On Tuesday morning, the beginning of the first day proper of Autodesk’s DevCon Europe 2025 in Amsterdam, attendees started to arrive at the historic Beurs van Berlage.
It’s really a beautiful conference venue.
It wasn't long before I was catching up with old friends, including past and present Autodesk employees.
The Piro brothers are regulars at Autodesk events, although they're now there with different companies.
For the first day's general session employees were asked to use an overflow room with a large screen.
I ended up standing at the back.
I propped my machine on a table holding a scale model of the value, so I could catch up on some work. The table wasn't locked into place, which made for several funny moments as people leaned on it from one side or another and it started to move.
I didn't attend m any sessions, but I did stop by a few. Here's one by Stephen Brockwell from Esri.
The main exhibition space - which was absolutely fantastic - filled up nicely at lunchtime.
In the afternoon I was “room captain" for the room I'd be presenting in at 3:30pm. It was a long, narrow room holding 60 or so people.
The presentation before mine was by Srinath Jonnagaddala from our PDMS organization.
Here's a photo of my own session that James Awe kindly snapped. I was really happy with the turnout.
The general session room was also used for classes. It's such a gorgeous space.
As the evening drew in, people started to head across to the evening's reception venue at Strandzuid.
External people got to go there by boat, internal folks by bus. With 20-20 hindsight I would have gained some drinking time by taking the Metro with Pete Storey (who is a proper local, at this stage).
There were a number of people with these paddles, to show us the way. James Awe and I had some interesting discussions about the number of S’s - it’s apparently not wrong to have the double-S, but then neither is it very common.
There was an interesting building as we got off the bus. I haven't yet figured out which it is.
I didn’t take many photos of the party, but it was really a beautiful setting.
It's always a fantastic chance to catch up with old friends.
James Awe and I headed out for a final couple of drinks - after picking up additional clothing layers, as it was cooler than I expected.
There's nothing very special about the bars in the area - it's all very touristy - but it was fun to spend some time catching up with James.
The next morning started with the second day's general session.
This time we were encouraged to join in the main room.
Ben Cochran was the main host.
Vikram Dutt took to the stage afterwards.
Emile Kfouri hosted a panel with development partners.
And Joe Speicher talked about sustainability - a hot topic in the Netherlands.
I had some work to catch up on - we have an important deadline this week, on top of everything else that's been going on - which was actually a challenge to meet: I had to record an offline presentation, but I hadn't realised how echoey the Beurs van Berlage is. It's brick everywhere with really high ceilings: meetings are fine, but recording something without a special microphone is a challenge. In the end I found a small space on the top floor - I think it was some kind of staff kitchenette - that I managed to use for the 10 minutes I needed to complete the recording.
Afterwards I headed downstairs in Meet Berlage for a special event celebrating our most important partners who we’ve worked with for upwards of 25 years. It was a real trip down memory lane: I don't work actively with our development partners, these days, but they hold a special place in my heart.
Cyrille and Ben gave well-deserved rewards to all our old-time partners present.
Then came a very special moment, where we celebrated Jeremy Tammik's upcoming retirement.
I've know Jeremy for nearly 30 years, so it was really a huge moment for me and others who know him.
I'm happy that Jeremy will remain relatively local to me - I will be making more effort to see him, moving forwards.
Walking back to the main hall I got to see the huge screen from behind...
... and from the front.
It's a really great space.
Back in the exhibition hall there were some people trying out the Apple Vision Pro. (I finally got around to trying it myself - an impressive device, although probably not worth the price-tag.)
Many, many people wanted to wish Jeremy well, as you'd expect. He's been such an important part of the developer community, and has helped untold people resolve technical issues.
I had to take one more selfie before heading to the main station.
I got as far as boarding a train before getting a message that my flight was delayed. I managed to pop back to the venue for the group photo - I’ll post that once it gets sent over.
The D gates in Schipol has an awesome living wall: gotta love those biophillic design elements!
I decided to eat dinner at the airport. I'm heading to the UK, so thought I'd warm my digestive system up for the trip.
My flight ended up being cancelled, but I'm booked on another flight this evening.If I’d known ahead of time I’d have gone for dinner with my Autodesk colleagues. At this stage I’m just happy to have a chance of getting to London with only a 4-hour delay. The plane for my replacement flight has just arrived - let’s see!
It was lovely seeing so many old friends - as ever - at this year’s DevCon. Thanks to everyone who took the time to say “Hi”, and I hope those who attended my class found it useful. I’m now looking forward to the APS pre-conference day at AU 2025 in Nashville.
