10up and jQuery go to Russia
Eric Mann on
This has been a year of firsts, from first releases on 10up’s GitHub account to our first internal dev summit. This year also saw 10up’s first appearance at jQuery Russia – coincidentally also the first jQuery conference in Russia!
A little over a week ago, I had the opportunity to visit Moscow for an incredible day of development talks at Digital October. The conference was sponsored by ITmozg in Russia, and headlined by the president of the jQuery Foundation, Dave Methvin.
The snacks were as impressive as the talks!
jQuery Russia covered topics from JavaScript performance to the use of $.Deferred. I was able to present an overview of the HTML5 web worker API along with a live demonstration of the million monkey problem – implemented entirely in JavaScript.
jQuery Russia was an amazing experience for everyone involved, and it showed me just how well different parts of the international development community can work together. I don’t speak Russian and presented my talk with the help of an interpreter. Many of the attendees didn’t speak English, but were able to ask me questions about code after the talk and throughout the conference – again, with the aid of an interpreter.
All of the conference speakers were invited back to the main stage at the end of the day for an interactive Q&A session. Questions ranged from browser standards to what we’d like to see added to JavaScript to where we see jQuery in 5-10 years. The range of opinions was impressive, but the expertise that backed each was even more so.
If anything, jQuery Russia exposed me to just how truly savvy the international dev community is when it comes to writing and thinking about cutting-edge code. Language differences aside, I learned a lot through my Russian colleagues, and plan to put some of the new techniques I’ve gathered up to use immediately.
This was my first opportunity to travel internationally for a technology conference, and “exciting” is barely an apt description. My hopes are high for the continued excellence of such conferences, and I wish the team at ITmozq all the best for future jQuery Russia events as well!