I had the chance to speak at one of biggest IT conferences in Bulgaria – ISTA. It is an annual conference devoted to innovation in software development and test automation. It gathers people from different parts of the world, both speakers and attendees, and gives them inspiration about the best development and test techniques. I am very glad I had the opportunity to participate as a speaker for the first time this year, because I had amazing experience.

The conference was held over two days: the first day was devoted to hands-on labs with very practical nature, while on the second day a bunch of topics were presented. I took part in both days with the following presentations:

The AngularJS way

Single-page applications (SPAs) take user interaction with web applications to a new level. This means that more logic will be moved to the web browser and we have to become more familiar with JavaScript. AngularJS is one of the leading JavaScript frameworks when talking about SPAs. In this workshop I will present AngularJS in terms of problems it addresses and how it does this. Together we will develop a single-page application and we will go through how traditional concepts of web applications (data and state management, authentication) can be solved using the framework. Furthermore, we will dive into typical pitfalls when developing applications using AngularJS and will see how we can avoid them.

Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/bmihaylov/the-angularjs-way
Demo: https://github.com/omeganet/The-Book-Rat/

To SPA or not to SPA

In the recent years there have been many changes in the way users interact with web applications. Traditional web applications evolve and we have to be there to adapt these changes. In this talk I will present single-page applications (SPAs) and will show how they affect everyone – from project managers, designers, and developers to end-users. We will see why SPAs attract attention and what has lead to this new web trend. Furthermore, we will go through the ups and downs of single-page applications and will try to get an answer to the question: Is this something for me and my customers?

Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/bmihaylov/to-spa-or-not-to-spa

This was however much more than just a simple conference. Gamification was involved by the means of a mobile app that stimulated attendees to comment and rate speakers and sessions. Furthermore, people could join a social cause by buying a nice colorful t-shirt and all the money were donated to children who need education. This was a project in cooperation with Dechitsa foundation.

I had great time at ISTA 2014, met really interesting people, made new friends and I am definitely looking forward to ISTA 2015. 🙂