Now less than three weeks away, Citrix Converge 2020 is within sight! Thanks to all who submitted session proposals — we received many more than we could fit into our two-week program! We had a hard time whittling them down, but we think we’ve selected the very best developer-focused content. In this blog post, I’ll explain how Converge will work and preview a few can’t miss sessions.

So, How Does Citrix Converge 2020 Work?

In designing this instance of Converge, we focused on making a virtue out of a necessity. Citrix Converge 2020 is a global, virtual developer conference dedicated to enabling Citrix coders, scripters, and builders to create the future of work. We thought long and hard about how best to create an online, interactive event that would provide the technical content our developers need, and bring our global community together. Here’s what we came up with.

We, and our fabulous community of speakers, are right now recording more than 50 keynote and breakout sessions. We will make them all available to you via the event website at the beginning of Converge, Monday November 2. You’ll be able to watch the content most relevant to you, at the time most convenient for you.

We’ve also scheduled a 30-minute interactive Slack Q&A session for each breakout. You’ll get the most out of the Q&A sessions if you watch the session recording beforehand, so bear that in mind when planning your viewing. We’re in the process of uploading the complete agenda listing right now. If you don’t see all of the sessions listed there, please return in a day or so!

As well as the keynotes and breakouts, we’re presenting a “coffee break” session every day or so. Each coffee break will allow you to chat with a Citrix executive, live, via teleconference. This is your opportunity to ask the likes of PJ Hough, Citrix’s Chief Product Officer, and Jeroen van Rotterdam, our EVP of Engineering, anything Citrix-related.

Aside from the conference program, you’ll be able to enter our hackathon, competing with your peers across the industry to win some fabulous prizes. There’s much more to say about the hackathon than I have room for here. Watch for a blog post with all the details in the next few days!

Opening Keynote: Building the Future of Work

Stephen O'GradyThe opening keynote is a great way to kick off your Converge viewing. Our featured keynote speaker is Stephen O’Grady, principal analyst and co-founder of RedMonk. A systems integrator turned industry analyst, Stephen co-founded the developer-focused research firm RedMonk in 2002. He has also written two short books on the software industry: The New Kingmakers and The Software Paradox. In his keynote presentation, Stephen will detail the key roles coders, scripters and builders are playing in building the future of work.

Alongside Stephen’s presentation, Steve Wilson, Citrix VP of Product for Cloud and IoT, Sonny Chhen, Developer Evangelist Manager, and I, your trusty Developer Architect Evangelist, will welcome you to Converge and share everything you need to know about the conference and hackathon.

Track Keynotes

Once you’ve watched the opening keynotes, you should select one or more of the track keynotes according to your interests:

  • Apps and Desktop Virtualization – Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and Friends
  • App Delivery and Security – Networking Technologies
  • App Creation and Collaboration – Microapps, Podio, and More

Each track keynote will provide an in-depth look into the current and future state of the Citrix developer experience in that area and highlight can’t miss breakout sessions.

Product Executive Panel

One more can’t-miss plenary session is our executive panel, featuring Citrix’ Chief Product Officer, PJ Hough and his three vice presidents of product management:

  • Sridhar Mullapudi – SVP Product for Workspace
  • Mihir Maniar – VP Product for App Delivery and Security
  • Steve Wilson – VP Product for Cloud and IoT

Expect a lively discussion covering the relationship between Citrix and its developers, open source, and what the motion from products to platform means for developers.

Breakout Sessions

We’ve curated over 50 breakout sessions explaining key Citrix technologies, with speakers drawn from the ranks here at Citrix, as well as our customers and partners. Many of our speakers have recorded short previews of their sessions; I had a hard time picking just three to include here, but Ryan, Eltjo, and James a great job of articulating the broad scope of Converge:

Ryan Butler (AHEAD)

Eltjo van Gulik (Rawworks)

James Rankin

Check out the full set of speaker previews. We’re adding more every day!

Call to Action!

I know what you’re asking: “How do I participate in Citrix Converge 2020?” The answer is simple: “Register here!” As a registered attendee, you’ll get access to the Citrix Converge Slack channels, a link to the event website, and a daily email during the event detailing the day’s agenda, including the all-important registration links for coffee breaks. Not only that, we’ll send you an exclusive conference t-shirt, so please enter a valid mailing address!