Another year, another developer conference – hard to believe that BlackBerry® DEVCON 2010 is coming up so quickly! Looking over this year’s session catalog, I couldn’t be more excited. The community has really stepped it up this year, and I can’t wait to see some of these sessions. With so much co-presentation between Research In Motion® and members of the development community, attendees should be prepared for some really solid content. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the sessions that I believe consumer app developers should put on their radar:

COM06: Free Versus Paid Business Models: Marketing Applications in BlackBerry App World™
When developing an app, it’s so easy to focus on features and functionality. But if you forget about the business side of things, you’re going to have a hard time making it in mobile. The good folks at Nobex Radio break it down for you and share some of the lessons they’ve learned about how to take both free and paid apps to market. Couple that with the information they’ll be sharing around user trends for both free and paid apps, and this session is a can’t miss for anyone who’s about to roll out an app.

COM21: Mobile Multimedia: Leverage Video Streaming on BlackBerry Smartphones
DEV02: Streaming Encrypted Media on BlackBerry Smartphones
DEV04: Get the Most from Your Multimedia Application
With the outpouring of really solid music and video apps coming out recently, I’m going to list a trio of sessions here, as COM21, DEV02, and DEV04 are all unique, but at the same time quite complimentary. If you’re developing an app and streaming media is key to your success, then these three sessions will save you a lot of time and effort. They’ll teach you the right way to architect your solution from day one. The knowledge that comes from these three sessions literally caps off almost three years of hard work – others have lived the trials and tribulations of having pushed the limits of the platform, and now’s your opportunity to see how it’s done.

DEV15: Introduction to BlackBerry® Theme Studio
DEV30: Advanced Theme Development Techniques
If you’ve browsed through some of the featured content in BlackBerry App World over the past few months, I’m sure that you’ve noticed the ever-growing presence of themes – it’s one of the biggest app categories in the BlackBerry App World storefront! So whether you’re interested in dabbling with themes or you’re looking at creating themes to create a serious stream of revenue, these two sessions have a lot to offer. When it comes to themes, many developers overlook the fact that through their normal app development, they’ve already created all the graphical assets. Creating a simple theme to accompany your app doesn’t take very long, is very easy to do, and allows you to re-use those graphical assets. It also might be a great way of promoting your app and potentially giving you your download numbers a boost – extending your reach through themes is especially pertinent to game vendors, content vendors, and big brands. If you haven’t thought about themes before, maybe it’s time.

Post a comment and let me know which sessions you’re most excited to see. Hope to see you there!

I was recently asked to pick the top three sessions that I’m most looking forward to, and quite frankly, it’s shaping up to be harder than I had expected. With so many sessions to check out this year – especially for web developers – narrowing it down to only three is really quite a task. Here goes!

DEV10: The New BlackBerry Widget SDK
The BlackBerry Widget SDK is really exploding on the scene with some huge momentum behind it. Between the power of the BlackBerry Widget APIs and the new BlackBerry WebKit rendering engine, web developers are finding it incredibly easy to jump aboard the BlackBerry Widget SDK to create rich, integrated apps for their user base. It’s never been easier to develop for the BlackBerry platform! Coming from a .NET background, I found it incredibly easy to download the BlackBerry Widget SDK and BlackBerry Web Plug-in for Microsoft® Visual Studio and get cracking on developing fantastic apps.

In this session, Adam Stanley (Application Development Consultant) will be going over the BlackBerry APIs and explaining how to leverage the BlackBerry Widget SDK to create applications that can easily be distributed to users through mobile storefronts and other mechanisms.

DEV48: Introduction to the BlackBerry WebKit: The New Power Behind Web and Widget Applications
WebKit has become the industry standard for mobile web browsing, and for good reason. I’m incredibly excited to hear what the community has to say about the new BlackBerry WebKit browser at DEVCON, and I’m definitely pumped for this session to introduce so many web developers to the benefits of leveraging this new engine!

During this session, Tim Neil (Manager of Development Tools) and George Staikos (Senior Director of the BlackBerry® Torch™ Mobile Team) will cover how to leverage the benefits granted by the WebKit engine on the BlackBerry platform. They’ll discuss a lot of the differences between the old browsers and the new ones, and provide a little bit of insight into where the platform is heading.

COM28: Anatomy of a Real-world BlackBerry Widget
We’ve been asked so many times to show people an example of a real-world BlackBerry Widget, since they had never seen one before. To which I always smile and reply that that’s the point of building a Widget – so the end user doesn’t actually know it’s a web application. A BlackBerry Widget can be as complex or as simple as a web application can be; however, to the end user, it’ll look exactly the same as a Java® application, which is why I’m so excited about this session.

I’ve been working with the guys over at Toumetis to develop BlackBerry Widgets, and they’ve come up with some pretty impressive Widgets, to say the least. During the session, Mark Wilnerd and Andrew Terry from Toumetis will discuss the ins and outs of the BlackBerry Widget SDK in relation to their experiences developing a mobile banking solution.

Phew! Given all of the fantastic content being delivered in San Francisco this year, it was really not easy to pick out only three sessions! I’m so excited to be attending the event this year, and it’s sure to be packed with opportunities to meet you all and find out what you’re working on. Let me know in the comments below which sessions you’re most looking forward to!

Hope to see you all there, and please do come over and say hi!

This year’s session catalog is clearly the best attendees have ever seen, and narrowing my favorites down to just three picks is nothing short of an impossible challenge for me. We have put together an amazing collection of sessions that represent all areas of BlackBerry® development, and these presentations are going to be delivered by some of the industry’s leading subject matter experts. If you haven’t seen the catalog yet, I invite you to review it and choose your own top 3 picks.

The main area of interest for me this year will be the sessions that address the major improvements that have been made to the Web platform since last year’s DEVCON. The recent launch of BlackBerry® 6 introduced the powerful WebKit browser engine to the BlackBerry® Torch™ 9800 smartphone. As well, the BlackBerry® Widget development platform has grown considerably in just one year to the point that we are seeing a growing trend in development activity.

I am happy to see that there will be almost 20 sessions this year at DEVCON that focus on BlackBerry Web and Widget development. The three sessions I am looking forward to the most are:

DEV48 – Introduction to WebKit: Developing Web and Widget applications for BlackBerry 6
In this session, George Staikos (Senior Director of the Torch Mobile team), and Tim Neil (Manager of Development Tools) will cover how this powerful web content rendering engine visually and functionally enhances your web-based applications. Join these experts for 60 minutes of engaging and in-depth conversation about WebKit!

COM01 – Transferring to BlackBerry Widgets within the Enterprise
I met Jason Mace at DEVCON last year, and he immediately made a strong impression on me – so much so that I knew he would become a valuable member of the BlackBerry Widget development community. I was certainly right, as I’m sure for anyone who has spent time in the Web Forums can agree, Jason is plays a very active role in enhancing the Widget platform through his contributions in providing support to other developers, as well as feedback from his own efforts. I’m very interested to hear Jason’s insight into his experience on developing applications within an Enterprise environment. Be sure to introduce yourself to Jason at this year’s show.

DEV36 – Before You Go to Market: Tips, Tricks and Lessons Learned about Selling Commercial BlackBerry Applications
Okay, I’ll admit this one isn’t specifically about BlackBerry Web or Widget development. However, if you are considering developing an application using the BlackBerry Widget SDK, you should consider attending this session. BlackBerry Widget applications can be distributed and sold through application storefronts like BlackBerry App World. Neil Sainsbury (Senior Application Development Consultant) will share his real-world experience in going to market and successfully selling commercial BlackBerry applications. Attendees will gain valuable information in hearing what Neil has to say about successfully designing, developing, testing and preparing to market your application before you actually go live in the marketplace.

That’s it for me now. I hope I’ve convinced you at how important it is to attend DEVCON this year. Please remember to introduce yourself to me if you see me at the show and mention you read this article. What are the sessions you are most looking forward to?