Scala World - Our Roundup

After a year out, Scala World is back with a bang and the 60 team were as keen as mustard to go to our favourtie and local conference.

For those who don't know, the conference is set in the beautiful Lake district, green rolling country side, lakes, fells and some of the best views in the world, check out Scala.World

The beautiful weather of previous years was not quite matched for the 2019 Scala world. Although spirits were high and our teams were set, so off we trekked into the fells! Taking in some beautiful views in between the rain to really appreciate the fantastic English countryside!

As an experienced hiker spending lots of hours walking all over the UK, with different people from different backgrounds, Scala world still makes me chuckle inside when involved in a discussion over ZIO and CATS IO monad on top of a huge hill In the Lake District.

What a fantastic way to bring together a community who share a common interest and provide us a way to share ideas, learn new things and discuss libraries and even encourage a few to be written! All of this would not be possible without Propensive, Jon pretty and the team have done an amazing job along with the sponsors that have made this all possible! Another thanks to everyone involved for their hard work in setting up, what in my opinion is the best scala conference in the world. (no pun intended!!)

The bad weather was putting a bit of dampner on the walk and the group I was in decided to cut our walk short, we still managed four hours in the beautiful countryside and ended up at a pub what better way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

So for me, day two was off with a bang, a short drive to the activities centre where horse riding and quad biking were on offer! This time I opted for the power of an internal combustion engine over a noble steed but both activities provided a great way to do something new and again experience a sunny and beautiful Lake District.

As the unconference powered on for Sunday evening with people sharing ideas and experiences an early night called me, so I could prepare for the two days of the Scala focused section of the conference.

Monday morning rolled around quickly and my legs were wieriy from all of the weekends activities but my brain was at Mack 2 and ready to learn new things and share experiences!

So back to the Rheged centre to start the conference and listen to the keynote...

My favourite quote from the conference and a great summary of the community, although perhaps a little tongue in cheek...

“I understand how the community is so strong, anyone who can survive the trek on Saturday, can surely overcome the quirks of the Scala syntax and the complexities of type inference” - Bartosz Milewski

Bartosz is the author of "Category Theory for Programmers" a great read and a must for all functional nutts. 'read it here'

2019 offered a great selection of talks all high calibre, I have tried my best to collate the talks and will update the videos once released.

	Sam Aaron Musical KeyNote on Sonic Pi Youtube link
	Fabio Labella How do Fibers work? Youtube link
	Luka Jacobowitz Monoids Youtube link
	Guillaume Martres Type inference in Scala 3 Youtube link

So that was it for another year - hopefully see you in 2020.

I'd love to hear some of your experiences of the conference, comment below and we can chat...

-Alex.