I am ecstatic to announce that Joel Spolsky, of Joel on Software fame, has officially confirmed to open the IJTC in Dublin next week with a keynote address. For those who do not know Joel, he is a programmer, entrepreneur, blogger and writer of what I would consider one of the essential books on software engineering practice.

“Joel on Software” is one of those books that rounds out a computer science education with a day to day survival guide to real life programming projects. I would rate it as one of the must-reads that include “The Pragmatic Programmer”, “Death March” and “The Mythical Man Month”. Joel is a very entertaining speaker, and will really set the mood for what has turned out to be a conference line-up that any Java event would be proud of.

The Irish Java Technology Conference runs from the 7th-9th of November at the CineWorld Cinemas in Dublin. Registration for the event is open at http://ijtc.firstport.ie.

Just received word this evening that another couple of big speakers have confirmed for the Irish Java Technologies Conference. It is a fantastic feeling when everything come together and falls into place

We are going to be put on a fantastic conference programme here in Dublin and I think people are going to be wondering why this hasn’t been done before. It has been great to get the support of the big tech companies like Sun, Microsoft, Oracle, Iona and AOL and it is a great opportunity for the smaller consultancies to present their expertise. Speaker bios are being updated as they come in.

It is worth mentioning that Dublin JUG members receive a discount to attend the conference. To save a few quid:

1. Log on to dubjug.org, if you don’t have an account it’s easy to sign up. What better reason to join your local JUG?
2. Go to the registration discount page and follow the link. It’s that simple.