Summary
Come create conversation, generate ideas, hack projects, hike, fish and mountain bike at the second annual Scala Summit! This year we hope to see the leaves change and you'll experience the glorious autumn weather at 9,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains.

The theme this year is "Scala vs. The New Features in Java 8." What in Java still "works," and at what point do you decide that life is just going to be easier in Scala? The theme is just an idea to produce conversations, but is by no means a restriction -- you can create any conversation you think people want to discuss.

The Scala Summit is an "Open Spaces" conference. There are no presentations or pre-defined topics. Instead, participants write discussion topics on sticky notes and place them in a room + time slot. Anyone who is interested in that topic shows up. You can end up with small groups or large groups and both are just fine. The best part of most traditional conferences are the hallway conversations, and Open Spaces produce all hallway conversations, all the time. If you aren't used to Open Spaces, they seem a bit strange at first but you'll be amazed at how well they work.

In the afternoons we will have outdoor activities including hiking, fishing, and mountain biking (where, to no one's surprise, the technical conversations keep flowing). Evening events include barbecues, 5-minute lightning talks (by you), and pub discussions.

If you have an idea for the (Thursday) hackathon day projects, there's time alloted for short pitches on day one, to gather interest from those who might want to work with you. This allows opportunities to work on the project before Thursday, if you like. Thursday is a full day dedicated to hackathons, and Thursday evening has short presentations of finished projects. Hackathon project ideas might include programming Internet-of-things devices, building a Salesforce app with Scala, exploring a new app framework, or working on an existing open-source project (or starting a new one). The only "requirement" for a hackathon day project is that you get excited about it.

For full details, schedule and registration see www.ScalaSummit.com. Attendance is limited to 70.

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About the Blogger

Bruce Eckel (www.BruceEckel.com) provides development assistance in Python with user interfaces in Flex. He is the author of Thinking in Java (Prentice-Hall, 1998, 2nd Edition, 2000, 3rd Edition, 2003, 4th Edition, 2005), the Hands-On Java Seminar CD ROM (available on the Web site), Thinking in C++ (PH 1995; 2nd edition 2000, Volume 2 with Chuck Allison, 2003), C++ Inside & Out (Osborne/McGraw-Hill 1993), among others. He's given hundreds of presentations throughout the world, published over 150 articles in numerous magazines, was a founding member of the ANSI/ISO C++ committee and speaks regularly at conferences.