Click here to read our recap of day 1.
Develop Denver was in full swing from the morning of day one, August 4th, and showed no sign of slowing down. Day two was yet another day filled with good food, excellent speakers, entertaining demos, and one drunk hackathon.
The talks on day 2 included "My Five Biggest Failures in Software," "The Land of D3," "Botline Bling," and "Professional Whack-A-Mole," which focused in on the constant need to learn new skills in order to remain relevant and productive. Often keeping up with these new languages, tools and frameworks can feel like whack-a-mole, said Stitch Fix developer Kristina Brown. In this talk at the new co-working space, Enterprise, Brown offered tools and tips for focusing your attention and fitting it all into your busy schedule without getting that "whack-a-mole" anxiety (and actually being productive).
Throughout the day, attendees stopped by Code to grab a breakfast burrito, coffee, and drinks. Along with food, came a show. Throughout the day, the block building also hosted the HTC Vive demos. Signup spots filled up before the day began, but just watching others try out the virtual reality system was almost just as fun.
One of the more popular events on day 2 was the drunk hackathon. Participants paired up to drink and make an app. Why a drunk hackathon? Other than for the fun of it, the Ballmer Peak effect, named after Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, suggests that absorbing alchol up to a certain point improves cognitive ability. Studies that have been done show that optimal programming occurs about two beers in.
Although many at this hackathon were beyond the optimal two-beers in, there were still some awesome apps made. Some of our favorites included "Drake Madlibs," and "Kanye & Cats."
Kanye & Cats gave the user a random Kanye West quote in combination with a cat video.
The two-day celebration concluded with the announcement of the winners of the Amazon Echo contest. The contest was to pitch a feature to be implemented on the Amazon Echo leveraging the Alexa Skills Set. With over 35 submissions, winners were chosen based on usefulness, creativity, and complexity. The third place feature helped the Echo user learn a language, second place will track when the user does a task (such as taking medicine), and will remind you when it's "due" again. In first place winning the Amazon Echo was the "Alexa I'm Drunk" feature.
Stay tuned for a blog featuring these features and those who thought of them!