The day had barely started, but you could tell something was coming up. Assembled at the entrance, impatiently waiting, you could see several developers all dressed in black t-shirts, stating a proud “No Code”. Who were they? Our OutSystems Engineers, looking like charming warriors, straight out of Braveheart (but better looking and wearing pants), ready to welcome the guest developers and their feedback, thoughts, ideas, compliments. Oh, and the pizza of course.
For one unforgettable morning, the OutSystems Community left the cyberspace and got together in a real life environment of pure co-creation, where questions were asked, critics were shot, praised was given and a lot (and I mean, a LOT) of brainstorming took place.
The concept was (kinda) simple: three sessions, twenty minutes each, all happening at the same time. At the sound of a whistle, the guests changed sessions, in a true speed dating system. But, worry not, it was all very professional!
“I didn’t know what to expect. I came with an open mind. But it was very interesting, especially the ‘Ask me Anything’ dynamic. Some really tough questions were asked, but the moderators managed them very well”, commented Justin James, from FICO (USA), who has been an OutSystems developer for 7 years and is a very popular member of the Community.
YES, there was an exclusive Ask Me Anything session with 5 of our top Engineers and Experts (and even a co-founder). Developers got to ask Java and .NET functionality questions, if we actually use our own technology (of course!), ask for best practices on Silk, and so many other aspects. And I agree with Justin, the moderators did manage them pretty well!
We heard you and decided to create an “Aggregates & Other Pains” session (didn’t see that coming, did you?). Six very brave and brilliant minds from the Engineering team stood up to answer, hear and discuss what you all had to say - be it data fetching, aggregates local variables, multi-tenants, moving entities into modules, advanced queries, and so much more! The result was pretty good - no one was killed, and there were even applauses.
“We were expecting a torch and pitchfork crowd, but all the feedback was very constructive”, said Sérgio Silva, one of the moderators of the session.
Someone asked why did we decide that the third session should be on IoT (Internet of Things). Well, because it’s fun! And sometimes we forget that we have very powerful tools in our hands to automate, let’s say, our house, the watering of our gardens, or simply switching the entire mood of a room. In this section, there were 3 amazingly creative minds that showed everyone what kind of implementations you could do with OutSystems.
And we didn’t forget about our newly launched MVP Program - during the event, there was also time to unexpectedly award the Most Valued Professionals, for their amazing work on OutSystems (eheh, we put them right on the spot).
“It was a nice surprise being awarded MVP. And I didn't expect it to happen. It shows that OutSystems appreciates the work we're doing trying to promote Platform. And this morning was a great idea. After all, next to the end customers who actually pay the license, the developers are the ones building all those great apps that make the platform into a success”, said Kurt Vandevelde, from Providit (Belgium), one of the MVPs awarded with the trophy mug.
But, of course, there were plenty other surprises, such as the launch of the new Community Homepage, carefully re-design having in mind the opinions and suggestions of the Community. And it was welcomed with a round of applause from the excited audience (you will all get to see this very soon..).
It was a successful initiative that served to prove not only OutSystems confidence in its product and developers, but also to confirm the value of the Community in the constant improvement of the Platform (I mean, for some reason OutSystems was named the world leader among the low-code development platforms, so, thank you guys!).
“It shows OutSystems can handle anything. I’m a client for three years. At the time, it wasn’t an easy choice; I didn’t really believe in the product. But if I was going to make the choice now, after three years, it would be a much easier decision. Today, everything is better, faster. And I’m too old to code”, concluded Bob Casey, from Prologis (USA), a previously assumed skeptic of the OutSystems Platform.
And that’s what happened at the first edition of Developers Morning (well, a quick overview, otherwise we’d end up with a much longer post).
Thank you all of you who joined Developers Morning and made this event the success it was!
If you missed it, I’m pretty sure that after reading this brief peek into the event, you won’t miss it next year! Looking forward to the second edition!
Written by Rita Ferreira (Social Spy) & Carla Sofia