A Recap of Scala Days Madrid
Sep 20th, 2023
Hundreds of Scala practitioners, enthusiasts, and students convened together in Madrid to learn, connect, and enjoy being together for the first time in four years, as Scala Days 2023 concludes.
I loved seeing new and familiar faces at the conference, exchanging notes, ideas, and our passion for Scala.
Across three days, attendees heard the latest in Scala from 40 experts around the Scala community. Attendees were joined by Scala Days Madrid’s incredible group of sponsors: Signify Technology, Lunatech Labs, Databricks, VirtusLab, JetBrains, Gradle Enterprise, Kalix by Lightbend, MOIA, ScalaJobs.com, Habla Computing, and Manning Publications.
Scala Days 2023 Madrid has been terrific, from the organization to the talks. I am really happy to see that the community is coming back together with a clear plan for the future.
Before the conference began, Xebia, Habla Computing, and Lunatech Labs with the Scala Center hosted workshops ranging from building an online multiplayer game with Scala, to domain-specific languages in Scala, to moving into Scala 3.
The Scala Center hosted various events before and after Scala Days in Madrid. The week started off with Scala Bridge, a beginner-friendly day where Scala newbies can get one-on-one help and code advice from community leaders, complete exercises, and learn new Scala skills. Zainab Ali and Noel Welsh hosted this edition of Scala Bridge and were joined by a handful of mentors. The Scala Center team also hosted another edition of the Tooling Summit and Scala Spree. You can find more information about each co-located event here.
At Scala Days, attendees were welcomed with an opening keynote presentation by Martin Odersky, followed by a fun reception with drinks, food, and music. The following conference days began with a keynote presentation from Andrei Kucharavy on code evolution, then Daniela Sfregola and Valerie Duncan-Saunders about the Optimus Cirrus platform. The remaining 30+ presentations were hosted by leaders from across the Scala community, sharing everything from experiences during the first year in Scala to the state of various libraries and long-term projects that use Scala. Attendees also participated in an interactive session with the Scala Center team, a Community Panel hosted by Zainab Ali, and the Closing Panel hosted by Chris Kipp.
I just loved it. I feel uplifted and lucky to be part of such a community.
While we are sad that Scala Days Madrid is over, it was a resounding success thanks to all those who attended, spoke, and sponsored. Moreover, the event was only possible with the organization efforts of the Xebia Spain team and support from the Scala Center and our dedicated program committee.