Sencha Con 2013 Wrapup

So another great Sencha Con is over, and I'm left to reflect on everything that went on over the last few days. This time was easily the biggest and best Sencha Con that I've been to, with 800 people in attendance and a very high bar set by the speakers. The organization was excellent, the location fun (even if the bars don't open until 5pm...), and the enthusiasm palpable.

I've made a few posts over the last few days so won't repeat the content here - if you want to see what else happened check these out too:

• Day 1 Wrapup
• The Making of Fastbook
• Ext JS Performance Tips

What I will do though is repeat my invitation to take a look at what we're doing with JavaScript at C3 Energy. I wrote up a quick post about it yesterday and would love to hear from you - whether you're at Sencha Con or not.

Now on to some general thoughts.

Content

There was a large range in the technical difficulty of the content, with perhaps a slightly stronger skew up the difficulty chain compared to previous events. This is a good thing, though there's probably still room for more advanced content. Having been there before though, I know how hard it is to pitch that right so that everyone enjoys and gets value of out it.

The biggest challenge for me was the sheer number of tracks - at any one time there would be seven talks happening simultaneously, two or three of which I'd really want to watch. Personally I'd really love it if the hackathon was dropped in favor of a third day of sessions, with a shift down to 4-5 tracks. I'm sure there's a cost implication to that, but it's worth thinking about.

Videos

There were cameras set up in at least the main hall on the first day, but I didn't see any on day 2. I did overhear that the video streams were being recorded directly from what was being shown on the projectors, with the audio recorded separately. If that's true I'd guess it would make editing a bit easier so maybe that'll means a quick release.

Naturally, take this with a pinch of salt until the official announcement comes out. In the meantime, there's at least one video available so far:

Fun Things

The community pavilion was a great idea, and served as the perfect space for attendees with hang out away from the other rascals running around the hotel. Coffee and snacks were available whenever I needed them, and there was plenty of seating to chill out in.

I missed out on the visit to the theme park, which I hear was by far the most fun part of the event. Having a theme park kick out everyone but Sencha Con attendees while serving copious amounts of alcohol seemed to go down very well with the attendees!