The fourth stop on the US South JUG Tour 2024 with Jakarta EE as at the event at the St. Louis Java User Group. I did the Jakarta EE 11 presentation sprinkled with a couple of AI demos here as well. The St. Louis JUG currently runs their events as hybrid events with about 70 percent of the participants present and the rest online. All talks are recorded and published shortly after the event.

The St. Louis Java User Group have events every second Thursday of the Month. There is always a half hour with pizza and mingle before the talks. If you are a Java developer in the St. Louis area, you should definitely connect with this group and attend the events.

Third stop on the US South JUG Tour 2024 with Jakarta EE was Dallas and JavaMUG. This time I had chosen a hotel within walking distance from the venue. At least for a Norwegian. I am not so sure if 30 min walk is considered walking distance in Texas, but you never know so I decided walking. The distance is certainly not a problem, but it turned out that there were no sidewalks so I ended out walking partly in the street and partly on the grass next to it. Going back to the hotel after the event, I ended up getting an Uber.

At the JavaMUG event, I did the talk where I go through everything new in Jakarta EE 11 to show how you can boost your performance and developer productivity with this release. I even added a couple of the AI demos from the previous two days as well.

The crowd at the JavaMUG event was very friendly, asked a lot of good questions, and showed great interest in participating in Open Source. The venue is great, pizza delicious, and I would definitely come back later should I get the opportunity.

If you are a Java developer in the Dallas area, I strongly suggest to check out the events at JavaMUG. They meet monthly on the second Wednesday of the month, and features an amazing lineup of speakers. This is the place to be if you want to increase your network and create a solid foundation for your career.

The second stop of the US South JUG Tour 2024 with Jakarta EE was Jacksonville Java User Group, or JaxJUG, for short. This time, I was very careful making sure that the address I gave to the Uber was the correct one and made it to the venue 10 minutes before the pizza arrived. Perfect timing!

I did the same Jakarta EE meets AI presentation here, and it was received equally well. I think I am on to something with this talk. It is very simple, and the demo has a nice progression making it easy to follow.

I was not the only speaker at this event. Ed Burns from Microsoft drove up from Orlando to give a talk as well. At the end of his presentation, he gave a pre-announcement of the General Availability of Java experiences on Azure Container Apps. Check it out, and see how easy it is to run your Java workloads in a cloud environment. It pays out to be attending JUG events. Sometimes you get the announcements before the general public. Join your local JUG, and if you really want to enhance your career, get engaged and help out organizing events!

I had the great pleasue of speaking at Triangle Java User Group yesterday. It was the first time I did this presentation titled Jakarta EE meets AI. It is a very demo heavy presentation, so lots of things can go wrong, but the demo gods were with me this time. Every demo worked just as intended!

The event was located at the Wake Technical Community College between Raleigh and Durham. I discovered on in the Uber on the way to the event that there are multiple locations called Wake Technical College in the area and I was headed to the wrong one. Luckily, I was able to redirect the ride and arrive in time to start the presentation as scheduled.

The folks at the Triangle java User Group is a friendly bunch, and I strongly recommend that you attend their events if you are located in the area. They are also, as almost every Java User Group in the World, looking for volunteers to help with the events. This is an excellent opportunity to expand your network and create a solid foundation for your future career!

Next week, I am going overseas on tour with Jakarta EE. I will visit a handful of Java User Groups in the South of the USA. The tour schedule looks like this:

September 9 – 6:00 PM – TriJUG – Durham, NC – Details and registration
September 10 – 6:00 PM – JaxJUG – Jacksonville, FL – Details and registration
September 11 – 6:30 PM – JavaMUG – Dallas, TX – Details and registration
September 12 – 6:30 PM – Gateway JUG – St. Louis, MO – Details and registration

If you are in or near these cities, I encourage you to attend these free events and support the local Java community. I certainly hope the talk is enough to convince you to attend. If the topic does not appeal to you, that in itself is no reason to stay at home as the most giving part of these events is the opportunity to socialize with fellow Java developers in the local community.

When the JUG tour is over, I am going further south over the weekend to Puerto Vallarta in Mexico to attend the Jalapeño Unconference. Unconferences are another opportunity to meet and discuss topics at heart with fellow community members. Take a look at The JUnconference Alliance to find an unconference near you. If there aren’t any nearby, start one yourself, or pack the bags and go to one. You won’t regret it!