Paul Grenyer

Fingers, toes, legs on a daddy long legs, syllabi to a haiku and the Jackson’s - lots of important things comes in 5’s and that’s exactly how many weeks left until this year’s NorDevCon . This week we’ve taken a closer look at the conference sessions dedicated to design - it’s Design Time. Chucking it Over the Fence Creative/designer/developer relationships in a device agnostic landscape John Skinner It often used to be the case that a creative would mock-up every page for a website in Photoshop/Fireworks, working closely with the client to ensure that every word was spelt correctly, all images selected and every eventuality seemingly mapped out. All too often a bloated zip file of psds/pngs would be ‘chucked over the fence’ to a dev team to turn these into a functioning site. If they were lucky, there might be some hand-over notes! More often than not, this ‘process’ would lead to problems but today’s device-agnostic web landscape has rendered such a relationship all th...

Take your mind off Dry January and the gym and check out our next instalment of NorDevCon 2015's sensational sessions. From C# to the cloud and Docker to data and even dinner - NorDevCon has got it covered. C# 6 – the future is (nearly) here! Jon Skeet Jon Skeet, Java developer for Google in London, is self-confessed C# obsessed. Outside of his day job Jon loves writing and talking about C#, and the third edition of ‘C# in Depth’ was published in September 2013. Writing less formally, Jon spends a lot of time on Stack Overflow… where ‘a lot’ is an understatement. Give him a puzzle about how C# behaves which gets him reaching for the language specification, and Jon is a happy bunny. C# 6 is nearly upon us, and after doing the feature hokey-cokey for a little while, it’s all looking pretty stable. It’s a pretty special release, as along with the language changes themselves, there’s a whole new compiler to use – and poke at. The Roslyn compiler allows ordinary (at least,...

The decs' are down and the diets have started. But it's not all doom and gloom - there's plenty to look forward to in 2015. For starters we're just 7 weeks away from NorDevCon 2015 and here's a few more sessions to sink you teeth into. So long, and thanks for all the tests Seb Rose Consultant, coach, designer, analyst and developer, Seb Rose has been involved in the full development lifecycle, from Architecture to Support and BASIC to Ruby. Most recently he's been helping teams adopt and refine their agile practices, with a particular focus on automated testing. He answers the questions we've all been asking ourselves - Do unit tests make life better? Should we develop using test driven development (TDD)? What exactly are our customers paying for? Software development is hard. Unit testing and Test Driven Development (TDD) can make it easier, but only if done well – and that takes time. Seb explains how these practices can help your project, ...

Every year NorDevCon provides businesses around the county with the chance to show clients and customers, both existing and potential, that they've got their finger on the pulse when it comes to the latest and greatest in business technology. This year, Norwich-based accountants and business advisors, Farnell Clarke are the Elite event sponsors. Will Farnell, Managing Director describes how his business is hand in hand with technology, “ Farnell Clarke has been leading the way in cloud-based accounting for the past three years, working with more than 500 clients across the East of England and beyond. Technology is now absolutely fundamental to the way we run our business and help our clients to run theirs.  We rely completely on the talented people in the background who create the code that brings software such as KashFlow and ReceiptBank to life." Will adds “Ambitious businesses such as ours cannot hope to thrive and grow if we don’t embrace everything that techno...

What: Learn WordPress & Build a Website in 1 Day When: Thursday, January 22, 2015 @ 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM Where: The King's Centre, King Street, Norwich, NR1 1PH Price: GBP150.00/per person Sign-up: via meetup or email paul@nakedelement.co.uk This course is given by WP Courses . This course teaches you all the basics of building, running and marketing websites using WordPress, the world’s leading website solution. In one day, you will build your own stunning website, which will be hosted free for one year. The course runs from 9.30am to 5pm and is limited to 12 places. About the course We cover everything from WordPress installation and set up to all the most useful features and tools WordPress offers. You get a brand new site to work on through the day, which you will practise on and make your own. You will apply an attractive design, make the site search engine friendly and add all the features and functionality you need to further develop and run the ...

Just weeks into the new year  NorDevCon 2015 is back and this year it means business. Tuck into our tech session taster take-two with more details of just some of our skilled speakers and what you can look forward to from the next NorDevCon. The Rationale For Continuous Delivery Many people working in software development spend their careers working without seeing what good looks like. Our history is littered with inefficient processes creating poor quality output, too late to capitalise on the expected business value. Dave Farley , co-author of the Jolt award winning book Continuous Delivery, raises the questions we’ve all been asking ourselves like 'How have we got to this state?' 'How do we get past it and what does good really look like?' David has been having fun with computers for over 30 years and over this time has worked on most types of software. He has a wide range of experience leading the development of complex software in teams, large and s...

Ahead of this year's forthcoming event check out NorDevCon 2015 Agile Sessions Part 1. As well as a low down on the conference’s Agile aspect and a sneak preview of our seasoned speakers, the NorDevCon team would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Building Learning Into Team Life Co-author of “Agile Coaching”, Rachel Davies has worked in software development since the likes of Madonna burst onto the scene in the late 80’s. She is interested in finding ways to help teams work more effectively to achieve their goals and specializes in coaching teams in agile approaches to software development, such as XP and Kanban. Rachel currently works as a agile coach at Unruly in London. Rachel explores how when we make time and space for learning within teams, the products and services we build can benefit from new ideas and innovative solutions. Team members also tend to find work more satisfying and enjoyable, which helps company recruitment and staf...

In preparation for 2015's NorDevCon , here's a little preview of what attendees can expect from our guest speakers. A Tale Of Two Codes   Richard Astbury and Anders Fisher attempt to create a live coded web app from front to back and back to front using javascript. This dynamic duo will live code a web app from start to finish using JavaScript. Anders will create the user interface and front-end code for the browser, while Richard writes the back end system using Node.js. This interactive session is packed with tricks, tips and techniques as the java geniuses attempt to build the app live on stage. Anders Fisher is a self-confessed addicted developer from nearby Ipswich and is heavily involved in the developer community organising and speaking at numerous events including his own FESuffolk. Many moons ago he started out work as a front end developer and still has a great deal of passion and expertise in that area. Anders also works as a contractor on a variety ...

We’re just weeks away from 2015 and one of the first dates in your diary for next year should be NorDevCon 2015 . Taking place in the heart of Norwich on the the 27th February, you’ll get to hear from the creme de la creme of Norfolk’s tech community as well as speakers from the big smoke. Early Bird tickets are still available from £95 + fees and with a packed programme full of Agile, tech, business and design sessions as well as unique networking opportunities, delegates are certainly getting a lot of techie bang for their buck this year! Get more information and your tickets here. Keynotes Introducing Opening Keynote speaker, Jon Skeet, Java developer at Google based in London Developing Passion, in many senses. Few areas of business seem to provoke as much passion as technology. Many technologists seem to be perfectly happy taking their vacation time on a busman’s holiday of conferences and community events. Millions of hours of “spare” time are poured into open...