RIM is slowly learning what they need to provide for their developer community. Back at WES they announced the BlackBerry Developer Conference which will take place on October 21st & 22nd in Santa Clara, California. Now they are reaching out to the developer community to share their hard earned expertise with everybody else.
So RIM has just sent out an email (Call for papers) to all developers asking them to submit a paper on their real world BlackBerry development experiences. You can see what they are looking for at this link.
In their words they are looking for:
Do you have practical, hands-on information that attendees can put to work in their organizations today? If you’re a development manager, software developer, architect or focus on the BlackBerry solution for developing commercial or corporate applications, your know-how and relevant experiences can benefit others.
We’re looking for dynamic, technical presentations for the first-ever BlackBerry Development Conference. Topics include:
- The ins and outs of the BlackBerry® platform
- Leveraging Java® APIs in innovative ways
- Implementing advanced mobile web applications for individuals and businesses
- Working with advanced media types
- Supporting multiple handhelds and OS versions
- Implementing PUSH in your application architecture
- Mobilizing enterprise applications with Java, BlackBerry® MDS Studio or the browser
The cool part is that if you are accepted as a speaker you get some nice perks. (Sadly they don’t pay for your trip 
)
- One (1) free full conference pass
- Marketing support for your session on the conference web site and in the printed conference guide
- Session survey results after the conference
Check out more info at www.blackberrydeveloperconference.com
Mark Not Registered
Posted: July 9, 2008 at 9:09 AM EST
Ironic, especially considering it hasn’t been too long that DevBerry Blog shut down because of a lack of interest/support from RIM!
BlogReader Not Registered
Posted: July 9, 2008 at 11:19 AM EST
For getting RIM out of a bind with developers they’ll give you a pass to listen to their conference? Pony up some more cash and pay for the trip and hotel. Or just give $5k to anyone that presents. RIM really needs to do something to stir interest in the developer community. Considering what’s at stake they should at least be spending some money.
Has anyone heard a *single* thing about the “RIM fund” since it was announced?
David Not Registered
Posted: July 9, 2008 at 2:19 PM EST
It’s amazing to me that they aren’t even willing to pay travel expenses for the presenters at their own conference. They just don’t get it. Would it really make that big of a difference to their financial bottom line if they covered the airfare and lodging? It would certainly send-out a very positive signal to all developers who hear about it. But no… they continue to miss the crucial importance of a happy and thriving developer community. I am a seasoned developer who recently started tinkering with writing a simple application for the BlackBerry platform. So far, it has been a very frustrating experience to say the least. The crappy framework and lack of support resources have been my biggest complaints. Unless they do something soon to improve the developer experience on all fronts, they will most surely shoot themselves in the foot by losing their developers to much better platforms with far better support (ie. Android, Windows Mobile, and iPhone).