Talking training at Qt Developer Days

Qt Developer Days San Francisco is under way! Over the coming days we'll bring news and views from every corner of the event, and we're starting with an area that is a core focus of day one - Qt training.

This year is my second year at Qt Developer Days, and I've learned that there is ALWAYS something happening. Every time you sit down to check your email or sip a coffee you’re bound to see someone you need to talk to or something interesting to go check out.

This morning I bumped into Qt training guru Jurgen Bocklage-Ryannel. He gave me a few minutes of his time to tell me how Qt training day had progressed since its humble beginnings, and where Qt training is heading in the future.

Here are some of Jurgen's insights from our couch-side chat.

Background

“I started in 2006 at Trolltech, and then in 2007 I took over the training manager position. Back then at Qt Developer Days, we had two training sessions, each with roughly 20 people.

We came to the conclusion that there is a big need for training at Qt Developer Days. So we started to thinking about larger concepts, and the year after we tried to do the same type of training, but with more promotion, and proper integration with the main registration.

We planned to do two courses again, but we were overwhelmed by the number of people. Both courses were completely booked out. So we got more trainers on board.

Last year was the first time we did Qt Quick training, and we had 140-150 people there, it was really huge, and we also started to record video of the sessions."

Training videos

“The learning page with the videos we record at Qt Developer Days has become one of the most popular pages on Qt.nokia.com. We are recording the sessions again this year. In the coming weeks people can go to the site and watch the sessions they are interested in - we will organise everything by topic, so people can quickly find the topics they want."

Benefits of having training day first

“For the partners it’s a really great day. They get a room full of people sitting front of them, learning from their training.

For the people attending the event it’s great because of its timing - it starts before the event starts. People can boost their knowledge BEFORE the event. The first day is like preparation day."

The tracks this year

“Advanced Qt is a topic we have a huge amount of interest in. If people know Qt, have used it for 1-2 years, they want to know more about Qt and go deeper inside. That is why this track is always so popular.

Another popular track is Qt Quick training - it  is really popular. This year we have two tracks, one from a C++ Qt developer perspective and one from a designer perspective. In Munich we had 140-150 people in each track.

Also, the Getting started with Qt track fills up every time. These are people who are completely new to Qt. It is really good to see people learning Qt for the first time."

Qt developer guides

“The Qt developer guides are a step by step guide on how to create an application on a specific platform.

They include the prototyping phase, design phase, and then show how to make a prototype using Qt Quick. It then covers adding back end functionality and then how to polish UI, animations, make it beautiful looking.

Currently we concentrate on Qt Quick, although we have also had feedback to integrate C++ into this."

Advice for people who missed out on training at Qt Developer Days 2011.

“First of all, book your date for next year. That’s the first thing you should do.

If you couldn’t come this year, we have learning materials. We have training videos at qt.nokia.com/learning.

We have training material available. If you want to teach people inside your company on how to use Qt just download our material. It comes with everything included. Just download it and use it.

You can also learn by using our new developer guides. They have come out really nicely.

Use the documentation. We have really great documentation. Use it.

Last but not least, I think a very important part of Qt is the community around Qt. Make use of the great community we have. It is very active, and people help you. If you ask nicely you get amazing responses extremely fast. This is invaluable.

If you have a problem anywhere in Qt, you almost always find an expert who helps solve your question and point you to a solution.

We have good forums on Qt Developer Network, Nokia Developer, and also external forums like qt-centre.org and the French site Developpez.”

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