C++ Day 2020: Wrap-up post

C++ Day 2020


Last November 28th, we made an epic virtual event about C++: the C++ Day 2020. Due to the Covid-19 emergency, the conference was totally online.

Here is the classical wrap-up post.

Some information:

  • the event was totally free
  • total number of registrants: 440
  • total number of unique virtual check-ins: 180

First of all, I would like to thank my staff that was made of just two people: Stefano Saraulli & Riccardo Brugo.

In addition, my gratitude goes to the Standard C++ Foundation which made Remo available for non-profit C++ communities.

Last but not least, thanks to all the speakers who gave great talks and to all the attendees who joined us!

Online event contents

The C++ Day 2020 was a full-day online event consisting in:

7×50’ live talks ran from 9 AM to 4 PM, arranged in a two-track agenda that included some breaks and a long lunch break. The networking area was up and running for the whole day and was hosted on Remo.

Topics presented:

  • How to design and develop a Telegram bot in C++
  • Gaame Development with Unreal Engine 4
  • Interoperable AI with ONNX and ONNXRuntime in C++
  • WebAssembly
  • TDD in C++
  • WebRTC in C++
  • Value categories in C++

All the talks but one were in English.

How the virtual event was made

Let me briefly go through how we have made this conference. For any further information, do not hesitate to contact me directly.

The conference was totally free but registering was required for getting access to the virtual rooms. The event was built as the combination of three Remo events grouped together into simple web page consisting of three iframes enabling people to quickly move through the rooms.

Two rooms were dedicated to virtual sessions only, and one hosted virtual tables all day long.

Technical talks

The attendees could watch the live sessions directly on Remo (that also has a chat and a Q&A section). Under the hood, the sessions were hosted on YouTube (that can be easily integrated into Remo rooms). As usual, the live streaming was managed through StreamYard.

Not so much to say more. Remo is very easy to use and the killer feature is that, for the final user, videos and networking are integrated into the same platform.

Just one caveat: people could start watching the live video some time after the real start. If they stay on Remo, when the next talk gets presented, the video they are watching gets suddenly closed. This can be confusing. I recommend to be very clear about that in the chat and also in the guide/email you send to the people before the conference.

Networking

Setting up networking on Remo is very easy. Depending on the number of attendees, the event is automatically divided in floors. Every floor can contain about 70-80 people. You can customize your floor layout, table names, sponsor banners with links, etc. Here is a screenshot:

Sponsor banners are very handy for showing up custom links (e.g. “GIVE FEEDBACK” and “EVENT PAGE” banners), in addition to real sponsors.

One useful thing to do during the event was naming a table after the title of the last two talks. This simple action facilitated a lot follow-up and further conversations. Also, we created on the fly a table for job opportunities, thanks to the suggestion of an attendee.

Support & help was done through the chat.

One additional thing to mention, in case you don’t know Remo: when one person enter the event for the first time, Remo assigns that person a random table. This should emulate random chats and encounters.

Feedback

This conference had good feedback, however only a small number of people took the time to vote (just 24).

What’s next

We will keep on arranging (online) monthly meetups. We are moving to Remo  thanks to the partnership with the Standard C++ Foundation.

Coding Gym suffered a bit this pandemic. Next year we would like to start again making online sessions. This year I have finally found time to participate to Advent of Code and I will organize some special sessions dedicated to this awesome initiative.

At the beginning of December we finally made the online kick-off event of ML Modena, the new community about Artificial Intelligence in the Modena I have co-founded with some good friends of mine. Next year we will organize monthly (online) meetups.

We all need help for all our activities. I know that committing to non-profit activities is not for everyone and that requires people of good will. Are you getting some benefit from our activities? It’s time to give back. Please get in touch directly with us if you want to help.

Stay safe. Hope to see you soon!