GDevCon 2024 kicked off today in Stuttgart, Germany. With 196 attendees, over half of them first time, and more than ⅓ of them have been in the NI Ecosystem for more than 15 years.
I sensed an energy and enthusiasm in the air, that reminded me of the great spirit of the days when I was at NI from 1993 to 2000.
In his introduction to the conference Joerg Hampel reviewed the history of NI, LabVIEW and GDevCon. Joerg frankly described the downward trajectory of LabVIEW and NI until its acquisition by Emerson.
At the same time Joerg was optimistic about the future, saying “there is no better time to use LabVIEW”. The tremendous growth of GDevCon, as a volunteer driven organization, along with developments from NI showing that things are now moving in the right direction.
Although the demographics of the group showed relatively few young engineers in attendance, probably reflecting the lack of sufficient support of the educational sector, I sensed a very positive spirit at the conference. Also, NI supported the conference with nine people from a range of countries spearheaded by Eli Kerry, Director of NI Software community.
Evening dinner:
