React Amsterdam 2018
Picture it: 3 days. All about React, 25 speeches, a huge Front-end and Full-stack developers’ community from all over the world, a series of workshops — not surprising that tickets for the React Amsterdam conference for NIX experts were bought just after the sales launch. Our JS developer Bohdan shares his thoughts about the event below.
When we were told we were going to visit React Amsterdam 2018, we literally jumped up for joy. We expected something bombastic to come, and looking ahead, I may say that our expectations were entirely justified.
React Amsterdam is one of the biggest events dedicated to front-end topics, namely the cool React.js library and technology stack with which it is commonly used. More than 1,300 developers from differents parts of the world get together to listen 25+ speeches from gurus, and all this is in Amsterdam! Obviously, that no React-developer would resist ;).
I really liked the organization of the event: a large room with good acoustics, several projectors on the hall, so it was easy to understand and hear everything. Also, I noted that 2 streams of speeches were going on simultaneously — in addition to the mainstream, there were lectures for mobile developers (React Native). After each 3rd lecture, we had a chance to reload during the coffee break, and to discuss what we have seen and heard with colleagues from other countries.
The novelty was the rubric “Horror Stories”: the speakers briefly described the real problems in the project and how they solved them. At the end of the conference, I wanted only one thing: to get to the computer as soon as possible and try to do what I heard. But this is a topic for a whole other article ;)
A few words about the city. Of course we prepared for the trip and made a list of the top sightseeing places. However, this list was useless – everything looks amazing in Amsterdam! We have admired elegant buildings, cool ponds, blooming magnolias and was even surprised by the huge number of wild ducks :).
Architecture doesn’t leave anyone unoved. I was pleasantly surprised that most of the city’s residents would rather use cycling than cars. Bicycles are not of the racing variety, but really rather vintage.
Personally for me it was a revelation that Amsterdam’s water transportation is so well developed — from small sightseeing boats to huge industrial vessels. Also, one more pleasant surprise was that we got to the venue of the conference by ferry boat :).
We went back home completely satisfied, but also we were a bit sad because our trip had come to its end. I would like to thank our company for the chance to visit such events and offer a special thanks to the JS/UI department.
