Software development and testing company DVT has announced that it is a Platinum sponsor of the DevConf 2018 conference, to be held in Johannesburg and Cape Town in March next year. The annual event is a community-driven, developer-focused, one day conference that gives software developers access to a wide range of tools, practices and principles applicable to tackling current and future challenges in the South African software development environment.DVT CEO Jaco van der Merwe says the conference is an invaluable resource for local software developers and testers, primarily as a networking forum with other like-minded professionals and potential clients searching for progressive and creative solutions. “For us it’s vital to show our support for the local software development community as a sponsor of the conference, but more importantly, we want to be an active and involved participant in this key event,” says van der Merwe, “We’ve also had two speakers from DVT confirmed.”Senior DVT Android Developer and Google Developer Expert Rebecca Franks will speak on Android Architecture Components and DVT’s Peter-John Welcome will present on Kotlin for all the Droids.”Our clients and colleagues are continually looking for new ways to get better quality software to market faster, and forums like DevConf play a critical role in that value chain. To have so many top-notch speakers and industry professionals in one place, openly sharing ideas, collaborating on current and future projects, and discussing relevant trends, is a rich experience that shouldn’t be missed.”The Johannesburg event will be the bigger of the two, featuring a high-profile keynote address followed by five concurrent content tracks — including 32 full-length talks and 9 lightning talks -. Cape Town’s conference will host three parallel tracks following the keynote, with 20 full length and three lightning talks. Some of the topics covered will include:* Crafting code – talks related to designing or refactoring code.

* DevOps and automation – talks related to DevOps and automation of deployment, including specific automation approaches, experiences and lessons learned.

* Teams, people and methodologies – talks related to culture and experiences in teams, new ways of working, or tools that practitioners find useful.

* Machine learning and AI – talks related to data science, and how to use AI and machine learning.

* Future technology – sessions focused on the future of autonomous vehicles, VR, AR, rockets and drones.

DevConf 2018 will be held on Tuesday 27 March, 2018, at the Birchwood Hotel & OR Tambo Conference Centre in Johannesburg; and on Thursday 29 March, 2018, at River Club in Cape Town.