Thought Leadership

Munich Embedded Developers’ Forum

By Colin Walls

Last week, I attended the Embedded Developers’ Forum in Munich, Germany. This is an increasingly common type of event – a small conference, with a somewhat broad subject coverage, with multiple streams offering a greater level of specialization. In this case, there were about 4 “mini-conferences”. I was presenting in part of the Embedded Software event. Another set of streams focused specifically on ARM development.

The location of this event was slightly odd. Last year they ran it in a different city, near to Stuttgart. Moving to Munich seemed reasonable, but they used a hotel at the airport. The logic was that this would be good for people traveling to the event (but this is unlikely to a small conference) and the airport is well connected to the city (but it is some distance and takes time). I think that this logic was ultimately flawed. If such an event is targeting a city, it should actually be in the city, unless the airport is very close by.

My presentation was about the measurement of RTOS performance and seemed to be well received. If you would like a copy of my slides, please email.

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  • Colin, I beg to differ about the convenience of the location.

    I worked for some time in Neuperlach, which is on the outskirts of Munich. The S-Bahn and U-Bahn work flawlessly and for the whole time I had no problem with them. I could go anywhere, including central Munich and the airport with ease.

    One evening, a visiting colleague (another Brit) and I tried to go to town, in his car, to find a good restaurant. We gave up and ate at some fast food joint near to where we started.

    So, if people are prepared to use the trains (as most Europeans from Germany and surrounding countries are) or if they are flying in, then the airport location seems ideal. For drivers, I cannot see how *any* city centre can be a good choice!

  • Hi Peter

    Fair points, though I have to say I was not thinking in terms of driving. I am a reluctant car user and a fan of public transportation [even in the UK!]. I agree that the system in Munich works very well indeed, but my point was that it still takes quite a while to get out to the airport, which might deter potential attendees who are based in/near the city. People flying in could, of course, take advantage of the connections to reach the city quite easily.

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This article first appeared on the Siemens Digital Industries Software blog at https://blogs.sw.siemens.com/embedded-software/2012/07/16/munich-embedded-developers-forum/