The 11th React Native & 5th Flutter Meet-up Bangalore, 2019

Another two months and the knowledge fiesta for React native & Flutter Developers came back with a bang on Saturday, August 24th 2019 at the GeekyAnts crib which was overflowing with young as well as experienced enthusiasts from all over town.

With one of the biggest crowds ever seen walking in at every minute, the show was set to launch them into a space of free information and familiarity, with an unlimited networking supply. As we all approached launch time, everyone was stationed in their seats, belts were fastened and it was takeoff time.

With my regular introductions and greetings to the souls in the room, Sanket & I took the people on a ride through the company presentation and quickly made the agenda known to the attendees. This time, there was an overflow of Flutter fans and developers in the room and React Native felt somewhat dwarfed. But it’s the heart that counts and they sure had a lot of it. The support was strong and relentless.

As the introductions came to a close, the first speaker of the day stepped up on the stage and enchanted the crowd.

Rahul Khatri, a junior Android Developer at Learnwithflip, addressed the Future of Mobile App Development. He categorized his talk in two parts. In one, he addressed the four major categories of the kind of apps being made in the market, namely Native Apps, Web Apps, Hybrid Apps and Progressive Web Apps. He discussed each one in detail, charting their pros & cons. In the second part, he discussed the emerging technologies with mobile apps. He focused upon Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and wearables. He discussed them in detail and suggested how they can change the future of mobile apps.

Next on the cards was Ajil Oommen, a Flutter Developer at Cushy. He shared his thoughts on Modularized UI Development. He shared the basic principles of modularizing development of UI to make code run faster and more efficiently. He discussed the what’s and why’s of following Modularity and jumped right into a live coding session where he demonstrated how making different pages and navigating between them using buttons can be made much simpler to understand and write using modular concepts.

Two great talks in and it was time for a break. People replenished their energies with beverages and snacks while meeting other people and making connections. A good ten minutes of meet and greet later, the tour continued.

On the fly adjustments were made for the next speaker in line, A Flutter Google Developer Expert & Senior Software Engineer at Bounce, Pooja Bhaumik. She took the crowd through the mind and experience of a Flutter beginner when they come across State Management. She called it State Management for Dummies. Taking a F.R.I.E.N.D.S reference, she explained how State Management works and the State Management techniques that can be scary and the ones that beginners should follow. She also demonstrated the working of State Management through a live example involving Google Maps.

Following Pooja was Jasbir Singh Shergill, a Freelancer who talked about combining his two passions, Video Games and React Native. He talked on Game Development in React & React Native and demonstrated three games that he built in React Native. He explained how building games is simpler than what developers perceive it to be. The reason why web is used to develop and run games on was touched upon by him. He also broke down the basic concepts behind building any game and checked out every single concept required to build an engaging and complete game.

Another break was in the works and people continued their conversations that were left-over from the previous one. I was making new high scores on games when time ran out and the final two talks of the day were upcoming.

Manish Kumar, Engineering & Design Manager at Jio made his return with his tips on Designing Better Workflows for A Better Developer Experience. He started with explaining what exactly Developer Experience is and drew a clear line between Good & Bad Developer experience. He went in great depth in the current developer experience offered by React Native and explained every step that is necessary to create an intelligent Developer Experience.

As the last talk of the day, Shakthishree Manjunath, a Software Engineer at GeekyAnts spoke on how developers can Re-use Code Base in Mobile, Web & Desktop. She connected her talk with Ajil’s on Modularity and defined reusing code as dividing them into modules and then using them wherever required. She delved into why reusability is a feature that should be used and the requirements to create reusable code. She also touched upon the different approaches that can be taken to re-use code.

And with that, pizzas and beer was served to the people in the house. Everyone stayed back to chill and people made some long lasting connections. As for the speakers, they were honored with a GeekyAnts T-Shirt and a silver coin that says ‘Certified Geek’. Pretty cool, if you ask me.

With another meetup in the books, it is becoming a legacy that is just the beginning. These meetups have become the standard for enthusiasts to find their passion and meet other people who share their passion, and I can’t wait to be at the next one.

Until then…

Godspeed!