Embedded Software Engineering Kongress 2010
Last week, I attended the Embedded Software Engineering Kongress in Sindelfingen [which is near Stuttgart, Germany]. In many countries, there seems to have been a major downturn in attendance to trade shows, conferences and seminars in recent years. But in Germany, any reduction – at least for embedded software events – seems quite small. Being quite a large country, there is no single area where all the high tech companies are located. Around Munich is important, but Stuttgart has much to offer. In a well connected [IMHO] country, with a very large embedded show/conference only a few months away [Embedded World in Nuremberg], I felt that it was quite surprising that they succeeded in drawing a large audience to an event in early December, but that is what I found.
I was at the event to present a 3 hour “mini-seminar” on C++ for embedded. So often, I have a very short presentation slot, but this time period gave me a chance to cover a wider range of topics with a little more depth. This session was well attended and I received a good number of questions and comments. If you would like a copy of my slides, please email me.
The conference program as a whole was quite broad in the topics covered, with 5 or 6 parallel tracks [depending upon which day] over 3 days of sessions. The diversity of presentations encompassed UML, multicore, UI, Linux and open source, along with numerous sessions of development methodologies etc. C++ occupied a whole track for 2 days. It never ceases to surprise me, the extent to which there is continuing interest in C++ for embedded.
My biggest challenge was actually getting to the event. My air travel to Germany worked out OK, notwithstanding the very early wintry weather, which disrupted many people’s plans. However, getting to the venue proved harder. Although I would agree that the event was generally quite well organized, the website was slightly vague about the location. I had in mind that the “Congress Center” was much the same as the conference/exhibition center [the “Messe”], so I took a taxi to there. I found that the only event taking place was a reptile and tropical fish show and I did not feel that I had much to contribute to that. A phone call and another taxi ride and I made it to the correct place. This was confirmed as I walked in and heard over the PA: “Will Colin Walls please report to lecture room 4.” I was 15 minutes early. What was the panic?
