Developer conference hopes to boost KC’s tech profile
June 22, 2015 | Abby Tillman
A group of local tech talent is banding together to bring global exposure to Kansas City’s tech scene.
Set to kick off Wednesday, the two-day Kansas City Developer Conference hopes to engage techies with all aspects of software development. In addition to connecting developers, the seventh-annual conference aspires for a bigger mission: to put KC on the map.
“As we bring in speakers and sponsors from around the nation and the world, their interactions with our attendees makes them understand that KC is a tech community that really knows what it’s doing,” KCDC Founder Lee Brandt said.
Brandt further explained that Kansas City developers’ desire to learn and advance themselves impresses non-KC-based attendees. That interaction also promotes a positive feel of the pool of tech talent available in Kansas City.
This year’s conference will feature 1,300 attendees, 150 educational sessions and 120 speakers, including international leaders in software development. Sessions will cover all aspects of software development, including design, project management, development operations, JavaScript and more.
“We try to be a true software development conference,” Brandt said. “So anything that’s involved in that process around software development, we want to have content around that at the event. … We try to have something for everybody”
KCDC co-organizer Jonathan Mills said that the conference aims to be comprehensive in its approach and provide valuable professional development.
“We have a lot of speakers who speak at big events,” Mills said. “Instead of sending someone to a $3,000 conference, you can come see the same quality of speaker and the same session for $300 at KCDC. … We have top quality speakers from all over the world flying in — 2 or 3 are from London.”
The conference will run June 24 to June 26 at the Kansas City Convention Center. For more information on tickets, click here.

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