On Tuesday, May 26th, we had our first official BruJUG event and guess what… IT WAS A HUUUUGE SUCCESS! We sold out our first event. How awesome is that? 39 Java passionates gathered in GooglePlex Brussels to share, meet, rebuild the world, try to find solutions to this damn “OutOfMemoryError: PermGen Space” thingy… Actually not that one, but you get my point.

Before the place was litterally crowded with Java enthusiasts

And of course, everyone was there to learn from our 2 first speakers, Anna Haberko and Alex Snaps, who were brave enough to cope with teething troubles and talk to us about Content Strategy and EhCache. Great presentations, great content.

Anna Haberko on Content Strategy

Alex Snaps on EhCache

And of course, since good traditions are better copy/pasted, everyone… well… almost everyone gathered in a pub for third half time.

Third Halftime (till 2 o'clock in the night for some courageous)

Now that this great event is over, it’s your turn to work a little bit. As we said at the end, this BruJUG is not our BruJUG, it’s yours. Your feedback and ideas are invaluable to us, so we have prepared a little feedback survey for you to help us set up an even better event next time. But there’s a catch: the survey is on our forum! So you will have to register there and wander around, and who knows… you might like it! We can’t wait to read what you thought about the venue, the speakers and their content. And more importantly we can’t wait for your great ideas and propositions for future events.

In the meantime, and thanks to your feedback, we will try to set up another event before we all go spread our toes in the sun… Uh! Sorry… sun creates bad reflections, can’t read my stack trace anymore! Anyway, you get my point. So stay tuned to our Google Group, our LinkedIn group, our wiki, our blog, our Twitter and open your windows for our travelling pidgins because news will follow soon.

Thanks everyone (and big up to Tasha!) for making this first BruJUG event an awesome success. Bring it on!

(Session’s Wiki Space)

Launched in 2005 by a team of experienced Java coaches and instructors, the Black Belt Factory – formerly Java Black Belt – has become one of the major players in the domains of e-learning, coaching and certification. The project started with a strong emphasis on the Java world, gradually enlarging its scope to cover many more domains today – XML, Ruby, Databases, Scala, .NET, Corba, Groovy and more. With its 70.000+ community members world-wide, the Black Belt Factory provides certifications that are placed right beside the Sun Java Certification Program grades on many IT specialist’s resumés.

Yet, most of the Java people are unaware of the fact that the BBF is indeed a Belgian company, founded and managed by Belgians and located in Brussels. Moreover, the BBF and the Brussels JUG share common goals: cultivate the Java community, advocate the sharing of experiences and knowledge, and open minds for new ideas.

Today, we are very pleased to announce our partnership with the BBF community! We have already some quite nice concepts in mind in order to let you benefit from this collaboration, so just stay tuned… :)

Curious to know how the community driven learning approach of the BBF works? Want to improve your Java Kung-Fu? Just click on the belt…

Today, we would like to introduce the Brussels JUG Forum. You can reach it via the ‘Forum’ link in the right sidebar.

The forum is intended for all kind of coordination issues (trips to external events, joint visits of conferences etc.), polls & surveys and project planning. The main communication and discussion channel is and remains our Google Group (i.e. mailing list) for the time being. All major forum sections are invisible for anonymous guests.

The forum is not reserved to Brussels JUG members! Every member of the Java community is welcome!

However, you must be either part of the Brussels JUG LinkedIn group, an accepted member of the Brussels JUG Google Group (not being in ‘moderated’ state) or being known by the Brussels JUG team prior of being accepted. Being recommended by a Brussels JUG member, joining a JUG meeting or asking the team directly (via mail or during a JUG session) is also an option. All forum registration requests are verified by the administrators before access is granted.

The reason for this policy is, beside of keeping spammers and harvesters away, that we consider the forum as a non-public place (in contrary to the Google Group). Messages about excursions, journey and conference planning, brainstorming and project organisation may contain personal information like emails, phone numbers, addresses, and journey and absence details. Brainstorming is sometimes an exchange of personal opinions that aren’t intended to remain public for the next 200 years.

Currently, we propose the following collective excursions on the forum: FOSDEM 2011, JDC 2011, DEVOXX 2010 and BRUCON 2010. More will certainly follow. Moreover, we would like to propose building work groups for collaborations with the JCP (Java Community Process), the OWASP and other JUGs. If this will work-out depends on your interest in such activities. Other forum topics might be joint trainings for all kind of certifications or FOSS project subjects. More details about these brainchilds later.

Thanks to all that attended the first BruJUG meeting. Some notes and impressions (pictures) can be found in the WikiSpace.

The next event and first JUG session has been set for the 26^th of May 2010. We are invited by the Brussels GTUG in the Googleplex, Chaussee d’Etterbeek 180, 1040 Brussels (Map). Opening as of 17:45-18:00 for chatting and a snack, official conference start exceptionally at 18:30 (time changed!). Conference end is 21:00.

This event is sponsored by Google and we thank the Google Technology User Group Brussels to welcome us! The second event sponsor is Terracotta , which supplied one iPod Shuffle and 2 free passes to the @Scale Conference to give away. @Scale is hold this year right after the JavaOne in San Francisco.

Two conferences are scheduled for this session, one general and one Java related topic. Please take a look into our WikiSpace for more details.

• Anna Haberko (non-Java talk)
  

Is Content Strategy the next big thing?
Text goes here.

• Alex Snaps, Terracotta (Java hi-tech talk)
  

The EhCache project – In-depth insights…

Please confirm your presence via the registration page. We would like to know which size of conference room we need and what “other” things we have to provide to make your attendance comfortable :)

We hope to see many of you. It’s a nice opportunity to chat, doing some networking, learn new things and last but not least visit the Googleplex in Brussels :)

Admission price: free entry

Number of seats: 30 – 40 (change of meeting room)

Registrations till today: 42 (closed)

More information about the event, the talks and the speakers are available in our Wiki Space.

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Update: The conference ends quit early this time and we suggest to make the best out of this situation by planning a third halftime, in the good old tradition of the ParisJUG. Please feel invited to join us for an AfterJUG drink’n'chat in a nice café at place Jourdan (about 300m away from the GooglePlex).

For those that will not attend the conference but would like to join us for the third halftime, please send a private message and you will get a phone number that will magically allow you to locate our geoposition :)

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Update 2: This week we had a sneak preview of the GooglePlex. We will have a nice meeting room and Google promised to provide drinks and snacks. Looks like our well-being is assured, and if you are nice to Olivier, you might even use the gaming console collection :)

However, for security reasons we have to leave the building at 21:00. That’s why we have to start the conference on schedule at 18:30. If you would like to enjoy the drink and the Google lounge, you are invited to arrive at 1745-18:00.

You will need to sign in at the reception. To make this zippy, we will prepare the attendees list and you just need to scrawl your triple-X.

About the GeeCON

May 12-14, 2010 Poznan, Poland (Map)

GeeCON is a conference that will focus on Java and Java Virtual Machine based technologies, with special attention to dynamic languages like Groovy and Ruby. GeeCON is for everyone! Interested in new things from the world of Java and related universes – even better! The conference is aimed at software developers and architects, IT experts, students and personalities from the world of science.

It’s expected that in 2010, GeeCON might attract over 500 attendees from Germany, Czech, Poland and other countries. GeeCON is all about community, it’s organised for the community and by the community. First edition proved that the conference is more than just a great opportunity to meet for Eastern European developers.

The event is organised by representatives of Polish Java community (including Polish Java User Group and Poznan Java User Group). Some of the announced speakers: Ed Burns, Holly Cummins, Matthias Wessendorf, Peter Lubbers.

http://www.geecon.org/

Free Ticket and Special Conditions for BruJUG

Brussels JUG is an official partner of the GeeCON and by this, we benefit from special conditions. We also have a Free Ticket to give away.

Please note that the event is near and the registration is closing in a few days. So if you are interested to attend the conference, please let us know as soon as possible. Possibly, we could organise a group trip if more people are willing to attend.

Web Stickers

As we decided during the last steering meeting, we created a set of web stickers (sidebar) that you can place on your blog or web page to promote the Brussels JUG project. This is just the beginning; we are working on more funny web buttons :)

Google Calendar

Likewise decided during the last meeting, we replaced the integrated calendar plug-in by a shared Google Calendar. Events are displayed in the sidebar and the complete agenda can be viewed via the ‘Calendar‘ page. You might also add the calendar to your personal Google space.

Please do not hesitate to submit events that might be of interest for Java enthusiasts living in Belgium.