NDC Porto 2023 Impressions

We, as the core team members of ABP, are always trying to catch what's going around the world with software development. This keeps us aligning our projects and goals with the globe. For this reason, we came to the historical city of Portugal, Porto for NDC Porto 2023 Conference. It was held in an old building called Alfandega Conference Center, formerly used as a customs house.

It was a 5-day event. 2 days were workshops, and 3 days were conference days with parallel sessions. There were 95 speakers and over 100 sessions.

This year's occasion carried on the legacy of being a global hub for IT enthusiasts, developers, and technologists. NDC Porto 2023 again shows why it is an essential event for anybody working in software development, with its outstanding speaker roster, innovative subjects, and exciting networking chances.

The conference covered the following topics:

.NET – AI – Architecture – Big Data – Cloud – Continuous Delivery – Cross-Platform – Database – Design – DevOps – Docker – Ethics – Fun – Functional Programming – JavaScript – Languages – Machine Learning – Microservices – Microsoft – Mobile – People – Security – Serverless – Soft Skills – Testing – Tools – UX – Web

We couldn't catch the first 2 days, but we were lucky that the keynote was taken to the last day. Steve Sanderson's topic was "Where Web Tech is Going Now?" It was a very inspiring session. Even though he's a Microsoft employee, he took part in a very small time slot for Blazor, and he showed live code examples in Next.js, SvelteKit, Blazor, Astro, etc... And finally, he showed the next generation of Blazor Server and WASM => WASI preview 2. This technology tries to overcome the initial slowness Blazor WASM, and maybe it'll be the future of server-side cloud computing.

And one of the most interesting sessions for me was the Victoria Melnikova's "Commercializing Open Source" session. We are also maintaining ABP Open Source Framework, and we back this project with a company and commercial version. She explained several ways of monetizing an open-source project. Our business model, which has two different versions, the free one and the paid one, was also listed in the solutions.

I joined to Dean Schuster's talk. It was an interesting topic: "What the Soviet Space Program Taught Me About Digital Product Development". He tried to explain software development processes and philosophies by making a metaphor for the space race between the USA and the USSR.

And I listened to William Brander. The topic was microservices, but this is not a best practices talk 😆 The title was "Top 5 techniques for building the worst microservice system ever". It was fun!

Ambience

And here, I shot a small video for you to get information about NDC Porto 2023:

Conclusion

NDC Porto 2023 was a resounding success, offering attendees a rich and diverse experience filled with insights, inspiration, and hands-on learning opportunities. As the tech industry continues to evolve, events like NDC Porto play a crucial role in connecting professionals, sharing knowledge, and shaping the future of technology. As the sun set over the beautiful city of Porto, attendees left the conference with their minds buzzing with new ideas and their networks expanded, eagerly awaiting the next edition of this tech conf.

I also want to thank Kjersti 👏, the owner of NDC Conferences and whom we meet every year in NDC London. She has been organizing cool tech conferences for us!