We have recently got through the second edition of Cluj IT Days, the annual event of Today Software Magazine. We believe we have succeeded in offering those over 200 participants present this year the opportunity to get a clearer overview on the IT in Cluj and on the latest trends in the local industry. A novelty of the event was the release of a book entitled How to build a product?, signed by nineteen authors, who have also participated as speakers to the event. This book will actually be available online on the site of the magazine and that of the event: www.itdays.ro
The event started with a session of presentations dedicated to the courses of evolution and the leadership on local level. The tendencies of local companies such as Arobs, Accesa or Pitech+Plus, which have been presented by their very founders/CEOs share the same principle: the orientation towards the development of their own products, along with maintaining the quality of their outsourcing services. This thing is welcomed and we hope to talk in our future editions about the new IT products from Cluj. Still in this first section, the participants had the opportunity to discover interesting things such as the Firefox OS operating system, the projects that are going on in the ICT Lab Budapest and the increase of the female presence in the IT world.
The technical session of the second part of the first day slowly made the transition towards more specialized topics. There were discussions on innovation, the impact of cultural differences, going as far as the Java language. Peter Lawrey, the top expert and special guest of this edition, talked in his first presentation about the ways in which we can improve the performance of Java applications, a subject of a great interest among the local community. We will try to keep in touch with him in the future, by publishing his articles.
The presentations continued with subjects that varied from architecture and big data to enterprise solutions. There was even a trans-disciplinary approach which established correlations between the evolution of the user experience concept and the history of philosophy. Near the end, we discussed the opportunity of developing cultural applications such as “Statui de Daci” (Dacian Statues). We rounded the evening off with a glass of wine and a piece of cake. Since we are talking about an IT event, the participants were able to choose their favorite cake online, one day before. The cakes were waiting for them, with every body’s name on them, together with a small present from HipMenu.
The atmosphere at the stands of the sponsors of the event was a relaxed one. The people from Accesa prepared a special coffee for those who would choose one of the personal development values within the company. Those from Yardi offered a surprise prize following a raffle, namely a GoPro. The visitors of the Accenture stand had the opportunity to try the applications developed by the company for Google Glasses, to receive small gifts and discover Industry 4.0. The well-known prize roulette of ISDC was also present in their stand, and those from 3Pillar Global were present in high glee and good spirits.
The second day opened with the keynote presentation of Peter Lawrey on the advantages and disadvantages of being a software consultant. The following subjects were the startups, from the perspective of the ecosystem, and what is good to know if one wishes to obtain financing. After the first break, we learnt how an object is created in a 3D printer. We could also see and examine different objects produced by it. Afterwards, we discussed about the possibility of involving software companies in startups, as well as the Industry 4.0 development tendencies. Another presentation proved why a mere idea is not sufficient for a successful startup.
After lunch, we were introduced to the research projects developed by the Technical University in Cluj. We saw research projects that have as a result a better inter-connection of networks, followed by an impressive demo of vocal processing. Basically, after processing approximately three hours of recordings of a person’s voice, one can simulate a very authentic speech text. We concluded the series of research projects with a presentation of the e-learning platforms and their contribution to the Romanian projects in this domain.
The pizza break of the second day brought a relaxed atmosphere and prepared the audience for the last part of technical presentations. The first two had security as their main topic, being followed by a discussion on testing strategies carried out by the big companies such as Facebook. In the end of the second day, we talked about the design of a startup from the perspective of Microsoft technologies.
The exceptional host of this event was Dan Suciu, lector of Babes-Bolyai University and Director of Technical Training in 3Pillar Global. Though the introduction of each presentation during the two days represented a real challenge, he successfully accomplished his mission.
We thank the companies which have sustained us: ISDC, Accesa, Gemini Solutions, 3Pillar Global, Yardi, Accenture, Colors in projects, Mozaic Works, Telenav, Endava, Yonder, Betfair, SDL and Fortech. We thank our partners which helped us to promote the event: Cluj IT Cluster, Starcelerate, ClujHub, JCI Cluj and Loopa.
Your opinions and feedback are very important to us and we are looking forward to your suggestions which may turn the 2015 event into an even more interesting one, with valuable guests.
