Yesterday, I attended the Pittsburgh Tech Fest for the second time. The first time was 4 years ago, when the event was still known as The Pittsburgh Code Camp.

It’s always a pleasure for me to return to Pittsburgh. I worked for a commodity trading advisor in downtown Pittsburgh for a few months during graduate school; I had a chance to visit some college friends who have settled in Pittsburgh; and I had a chance to drive through the Fort Pitt Tunnel. If you have never been through the Fort Pitt Tunnel, I can tell you that the exit from the tunnel into downtown Pittsburgh is an amazing sight. It reminds me of the scene in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy opens her door to reveal the land of Oz in full Technicolor.

I was originally scheduled to deliver one presentation – Effective Data Visualization. But there was a cancellation, so I was asked to give a second talk on Azure Mobile Services. The room was full for my Data Visualization talk and the audience seemed to enjoy it. This was the first time I gave the Azure Mobile Services talk and it was not as polished as I would like it, but I will give it 3 more times this week, so I have time to work on any shortcomings.

I watched a presentation on Xamarin that highlighted the new features of version 3; and a presentation on Building an API that gave some advice on how to approach a API development. I liked the presenter’s idea of writing client code before you begin writing the API itself.

The event was well-organized and attracted 2-300 attendees, most from western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. There was no dominant platform, but it seemed that .NET and JavaScript were more popular than the other platforms discussed.

If you are a software developer near Pittsburgh, I recommend you check out the Pittsburgh Tech Fest next year.