The BoostCon is a Boost centric conference, but it's actually much more than that. It's probably the best C++ conference in the world.
A bold statement?
Contrary to what the name of the conference might imply, it's more C++ centric than Boost centric. A lot of talks revolve around the boost libraries, but there's also content related to the language itself and the challenges we all face.
The advantage of the Boost tropism is that the topic stays on "real world issues". No endless debate about how to phrase a new feature in the C++ standard, no endless theoretical speech about a problem that only exists when you program in a zero gravity environment on a computer that might be invented in 2030 if LSD gets legalized.
I was at BoostCon 2009, not only the content was accurate, advanced and of high quality, but it was extremely relevant.
"Spot on" is actually the term that comes to my mind.
Would it be only for the keynote by Andrei Alexandrescu and the introduction to software transactional memory I would have been happy to do the trip.
You know these conferences where you have some days filled with "so-so" talks, and you go to that talk about optimizing memory usage on a system you've never heard of because all the other talks look horrid, and the guy just read his slides with a vocoder tone, and you start firing up your laptop and suddenly the conference room becomes a very expensive WiFi spot.
Well BoostCon is nothing like it.
What's more bound to happen is that you're going to regret you still don't master mitosis, because you'd really like to learn more about smart pointers and Spirit, and both talks happen at the same time, and they are both given by really great people.
You'll fly back with the head full of new ideas to tackle the issues you've left at home (I'm not talking about how to get the exoskeleton in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Зов Припяти, because it's really just a matter of harvesting artifacts like there's no tomorrow), rested and energized by the intense intellectual maelstrom.
The conference is located in Aspen, Colorado.
I'll nitpick and say although the site and the city in itself are really a great, great place to have a conference, it's a bit inconvenient if you live outside the USA. From my European point of view, American conferences located in Boston or New-York are be more convenient.
If you're serious about C++, fly your team to the BoostCon. It's an outstanding investment.
Registration is just one click away