
### NorDevCon 2016 is bigger and better than ever before and here is why…

**Thursday 25th February 2016**

We have some amazing pre-conference workshops for you to participate to get you in the mood for Nor(DEV):con on the 26th.[An Exploration of Symbiotic Design Practice](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#michaelfeathers)from Michael Feathers,[Taste of Chef on Azure](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#chefio)from Chef.io and[Android workshop: From Zero to Hero](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#paullammertsma)delivered by Paul Lammertsma.

Afterwards there is even more nor(DEV):con appetizers in the form of Letitia Fearon’s "Observe, assume and experimentand", [Ashwini Laxminarayana](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#ashwini) Fun & Games with Git & Jenkins - who will be giving us a[pre-conference special](http://www.meetup.com/Norfolk-Developers-NorDev/events/225604888/) each - at the King's Centre which kicks off at the earlier time of 5.30pm and is followed by our [pre-conference dinner](http://www.meetup.com/Norfolk-Developers-NorDev/events/226204343/) which this year will be held at the[Library Restaurant](http://www.thelibraryrestaurant.co.uk/#welcome). To attend the pre-conference special and the dinner please RSVP via[norfolkdevelopers.com](http://norfolkdevelopers.com).

**Friday 26th February 2016**

We’ve Keynotes from the fantastic [Michael Feathers](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#michaelfeathers)who is coming all the way from Florida to open with Feature Orthogonality and Health In Large Code Bases for us and we’ve got the wonderful [Jon Jagger](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#jonjagger)to close the Friday of the conference with Pair Programming.

We have TechStars' [Jon Bradford](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#jonbradford) talking abou t[Silicon Broad: Bridges not Valleys](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#jonbradford), Rainbird’s [Dom Davis](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#domdavis) telling us how to Fake it until you make it, [Lisa Price](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#lisaprice) asking us Are you a code Monkey or Agile Junkie? and of course, nor(DEV):con wouldn’t be complete without [Jon Skeet](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#jonskeet)who will be telling us all about the Changing state of immutability in C#.

With all of this as well as workshops on the day from RedHat, [Letitia](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#letitiafearon) and Neon Tribe, technical sessions from [Pete Goodliffe](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#petegoodliffe), [James Taylor](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#jamestaylor) and [Darren Cook](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#darrencook). Agile Sessions from [Seb Rose](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#sebrose), [Christos Matskas](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#christosmatskas) and Unruly's[Rachel Davis and Lewis Moore](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#rachellewis) and business sessions from [Ermine Amies](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#ermineamies), [James Tarling](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#jamestarling) and [Matthew Draycott](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#matthewdraycott) plus many more.

In the lunch break there will be a buffet and we’ll be having a bit of fun by having a tech version of Radio 4’s Just a Minute hosted by Huw Sayer.

As always there is a wine reception sponsored by the Wine and Business Club that follows the conference closing keynote and this has already sold out, but there is also a [conference dinner](http://www.nordevcon.com/dinner-and-wine-reception-2016/) at the King's Centre where you can talk to your favourite speakers and have a few glasses of wine and a 3 course meal all for £35.

**Saturday 27th February 2016**

[Richard Astbury](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#richardastbury) will be opening with his keynote on The State of Art which will be a great start for our first Saturday Nor(DEV):con. [Dom Davis](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#domdavis) will be back for us with Agile Smagile as will [Paul Lammertsma](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#paullammertsma) with his Android session on Wears the Party, we have [Tjelvar Olsson](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#tjelvarolsson) Saving the World One Image at a Time and a Machine Learning workshop given by [Burkhard Kloss](http://www.nordevcon.com/sessions/#burkhardkloss).

See the full agenda here: <http://www.nordevcon.com/agenda/>

We also have some sponsorship opportunities remaining: <http://www.nordevcon.com/sponsorship/>

Get your tickets here: <http://nordevcon2016.eventbrite.co.uk>

NorDevCon 2016: Bigger and better than ever before!


When we speak to people about NorDevCon, do you know which speaker we get asked about the most? **Jon Skeet!**

This is why we are delighted to be able to announce that Jon Skeet is back for NorDevCon 2016 and will be doing a regular 45 minute conference session on C#.

**The changing state of immutability in C#** Jon Skeet ([@jonskeet](https://twitter.com/jonskeet))

Immutability rocks, right? When a type is immutable, it’s usually easier to reason about your code, easier to share data safely, and easier to make money ooze from every USB port. That’s the promise, at least. I heard an F# developer say it, so it must be true.

Unfortunately, when a language or platform isn’t designed to encourage immutability, immutability can introduce its own pain points – and sometimes they can be subtle.

Come with me on a journey to explore the different options for implementing immutability in C#, see how it’s become somewhat simpler over the various versions, and consider what the future \*might\* have in store.

**About Jon**

Jon Skeet is a software engineer for Google in London, who plays with C# (somewhat obsessively) in his free time. He 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. Jon lives in Reading with his wife and three children.

[Buy your NorDevCon tickets](http://nordevcon2016.eventbrite.co.uk)

Jon Skeet is back for NorDevCon 2016


We’re delighted to be able to announce our keynote speakers for Nor(Dev):con 2016, which is taking place at the Kings Centre, King Street Norwich, 25-27th February 2016.

**Michael Feathers**

Friday (26th) Opening Keynote

Too often as software developers we take features as given - EE are there to give the customers whatever they want. The thing we neglect to realize is that feature choice impacts the longevity and maintainability of systems. In this keynote, Michael Feathers will explore this idea and describe now we can move toward a model where business weighs these impacts in the context of systems development.

Michael Feathers is the Founder and Director of R7K Research & Conveyance, a company specializing in software and organization design. Prior to forming R7K, Michael was the Chief Scientist of Obtiva and a consultant with Object Mentor International. Over the past 20 years he has consulted with hundreds of organizations, supporting them with general software design issues, process change and code revitalization. A frequent presenter at national and international conferences, Michael is also the author of the book Working Effectively with Legacy Code (Prentice Hall, 2004).

**Russel Winder**

Friday (26th) Closing Keynote

UK school curriculum underwent a revolution as of 2014-09: ITC was replaced with programming. Whilst the change itself was campaigned for, and widely wanted, the way government handled the change left a lot to be desired. Some, but not all, universities and colleges have joined in realizing the change and preparing for the consequent revolution in university computer science curriculum, c.2018 onwards. Are businesses ready for the knock-on change?

This presentation will delve into some of the most important and/or obvious issues surrounding this world leading experiment in child education.

Russel is an ex-theoretical physicist, an ex-UNIX system programmer and an ex-academic. He is now an independent consultant, analyst, author, expert witness and trainer also doing startups. He is interested in all things parallel, concurrent and build.

Russel is actively involved with Groovy, GPars, GroovyFX, SCons, and Gant. Also Gradle, Ceylon, Kotlin, D and bit of Rust. And lots of Python, especially Python-CSP.


**Richard Astbury**

Saturday (27th) Opening Keynote

Richard demonstrates three new programming languages and discusses how they will affect the future direction of computer programming.

Richard Astbury builds software systems to support satellite-connected devices around the globe. He is a Microsoft MVP for Microsoft Azure, and consultant at two10degrees. Richard is often found developing open source software in C# and Node.js, and lives in Suffolk with his wife and three children.

***

_Ticket’s are on sale at: [http://www.nordevcon.com/](http://www.nordevcon.com/#tickets)_

_Dont forget that we will be having a pre-conference session as usual on thursday the 25th of February followed by the pre-conference dinner but the venue for the dinner is TBC._

_On the Friday there will be a wine Reception which is free to attend but places are limited and this will be followed by a conference speaker dinner which will be 3 courses and a few glasses of wine for £36.53._

/tag/Keynote

NorDevCon 2016: Bigger and better than ever before!

Jon Skeet is back for NorDevCon 2016

Michael Feather's Heads up the Keynote Speakers for Nor(DEV):con 2016