There may be no better setting for a conference. Golden Gate bridge viewed from historic Fort Mason in San Francisco, where the first-ever FORGE DevCon is to be held. (picture from Autodesk.)
Those looking to get on the next wave of cloud-based design and engineering applications are heading to San Francisco June 15 and 16 to attend Autodesk’s first-ever FORGE DevCon. And if the views of the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge weren’t enough, conference coordinator Stephen Preston gives us more reasons to attend.
Stephen Preston of Autodesk (picture courtesy of Autodesk)
- What is FORGE and what’s a DevCon?
FORGE is the platform that consists of all Autodesk Web service APIs and everything you need to use those APIs (documentation, samples, support, FORGE DevCon and the FORGE Fund.) The FORGE DevCon is a “developer conference.” It is aimed at software developers and business owners interested in developing solutions using the Autodesk FORGE APIs. Developers attend conferences to learn about the technology, so we’ve arranged over 50 presentations about the various FORGE APIs and complementary technologies, covering multiple industries.
- Is there a vendor showcase?
Yes. The conference includes a large exhibition area featuring teams from Autodesk and our conference sponsors. - Who selected the topics and speakers?
I’m responsible for coordinating the content for the conference, but this has been a team effort. The FORGE Platform is relevant to all industries where design data is important, so I’ve leaned heavily on my team of industry gurus to select the best topics and the best speakers for each industry. We’ve divided the content into tracks: virtual and augmented reality; architecture, engineering and construction and building information modeling; design and manufacturing; Internet of Things; business development; FORGE basics and a guest track on general programming topics organized by the San Francisco JavaScript meetup group. - A tech event in the Bay Area has to be showcase. Will there be some startup competition, as there was for REAL?
One of our conference events is a startup mentoring competition, the winners of which receive quality time with a panel of venture capitalists and industry experts. We hope that some of those meetings will result in funding for the winning companies. - Is the target audience for DevCon only developers? Do you expect any users or executives/managers?
We have a lot of content for developers, but we expect many attendees to be from the community of developers who are already building solutions using Autodesk technology. We also expect to see a lot of developers who have never used Autodesk technology before but are looking to apply their skills to the design industries. However, we’ve tried to create a mix of content that will both educate and enthuse attendees about the opportunities that FORGE presents: Some classes will drill down into source code; some will showcase solutions created by early FORGE adopters and some will look at the future of the “design” industries. We even have a business development track aimed at people interested in starting their own business. If you’re interested in what Autodesk calls “The Future of Making Things,” then you should find classes that you want to attend. - What speakers and presentations would you say are “must see?”
Every speaker has been selected because they have something exciting to say. Where do I start? We have Chris Anderson of 3D Robotics, Mackenzie Kosut of AWS, Dona Sarkar of the Microsoft HoloLens team and virtual-reality rock star Tony Parisi to name but a few. However, my “musn’t-miss” presenters are Wes McCombe and Ajay Shah of Dotty, just because Dotty is doing some really cool stuff with our FORGE APIs, so I’m expecting some fun demos. - How many developers will be at DevCon? How many classes? How many exhibitors?
At last count, we had 1,100 developers from over 700 companies, over 50 classes and over 40 exhibitors. - What would be most valuable for a developer at this conference?
Most software developers attend presentations at conferences to get answers to the following questions: What does this API do? Why should I care about it? Where is the documentation and sample code? In that respect, FORGE DevCon is no different from any other developer conference because those are the questions we aim to answer. It’s also helpful to get to know the people who are creating the APIs you’re using. - What other conference is FORGE DevCon most similar to?
Perhaps a good analogy is Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS started out as compute time and storage for hire. Over time, Amazon added additional tools and APIs to help developers manage their resources. Then they integrated the tools into a consistent platform. Now AWS offers everything a developer needs to build secure, scalable Web services. That is the path FORGE is taking—there’s still a long journey ahead of us, but our goal for FORGE is an integrated and interchangeable set of tools and APIs—with design data at the center. - In another generation, Autodesk did something similar to create the Autodesk Developer Network and created a robust and thriving third-party community. How is FORGE similar/different?
In some respects, FORGE is the same but using newer technologies. The team that supports the FORGE platform is the same team that supports our Autodesk Developer Network (AND) partners. Our goal is to provide software developers with the resources and support they need to get up and running as quickly as possible. Through forge.autodesk.com, software developers can create their API keys, read the documentation, access our samples hosted on GitHub and immediately start using the FORGE APIs. They can also ask us questions on Stack Overflow—all free of charge. - Will the conference, or any part of it, be simulcast or recorded for later consumption?
We will be recording the keynotes and some of the sessions for later posting. - Is there a hashtag specific to DevCon?
#ForgeDevCon and follow @AutodeskForge. - What would you recommend as the best restaurant in walking distance?
Greens (a vegetarian restaurant) is in the Fort Mason complex and has a very good reputation. - What (uncommon) site or attraction would you say out of towners should see in San Francisco?
Take a tour of the Autodesk Gallery at our 1 Market Street office (with a smile).