Come help us put the ‘SD’ in ESDC

Are you planning to attend the Enterprise Software Development Conference? I hope you’ll join us at ESDC as we continue the fine tradition of excellent in technical education and community-building that we enjoyed at the old SD West conference for more than two decades.

SD West, originally known as the Software Development Conference, was more than the industry’s finest annual gathering of professional software developers. In the 24 years since it was founded by Miller Freeman (which published Computer Language Magazine, later known as Software Development Magazine), SD West became a venerable institution.

I should know: First as a Miller Freeman employee for most of the 1990s, and then since 2000 after BZ Media launched SD Times, I was at SD West nearly about every spring, learning from the best and brightest. There were great keynotes, excellent classes and workshops. Even more, there was lots of camaraderie.

Indeed, SD West became a reunion. You went not only to learn about the latest in software development practices, but also to reconnect with old friends and hang out with a lot of really, really smart people.

Unfortunately, after the most recent SD West, in March 2009, the conference’s organizers announced that moving forward, the event would be discontinued due to the economic downturn. Thus, there’s no SD West 2010.

SD West was, in our opinion, too good an idea – and too important an industry event – to just let it slip away. That’s why the SD Times team rallied to launch the Enterprise Software Development Conference, bringing together many of the best SD West speakers, like Dan Saks and Allen Holub, Terry Quatrani and Robert “Uncle Bob” Martin, Jim Hobart and Neal Ford… hey, check out the full roster here.

SD West is gone, but ESDC is here.

We hope you’ll join us Mar. 1-3 in San Mateo, Calif. By the way, if you’re an SD West alum, we have a special offer for you – use the code SDWEST, and that knocks a hundred dollars off the full conference pass.

See you there.