A Java Software Development Conference
In April, the German Java conference took place at the Nürburgring. It was a new and great experience. It was the first time that I did not have to plan a trip to learn about on-site software development.
It’s amazing how life can come full circle. When I was a student, I used to listen to rock music at the Rock am Ring festival. Now, I find myself in the audience at the top of the software development scene.
After a month of deep reflection and revisiting the recorded sessions, a significant trend in enterprise software development emerged:
Domain Driven Design
I enjoyed the talks about Domain-Driven Design (DDD) architecture and business views, the discussions about exemplary architecture, and the thinking in the modules. Since I read Eric Evans’s Blue Book for the first time, Domain-Driven-Design has become the de facto standard for mapping business needs into modern architectures.
Behavior-Driven-Design (BDD) is a theoretical concept for me and a practical tool I regularly incorporate into my work.
Like every methodology, both approaches have a tradeoff between technology, business needs and values, and costs.
Event Sourcing
The talks about event sourcing, particularly Kafka, were overcrowded. I like the ideas for event sourcing and stream processing considerably (Apache Kafka, Apache ksqlDB, Apache Flink, etc.). However, using it in a productive environment still has a high learning curve and significantly influences the software architecture.
Green Software Development
Green software development is not just a trend, but a necessity in the face of increasing energy consumption from technologies like cloud computing and AI systems. By prioritizing energy efficiency, we can ensure that energy savings become a cornerstone in developing software systems, such as microservices running in the cloud, thereby contributing to a more sustainable and cost-effective future.
One of the most reassuring aspects of this approach is that, in most cases, there is no need to compromise between reducing energy consumption and achieving cost savings. It means that by adopting energy-efficient practices, we can reduce our environmental footprint and improve our bottom line.
AI in Software Development
Numerous discussions center on the potential utilization of AI assistants. These assistants are poised to transform our approach to software development. However, many unresolved challenges persist, encompassing quality and legal considerations.
The following image shows the possibilities of modern AI (Dalle-3). 
Nürburgring Event Location
The location itself is suitable for IT or software conferences, offering a unique and inspiring environment. However, a primary disadvantage is the public transport, which can be a challenge for attendees. For example, I travel quickly from my home station to big cities like Cologne, Düsseldorf, Bonn, Mainz, Frankfurt, or Munich. Only about 25 kilometers away, the Nürburgring becomes a train and bus odyssey of around five and a half hours. As a fun fact, climate protection was the subject of many talks. I would appreciate having secure parking facilities for bicycles.
These conferences are a chance for the Eifel region. They also play a crucial role in promoting diversity in the tourism sector, breathing new ideas into the wild, romantic region nestled between many big European metropolises.