AtlasCamp 2015: Rozdoum’s personal experience

Atlassian Team at Rozdoum

This summer, a few weeks ago in Prague, the premier developer conference was held – AtlasCamp 2015. Since Rozdoum company is the Atlassian expert for years, our team members take part in this annual international event. We have strong expertise with Atlassian products, JIRA, Confluence, including plugins development. To make sure in our professional experience you may download our products and test Rozdoum’s plug-ins. AtlasCamp is a great chance to meet Atlassians from different countries, to share personal experience and to know future development trends.

We are excited about the fact of our developers taking part in this summit. Andrey and Sergey were lucky to be there and now being full of emotions they are ready to share their impressions with us.

What were your expectations before the conference?

– Sergey: First of all, I had an expectation of the great networking place with like-minded people. It was very cool to talk to other participants and meet my own competitors. I think that all conferences are held for achieving such goals.

– Andrey: I was eager to find out what’s new in the new upcoming Jira 7, how to work with Jira Connect, meet the community, maybe find out what other developers do, get some inspiration and widen the horizons of Atlassian plugin development

What is your impression of the conference?

– Sergey: I found out a lot of Atlassian’s plans for the nearest future. Alsoб I was surprised that some participants came to me with their questions. Since our company is the Atlassian partner, they were interested in the cooperation, such as how to become an Atlassian expert.

– Andrey: It was nice experience. The conference was organized very well. Presentations were useful and technically very interesting for JIRA  add-on developers. The community is very open and there were a lot of options for informal communication with developers from all over the world as well as Atlassian guys.

What was new for you and what conclusions have you done during the AtlasCamp? Maybe you’ve had some surprising or long-awaited meetings there?

– Sergey: I concluded that Atlassian has decided to change the concept of working with developers completely. They gave complete freedom earlier, but now they offer to avoid the simple coding and try to be in user’s shoes. Developers must understand how their good ideas will be useful and convenient for plugin’s users. I really wanted to see guys from the previous AtlasCamp. Unfortunately, they didn’t come, however, I was lucky to meet and talk with the Jira’s architect.

– Andrey: I’ve met in person some people (developers) who use one of the Jira add-ons that I’ve developed in the team. I found it out accidentally and it was a surprise for me, a pleasant one, I would say 🙂

Please, tell us about the most impressive moment at the AtlasCamp?

– Sergey: During one of the presentations, the speaker decided to defuse the situation and offered to answer the question about Jira’s processes. The person who gives the correct answer should receive a small teddy Tasmanian devil – James. The question was quite simple, and I decided to answer. Thus, this wonderful animal went to me. It will be my great reminder about the conference.

Which speeches were the most useful for you? Would you ever want to be a speaker at such an event?

– Sergey: Yes, this year, in contrast to the previous one, plugin developers presented their talks. It means that big companies that cooperate with Atlassian told about their experience and its future plans. I am interested in trying myself in the speaker role and I understand it requires a lot of effort. I need to find the right material, which will be interesting and unique for the audience.

– Andrey: The most useful and interesting presentations were about the upcoming Jira 7 and the last major release of Plugins framework. No, being a speaker is not my kind of thing. I am a good listener and prefer to stay in this role.

What would you improve, add or remove in this conference? Or maybe everything was just perfect?

– Sergey: In fact, Atlassian has constant experiments with the format of the conference. You could just look at the tremendous changes that have happened with the event during the last 5 years. And it will definitely impress you. I would like more attention to each participant of the conference, but taking into account that the number of participants has grown from 50 people to a few thousand, I understand that it’s very difficult to do. Organizers were trying to solve this problem with the help of one-to-one meetings, pre-conference day and a special party, where participants had a possibility to communicate in an informal atmosphere.

– Andrey: Not all of the presentations were of a quality which I expected. In my opinion, some of them were boring and provided no actual knowledge or other value. If they were shortened to 10 minutes from 30 – the outcome would still be the same. But most of them were really good.

I know that AtlasCamp 2015 was held in Prague. Please, share your impressions of the city and people.

– Sergey: Prague is very similar to Ukraine by its atmosphere. Of course, it is very beautiful for its architecture and for open and friendly citizens.

– Andrey: The city is nice, especially at night. They say it is even better if you know all the legends being told about its’ famous places. People are nice and welcoming.

The collaboration opportunities and networking, future innovations and trendsetting of Atlassian products is a real value of AtlasCamp 2015.