Distributed C++ Meetup

As mentioned in an early post, I am active member of a C++ Meetup group in Stockholm: SwedenCpp. Last year me and the main organizer of SwedenCpp came up with the idea to gather different Meetup groups from Europe for a special event. Knowing that we are not as famous as the cppcon, and therefore could not attract people easily to come to visit us in our dark and cold country, we had to come up with a special plan. It happens that my current company King has offices of decent size in few of the major tech hubs of Europe: Berlin, Stockholm, London and Barcelona. It also happens that we have pretty good video-conference facilities that we frequently use to do company-wide calls. AND It also happens that a huge share of the mobile games (Candy Crush Saga, Bubble Witch Saga...) made at King rely heavily on a C++ tech stack. By using the video-conference facilities, having some drinks and food, all gently provided by King, we were confident that we could run an event with multiple Meetup groups participating remotely and have a lot of fun.

And thus was born the concept of a Distributed C++ Meetup!

We contacted the London Meetup group and asked them if they wanted to join us in this aventure. Sure enough, Phil Nash, the organizer, said yes. Greatly helped by few colleagues (Mårten Möller, Tindy Hellman, Bruno Mikus, Brittany Pinder...) we ran a first event in November 2017 with a connection between London and Stockholm.

Distributed C++ Meetup 0x01:

Here is a full video of the first event (Distributed C++ Meetup 0x01) where we had lightning talks from speakers on both sites:

Or if you want to see some specific talks, you can also watch this youtube playlist with videos nicely crafted by our amazing SwedenCpp video crew.

I was pretty nervous to be the host of the event, but I think that everything ran pretty smoothly and the vast majority of the attendees enjoyed the concept. We had few learnings though:

• Some people prefer the long format for the talks instead of lightning talks we used this time.
• I had a failed attempt in creating an interaction between the crowd and the speakers. No one really dares to speak to remote speakers! This could be solved by using apps like slido.
• It always nice to use have backups for video recording and sound recording. The audio recorded in London was not as good as expected.
• Do not drink the beers and ciders originally bought for the halloween party!

Distributed C++ Meetup 0x02:

The reason I decided to write about this event few months after is that 1) I am lazy 2) we will soon have another run of this concept. Next week, on the 28th of March 2018, the Distributed C++ Meetup 0x02 will happen. This time not only London and Stockholm will be involved but we also bring with us the Berlin Meetup Group managed by Sebastian Theophil and Vasil Georgiev (from King)!

If you are reading this post and want to join the event, it is still not too late to sign-up:

• Berlin
• London
• Stockholm