In less than a month developers from around the world will gather in San Francisco at the JavaOne conference. This year to reserve your seat in the technical sessions you should use a Web based schedule builder . This weekend I decided to pick my sessions and pre-enroll. Some sessions are already fully booked, and not all sessions from the JavaOne brochure exist online. I guess, Web has more up-to-date schedule.

I have the speaker “s pass so I can attend the Java University (Monday), hands-on labs and all technical sessions divided by the following tracks: Java SE, Java EE, Java ME, Tools, Cool Stuff and BOF sessions. Before even going online, I “ve marked the sessions that looked interesting in the JavaOne brochure. This is how many sessions I’ve selected in each track:

Java University: 0
Hands-on Labs: 2
Java SE: 9
Java EE: 2
Java ME 0
Tools: 1
Cool Stuff: 0

BOF: 2 (one of them I had to pick, cause I “m presenting there)

I “m not surprised by zeros in Java ME (it “s just not my cup of tea), or in Cool Stuff (it “s not cool for me, but may be cool for someone else), or in Java University (I may still attend one of the four classes. I “ll make my selection when I know who are the instructors). But I was really surprised that I was having a hard time selecting an interesting topic in the Java EE track. I “m sure there will be some good presentations in this track, but this area is not as exciting as it used to be several years ago. I “m not too crazy about AJAX, EJB or Web Services which are represented in at least 50% of the Java EE presentations.
On the other hand, it seems that Java SE keeps evolving, and I could have selected even more sessions than I did. In the Tools track I “ll definitely attend the NetBeans session on Matisse. These guys are the talk of the town this year.

Here is another quick overview of JavaOne 2006.

I “m sure, it “s going to be a busy week. Besides sitting in the classrooms I “ll be involved in some JDJ-related activities. And most importantly, I hope to meet new interesting people at JavaOne. If you want to talk to me about anything and everything, just stop by and let “s have a chat. This is the most valuable experience for me: almost everything I know I “ve learned from people like you (plus books, plus Google of course).

See you there!