In recent times, long term Java developers like me (who has been working with Java since 1997), are hearing commentaries like:

‘New projects aren’t developed in Java’

‘Young Kids aren’t learning Java’

‘Java ecosystem is shrinking’

‘Universities aren’t teaching Java any more’…

These commentaries don’t make me worried, but it does make me concerned.

Why am I not worried? I know first-hand stories where enterprises like Uber moved away from Java to Golang. But due to lack of engineering resource availability, code maintainability, framework/library support they have moved back to Java. I know few such stories as well. For sure, I know enterprises are still relying on Java technology to develop business applications. As long as enterprises are leveraging a technology, there is no end card for its use.

Why am I concerned? I have been not only working, but our entire livelihood is based on Java. Thus if you keep hearing the same commentaries repeatedly, it concerns you. But after attending Java Developer conference – jPrime, last week in Sofia, Bulgaria, I don’t think I need to be concerned anymore.

I don’t have to be concerned because of some selfless organizers and the passionate community surrounding it. jPrime conference is organized by Bulgaria Java User Group, primarily by 6 core members (Martin, Ivan, Doychin, Nayden, Dmitry, Mihail) and volunteers. These 6 members are Developers/Architects/Managers just like you and me, they all have a daytime job. But they have put an extraordinary amount of hard work all around the year to pull-off this wonderful conference. They are not running it for a profit motive. They are running it, purely for the betterment of Java developers and community. It’s quite amazing to see what passionate individuals can achieve when they are striving for a bigger cause than them. When there is such a strong grass root movement for Java, I think my concern is unnecessary.



Fig: The selfless organizers of the jPrime Conference
Below are the highlights of the jPrime conference:

1100 conference attendees
Conference was able to attract 1100 passionate Java developers/architects all around Bulgaria. You could feel the vibrance and the energy of the attendees filling up the entire Sofia tech park venue and the entire historic city. Conference volunteers were saying that they had to limit the attendance to 1100, because of conference hall capacity limitations.



Fig: The passionate Java Developers/architects at jPrime Conference

High Quality Speakers/Contents
Organizers were selecting acclaimed speakers all over the world, who not only deliver high quality contents but also in an engaging/entertaining manner (Note: I am not saying this because they selected me as one of the speakers 😊, I would have told even if I was one of the attendees). It was such a great learning experience. In a few commercial run conferences, I am observing a trend of giving speaking slots to the sponsors of the event. It kind of dilutes the quality of the conference. This is never the case in jPrime.

Affordable Tickets despite great arrangements
The conference venue – Sofia Tech Park – was easy to reach. Sessions and breaks between them were well planned. During the breaks, we were served with refreshing coffee, energizing breakfast, easy lunches, delightful snacks and happy hour drinks all throughout the conference. Despite such a wonderful venue, that too running for 2 days and serving such great food/drinks, conference tickets were kept very affordable (!~ USD $150). It was made possible only because the conference was run for a non-profit motive.

https://videopress.com/v/8eYdiJhn

Focused 2 tracks
jPrime offers only two concurrent session tracks. Thus 950 attendees are channeled to attend only either one of the 2 tracks. Several times, too many session tracks leave the attendees in despair about which session to attend.

Great Hospitality
The hospitality given to the speakers is unparalleled. Despite their day job, organizers booked flight tickets for the speakers personally. Arranged for nice hotel accommodation in the beautiful Sofia city. Most surprising fact was, despite their hectic schedule, organizers tried to pick up the speakers from the airport when they arrived. They also organized a speaker dinner in a traditional Bulgarian food restaurant.

Overall, it was a wonderful experience in attending and speaking in the jPrime 2024 conference. Above all, thanks to jPrime for alleviating my concern which has been lingering in me in recent times.