Hackers, Campers and Lumia’s
For nearly a year now, LBi London has hosted a series of Windows Phone Camps for Microsoft. What I’ve found really interesting is attendance by developers and enthusiasts from all sorts of technology background: iPhone, Android, Blackberry phone developers to old school VB and C++ developers. We’ve also seen a mix of front end developers/designers with HTML5, CSS, JavaScript and design backgrounds to hard-core game developers attend the camps.
William Coleman, OS & Mobile Product Manager Lead at Microsoft whose team fund the Phone Camps had this to say about the developers attending, “Our goal for the Windows Phone Camps is to help developers improve their skills to create the apps that consumers love and to have some fun at the same time. Developers are telling us that they really enjoy the space that the LBi London office provides and I completely agree!”
The Windows Phone camps are free and have hands on Windows Phone experts from APPA Mundi throughout the day. The Phone Camps are very well attended and we saw the recent Camp pull well over 70 developers.
LBi Applications Developer, Kaushi Kularatnam, who attended the camp on Saturday learnt lots and enjoyed her experience, she says, “The Windows Phone Camp was a very insightful and interesting experience. The experience was informative, educational and thoroughly enjoyable. I would recommend this to anyone who would like to start developing apps on Windows Phone. ”
Mobile & .Net Developer, Wendy Armstrong, who attended the September 2011 Windows Phone Camp, tweeted this “wow, @uktechdays love their developers. A really useful day & great spread at @lbilondon for a FREE wp7 bootcamp. Much appreciated.”
About this time last year, Nokia and Microsoft announced that they were forming a strategic partnership to build a new global mobile ecosystem. At the recent Windows Phone Camp, I had a chat with Keith Varty, Head of Content and Developer Marketing at Nokia (Western Europe), who told me how important the Windows Phone Camps were for the phone developer community. More significantly he was at the recent Windows Phone camp to announce that every developer who has attended the Windows Phone camp and was developing an app for Windows Phone Marketplace, Microsoft’s app store for Windows Phone apps would get a free Nokia Lumia 800 phone.
The LBi London office has been the perfect space to host such events. Paul Lo, Microsoft’s Technical Audience Marketing Manager who assists in the running of the Camps says, “Our partnership with LBi is a critical factor to the success and popularity of the Windows Phone Camps. LBi have been the perfect host for us (Microsoft) to attract developers to expand their mobile development skills to the Windows Phone platform. ”
What makes the Windows Phone Camp quite unique from other camps and developer days I have attended in the past is the buzz and fun activities that take place through the day. Hit+Run, who do live on-site event screenprinting, are present at every Windows Phone Camp and they create limited edition customised t-shirts for every attendee. There is also live screening of major sporting events on the large screen such as Premier League football or the rugby. Towards the end of the event, the LBi Bar is opened and everyone gets together to share a beer or two.
So, if you’re a developer (from any programming background) looking to get into Windows Phone app development and want to do it in a fun environment with lots of like-minded individuals with hands-on experts, I would definitely recommend attending future Windows Phone Camps.
Don’t just take my word for it….watch the video below 
Thanks for reading!
Riaz Ahmed (@TheRealRiaz)
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Tags: Developers, event, LBi London, Microsoft, mobile, Nokia, Phone Camps, Technology, Windows Phone, Windows Phone Camp
