Devoxx 4 Kids Netherlands

I was invited to speak at the Devoxx 4 Kids Netherlands event, so I dropped in right after my Gosling interview. This was literally right after Hawaii. I had only 24 hours at home between events, which was just enough time to put the finishing touches on Lego Duke version 6.1 (the replacement for the one stolen in San Francisco).

The Netherlands Devoxx 4 Kids event was really well organized. The Java Duchess chapter here in the Netherlands ran it, and were so organized that they had a 95% attendance rate. Also, I was worried the kids would not be able to handle three 1.5 hour workshops in a row, but they had a great agenda with snacks and outdoor breaks so the kids would not get tired (I think some adult tech conferences could benefit from this).

All of the groups were able to make some Java code modifications to the game and compile and run it successfully, so they are full fledged Java hackers. They may even be more advanced than their parents, because they were using the new lambda streaming API. :)

Here is a slide show with some pictures from the event. As you can see, the rebuilt Lego Duke was a huge success:

For Dutch parents who want the slide decks in their native language, here are the slides that Saskia translated for me. I think it also helped quite a bit with the kids who understood enough English, but needed some help from native speakers from time to time:

Next stop is W-JAX with Toni Epple. More details on this coming soon.