In the midst of the current economic crisis, there are many intelligent, creative people finding themselves with more time on their hands and an ambition to take control of their careers.
One option open to anyone interested in software or games development is to design applications for the Apple iPhone. As Apple is about to reach the milestone of one billion iPhone apps downloaded, the timing couldn’t be better for Irish digital entrepreneurs to enter this enormous and surprisingly lucrative market.
DevDays 2009 is Ireland’s first iPhone developers’ workshop, hosted by Digital Circle, in conjunction with the Digital Media Forum and Create Ireland. Catering for everyone from complete novices to experienced hands looking for some extra advice, this free event gives attendees the chance to meet iPhone developers and interact with official Apple engineers.
Taking place in Dublin on 23 April and Belfast on 24 April, the one-day events are divided into two streams: Speaker Track, with talks on technical, design, business and marketing issues; and Hack Track, where developers or potential developers can sit, code, hack and network.
Speakers already lined up for the Dublin event include iPhone developer Dermot Daly on ‘Your first app’, Eamonn Carey of MobiEd on ‘The business of app development’, Des Traynor of Contrast.ie on ‘User interfaces’, and Ronan McNamara of Cumara on ‘Selling your app’. There will also be a panel discussion chaired by Alan Duggan of Nephin Games on ‘An Irish Game Publisher’.
In Belfast, speakers will include Graham McAllister of Sussex University on ‘Mobile games user interface’, Louis-Marie Aubert of ECIT on ‘Speech recognition’, and Philip Orr of Infurious on ‘Your first app’.
For more information see devdays.info.
By Deirdre Nolan
