linear algebra. Matters were complicated further by the fact that the speaker had sent out some introductory material that I had not received as an ad-hoc joiner.

Nonetheless, I must say that I quite enjoyed this workshop. Having to focus and concentrate really hard to be able to follow a session was actually a pleasant surprise. At times, it felt like being back at a university course (which I consider a good thing, just to be clear 😉).

I'll try to find some time and check out the YouTube course that the speaker recommended.

So yeah, this first session had been lot and I was looking for something a bit simpler after that. Fortunately, one of the afternoon sessions literally delivered on that .

Keeping it Simple

This session by Kevlin Henney was one of those reflective "meta-talks" about software engineering and our industry in general. Hearing about topics like complexity in software, technical debt and all the challenges that come with that is nothing revolutionary or new to be honest. However, for some talks, it's more about the delivery than the content and it's always a pleasure to hear about things when a really talented speaker lays them out.

So, all in all, this made for a nice change to the previous session and I quite enjoyed listening to this speaker. With 3 hours, it probably felt a tad long for non-technical session, but mostly I would recommend this and watch it again, if I had the chance.

The Conference

So far, I'm really enthusiastic about this conference. Content-wise, it has been a wild ride on this first day, ranging from a deep technical dive to a more laid-back meta talk.

The food and snacks are fantastic and of a quality I have never experienced at another conference so far.

In general, Sweden really lives up to its promises.

So, I'm really looking forward to the upcoming conference days.