Conferences. Story of Devoxx Belgium 2024

In the begging of October I and my colleagues joined Devoxx Belgium 21st edition. Started back in 2001 it is one of the biggest events for developers in Europe. Its is a busy conference packed with content. In this talk I share my journey and takeaways. This presentation will be bringing some magic from the place that inspired Vilnius JUG creation many years ago.

Transcript

1. Conferences. Story of Devoxx Belgium 2024 by Ina Bumštein December, 2024
2. About me Working with Java for more than 15 years Developing and architecting custom solutions Leading Java knowledge sharing initiative in the CGI Lithuania Spoken: at Vilnius JUG and Spring Office hours
3. Me at Devoxx Belgium • 3 times • All supported by
4. Jun. CFP open Community review Jun./ Jul. First tickets batch and Around the same time talks accepted 16th of Aug. Second tickets sales batch 2nd of Sep. Final tickets sales batch 16th of Sep. Conference starts 7th of Oct.
5. Community review
6. Devoxx Belgium days types • Deep dive days (Mon/Tue) • Conference (Wed/Thu/Fri)
7. Location - Kinepolis, Antwerp, Belgium by Dimitris Doutsiopoulos
8. Choosing dilemma…
9. Each attendee will have his own different experience from everybody else
10. Java related takeaways
11. Java basics. Usage of Optional • Use as return type if value can be absent • Don’t use as a field - your class/record is safe space • Don’t use as a method parameter - use overloading instead Design Patterns Revisited in Modern Java by Venkat Subramaniam
12. Java basics. Collections and record immutability When using collection in a record don’t forget safeguarding as collections content can be changeable Escape from the Planet of the Collections by Stuart Marks, Maurice Naftalin
13. Other takeaways • Peak of complexity from Brian Goetz keynote part • Serialization plans from “Serialization: A New Hope” talk by Viktor Klang, Brian Goetz • Listening to Java architects panel
14. Java community BOF • Importance of community and local JUGs • https://dev.java and https://inside.java
15. Performance oriented Spring Data JPA & Hibernate • One of the most practical talks I attended • spring.jpa.open-in-view = false Performance oriented Spring Data JPA & Hibernate by Maciej Walkowiak
16. AI related takeaways
17. LangChain4J • From 1 presentation in 2023 to 6 in 2024
18. Spring AI • Alternative to LangChain4J (which can be also used in Spring projects) • Deeper integration in Spring syntax style Spring AI: Seamlessly Integrating AI into Your Enterprise Java Applications by Christian Tzolov
19. Security and AI challenges • Normal security problems become even bigger if you provide access using AI to problematic function • Model matters • Initialization prompt is very important • Check user input and validate AI output Securing LLM-Powered Applications: Overcoming Security and Privacy Challenges by Brian Vermeer, Lize Raes
20. Devoxx Genie IntelliJ IDEA plugin • IntelliJ IDEA plugin created by Stephan Janssen • Use local LLM as your coding assistant DevoxxGenie: Your AI Assistant for IDEA by Gunter Rotsaert
21. AI and our brain Simone de Gijt predictions: • We will learn new things faster • Getting something from our memory will be more challenging
22. People and culture related takeaways
23. Reading code • When reading code different people can identify different thing as most important aspect of it • Don’t judge code – try to understand • Tips for understanding code: ◦ Temporary refactoring/restructuring ◦ Code folding using IDE (Surround with or Ctrl+Alt+T in IntelliJ IDE to define your own blocks) Reading code by Marit van Dijk
24. Speaking BOF • Informal gathering for those who are interested in doing talks • About what to speak and tips and tricks how to do that • Fears
25. Stay curious https://dvbe24.cfp.dev/#/top-talks