Why should developers attend BlackBerry® DevCon Americas 2011? Anyone who’s been to a BlackBerry DevCon event will tell you that it’s an amazing opportunity to connect with BlackBerry development experts and get tips and tricks for developing mobile apps. Attendees can discover great ways to build for BlackBerry platforms, whether in native language or using web standard language, that allow developers to leverage their work on other platforms as well. Developers attend BlackBerry DevCon because they want to build for a dedicated, passionate user base of over 70 million people.

If those reasons aren’t enough to convince you to come, we’ve got plenty more suggestions from BlackBerry developers and the event organizers on why you should attend this year’s BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011, happening October 18-20th in San Francisco, California:

Get a snapshot of everything you can do with BlackBerry. Spend three days getting the info you need to develop for the BlackBerry platform. More than 100 breakout sessions focus on HTML, Java®, Native and Android® development, as well as developing, testing, debugging, monetization, the BlackBerry App World™ storefront and so much more. You’ll be able to train on site in one of two new developer courses on the latest technologies, such as the BlackBerry® WebWorks™ SDK and Adobe® Flex® and Adobe® AIR®.

Get expert opinions on the latest mobile trends and technologies. Research In Motion Limited (RIM®) leaders and industry experts will talk about current trends in development and mobile apps, and where the best opportunities lie for developers. Visionaries like game developer Jane McGonigal is a featured speaker, not to mention more than 30 community experts like Adobe®, App-Promo, Assanka, Nitobi, Marmalade and salesforce.com will be giving attendees the opportunity to hear remarkable success stories from developers like you.

One-on-one expert guidance will be available. BlackBerry platform experts will be available in the Ask the Experts area to work through issues and to whiteboard ideas and solutions. Expert presentations and open Q&A sessions provide an opportunity for learning and providing feedback.

Get an inside track on a new product or service. Save yourself the time of hunting down the solution you need by visiting the Mobility Pavilion. BlackBerry partners and mobility leaders from Adobe, iSpeech, New Toronto Group, Search for BBM™, Sencha, XtremeLabs, and many more will be showing the latest tools and time-saving solutions. Take advantage of App Express to fast-track your apps by porting your existing Android app to the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet, or transform an existing web application into a full-fledged app for both the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and BlackBerry smartphones. Plus, you can submit your app for the chance to get it on BlackBerry App World!

Try out the next generation of developer tools. Your chance is coming up at BlackBerry DevCon Americas to participate in a five hour hackathon on the BBM™ Social Platform or BlackBerry® WebWorks™ HTML5 Platform, on Wednesday October 19 from 7:00pm-1:00am. Hackathon events are a great way to get time with BlackBerry experts who can provide guidance and tips and tricks that will help you build your next application. How do you get involved? You need to be registered at BlackBerry DevCon Americas to participate – register now. To sign up for the Hackathons, use My Scheduler. Spaces are limited!

Get some downtime, even while you work. The BlackBerry DevCon Party on the evening of October 18th is interactive and game-driven — ideal for meeting new colleagues! Find out how much fun it can be to beat a fellow developer at Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, then continue the conversation the rest of the week at the BlackBerry DevCon TweetUp, Hackathons , Roundtables and Birds of a Feather sessions.

Get a free BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. We want you to get a jump start on developing your next big application – register today and receive a free BlackBerry PlayBook tablet when you arrive at BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011.

If you’ve been to the show before, please share with the community why you’re coming to BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011 this year!

Beyond all you can learn at BlackBerry® DevCon Americas 2011 and the many great people you can meet, there is another real draw at the show: Your web or Android™ app can be ported over to the BlackBerry platform and be made distribution-ready for submission to the BlackBerry® App World™ storefront.

App Express kiosks are a show feature this year. Walk up to any kiosk in the Golden Gate Foyer, plug in your laptop and you can begin to port your existing Android app to the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet. You’ll also be able to transform your existing web application into a ready-to-go app for both the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and BlackBerry smartphones.

You can do all this quickly and then get your app submitted to BlackBerry App World right then and there – no kidding! Just keep in mind, submission to BlackBerry App World still requires your application to be signed with BlackBerry Code Signing keys. Get them here for free before coming on site to BlackBerry DevCon Americas (keys can take up to two hours to be generated). You’ll also want to check out this handy checklist for a list of other items to have ready to facilitate your BlackBerry App World submission.

App Express is free, and it opens on Monday, October 17 and runs through Thursday, October 20. It’s also a great place to meet experts from the development team at Research In Motion® (RIM®) and the BlackBerry App World team.

If you’re not registered for BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011 yet, don’t worry. Come by and try out App Express on us. And then think about registering for the rest of the conference – there’s a lot to see and experience this year at BlackBerry DevCon 2011.

Since the launch of the BlackBerry® WebWorks™ platform, we’ve heard firsthand from developers that it’s a powerful development approach that is designed to make it easy to build web applications for BlackBerry smartphones and the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet. Proving how important web development is for mobile devices, this year’s BlackBerry® DevCon Americas 2011 puts mobile web development in the spotlight. There’s an exciting range of sessions, labs, training and not-to-be missed learning opportunities for anyone involved in developing mobile web apps.

This year, we’re offering over 25 sessions and two labs that are all about mobilizing web content. Key sessions focus on:

• HTML developers reusing web assets for developing mobile apps (DEV 51)
• How BlackBerry is using its latest web technologies like the BlackBerry® WebWorks™ SDK, BlackBerry® WebKit™, Alice JS and Ripple on GitHub to design better apps (DEV56)
• Learn how to monetize your apps with BlackBerry Application Platform Services such as the BlackBerry® Payment Service and the BlackBerry® Advertising Service (DEV50)
• Meeting web industry leaders such as Assanka, Dojo, jQuery, PhoneGap, and Sencha.
• Discuss the future of mobile web applications and how frameworks such as the BlackBerry WebWorks Platform are positioned to help (DEV48) with a knowledgeable panel, including representatives from Assanka, Nitobi Software Inc. and uxebu Consulting Ltd. & Co. KG.

If you want to come away with skills you can put into action right away, sign up for a new training course, Develop for the BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Using BlackBerry WebWorks. This is a great way to speed up your learning curve. The course is offered on Monday, October 17 from 9 AM to 5 PM and costs $499 USD.

Mobile web developers have a lot to look forward to at this year’s BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011, including receiving a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet with registration! This is your opportunity to kick start development for your next big application. Make sure you don’t miss out on this exciting offer – register for BlackBerry DevCon now.

The market for BlackBerry® platform apps in Latin America is bigger than ever, and we know this is exciting work. That’s why this year’s BlackBerry® DevCon Americas 2011 is focused on helping Latin American developers do great things and learn more about developing for the BlackBerry platform (in Spanish, too!).

This year’s sessions are diverse – check out the full session catalog to see everything that will be covered, including the 14 sessions that will be available in Spanish. These sessions will be presented by top Research In Motion® (RIM®) experts, special guest speaker and Visionary Game Developer Jane McGonigal, and community speakers from Assanka and Crackberry.com. You will hear from companies active in the Latin American developer community, including Action Creations, Activ, Eudaimonia, Infocket, Sensebyte Mobile, and [Q] Interactiva.

Aside from the sessions, you can also bring your questions to the Ask the Experts area, where RIM experts will be on hand specifically for the Latin America region. In this area, you’ll also be able to get some valuable input from your fellow attendees.

If it’s hands-on work you’re looking for, sign up for training sessions on using Adobe® Flex®, Adobe® AIR®, and BlackBerry® WebWorks™ to learn how to build apps for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet. Both one-day courses are offered on Monday, October 17 from 9 AM to 5 PM and cost $499 USD each.

Make sure you don’t miss out on everything BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011 has to offer for Latin American developers – register now! (If you need to tell your boss why you should attend, we’ve made it easy by summarizing it all with this Convince Your Boss Letter written in Spanish!)

Mobile apps in the corporate environment are more creative and influential than ever, helping businesses work faster, more profitably, and with the kind of efficiency that others envy. Here’s why we think attending BlackBerry® DevCon Americas 2011 can help your corporation go even further and do even more.

1. Understand more about the tools and options. Many of the sessions at the show are designed to increase your know-how and skill base, such as:

• DEV19 – Introduction to the BlackBerry PlayBook Native SDK: Building a Sample Application
• DEV21 – Creating a UI using the BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK for Adobe AIR
• DEV22 – Mobile Application Architecture: How Do I Start?
• DEV23 – So You Think You Understand Mobile Web Services
• DEV29 – Lab: BlackBerry WebWorks Bootcamp for the BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet

2. Learn from another corporation’s success. Nothing teaches as well as a company willing to share their experience, and PricewaterhouseCoopers is offering to do just that. Don’t miss COM01 – Enterprise Application Development Made Easy: The PricewaterhouseCoopers Story.

3. Train with the best. Sign up for training sessions on using Adobe® Flex®, Adobe® AIR® and BlackBerry® WebWorks™ to build apps for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet. Both one-day courses are offered on Monday, October 17 from 9 am to 5 pm and cost $499 USD.

4. Discuss and influence the future. BlackBerry DevCon 2011 features a new series of “Collaboration Roundtables”. GRP04 – Collaboration Roundtable: Native App Development for BlackBerry Tablet OS is your chance to join an interactive discussion and offer feature requests and feedback on the technology roadmap.

5. Get one-stop access to everything and everyone to do with BlackBerry. Weeks of learning on your own can’t compare to three focused days where everything about the BlackBerry platform and technologies and corporate development is in one place. The sessions, labs, speakers, experts and networking opportunities are all here. If you need to tell your boss why you should attend, we’ve made it easy by summarizing it all with this Convince Your Boss Letter!

Make sure you don’t miss out – register now.

Ideas and feedback make BlackBerry® products better, especially when they come from the developer community that uses the BlackBerry platform and technologies every day. If you have something to say, or an idea for a way to improve the BlackBerry platform, there’s a way to contribute at BlackBerry® DevCon Americas 2011.

BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011 is featuring a new series of “Collaboration Roundtables”. Simply put, these Roundtable sessions are interactive discussions with fellow BlackBerry developers and the technology experts who make BlackBerry products. You’ll be able to help shape the direction of the platform by providing feature requests and feedback on these subjects:

• Making Highly Addictive BlackBerry® 7 OS Apps
• Building Better Web Apps
• Porting Android Apps to BlackBerry Tablet OS
• Where Can You Take Adobe® Flash® and Adobe® AIR® Apps?
• Native App Development for BlackBerry® Tablet OS
• Platform Services for BlackBerry® smartphone OS and BlackBerry Tablet OS

All you need to do is register for BlackBerry DevCon Americas – which takes place in San Francisco from October 18–20, 2011 – and sign up for any (or all) of the GRP 01-06 sessions. Plus, when you register you will also receive a BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet to help you get a jump start on development.

Additionally, Research In Motion® (RIM®) and its partners would like to help you do more with your apps through two interactive Birds of a Feather sessions on Consumer Apps and Business Apps, where you will learn more about the BlackBerry user and mobile marketplace. Members of RIM’s Business Development team will be on hand to discuss your apps and partnership opportunities with RIM.

Check out all sessions planned at BlackBerry DevCon Americas in the public catalog!

Lots of developers work day (and night) to try out a new technology until they understand it completely – but BlackBerry® DEVCON Americas 2011 has a shortcut. Research In Motion® (RIM®) and training partner New Toronto Group (NTG) are pleased to announce the launch of two new application development courses at this year’s conference. Choose between two one-day training opportunities that are intended to improve your skills for developing for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet OS!

Develop for the BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Using Adobe® Flex® or Adobe® AIR® is a great course if you’re an experienced developer working with Adobe Flex or Adobe AIR and need hands-on experience with the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet OS. You’ll create your own code and work through various features of a sample application, focusing on fundamentals such as designing the user interface, geolocation, consuming XML data and JSON data and deploying the app.

Develop for the BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Using BlackBerry® WebWorks™ is a course designed for experienced HTML5, JavaScript® and CSS developers. This course will teach you how to create, compile, package and deploy a BlackBerry WebWorks -based application for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. As well, you’ll focus on details like debugging an application using the BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Simulator and using an offline database within an application.

Both courses are offered at BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011 on Monday, October 17, from 9 am to 5 pm at the rate of $499 USD per person (lunch and refreshment breaks included). The course fee is in addition to the registration fees for access to BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011.

In one day, you can come away with skills that can make your apps better or your development process faster. And you can do it all while taking advantage of the resources offered at the biggest BlackBerry developer conference in the world. Register now and receive a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet when you arrive at the conference!

BlackBerry® DevCon Americas 2011 is coming up fast, and with it come conference attendees who expect a lot from the event. They expect valuable insight, products and tools that can help their development projects succeed. In fact, they take this conference so seriously that nearly 75% of BlackBerry DevCon 2010 attendees who responded to a survey about their experiences indicated that they plan to pursue a working relationship with a sponsor they met at BlackBerry DevCon. This meeting of the developer minds, in short, could mean business – especially if you’re a company looking to sponsor this year’s event.

So then, the important question: Are you someone who our attendees need to meet? Because this year, there are enhanced ways to ensure that you connect as often and dynamically as possible with BlackBerry DevCon attendees. For example, the BlackBerry DevCon Party has now moved to the Mobility Pavilion on Tuesday October 18, 2011. In the middle of the action, around the buzz of booths and demos, there will be a steady flow of avid developers. These are people looking to learn, engage and maybe invest in the solution that you propose will make their project succeed.

Here are a few sponsorship options you might consider to get your name in front of your target audience:

• Drink in your message – Instead of bottled water, this year’s attendees get a reusable water bottle that they can refill at water coolers throughout the conference, with your company’s logo featured on them. This year’s reusable bottle is actually a trendy foldable water bottle ‘bag’ – also with your logo on it – an item with continued use long after the conference is over.
• Help carry the load – Another eco-friendly option is the Mobility Pavilion Bag, which is given to attendees when they enter the Mobility Pavilion. Having your company’s logo printed on bags being carried by BlackBerry DevCon attendees would make for increased visibility.
• Social activities – Social media will be playing a huge role in this year’s event, and our social media channels will undoubtedly be a great way to get your company’s name out there.

BlackBerry DevCon is great every year because of the involvement of sponsors like you. If you are interested in pursuing sponsorship options for the BlackBerry DevCon Americas, BlackBerry DevCon Asia or BlackBerry DevCon Europe conferences, let’s talk about it! Send us an email at devcon@rim.com and we’ll set up a call to brainstorm the opportunities.

Thank you to everyone already on board, and we look forward to introducing our newest sponsors to our attendees at BlackBerry DevCon Americas!