About KDS

Knowit Developer Summit (KDS) is Knowit's internal software development conference. The conference is put on by, and for, our passionate developers at Knowit: we arrange it, we are its speakers, and we make up its audience.

The ambition for KDS is that it will be held annually and that its location varies from year to year. The conference begins during Friday around lunchtime and runs until Saturday afternoon.A conference dinner is arranged on the Friday evening.

Hotels and conference facilities are carefully selected. We strive to ensure that accommodation is comfortable and that the conference is located near a transportation hub such as an airport, train station or bus terminal. The conference is always held in a city where Knowit developers live and work, and one or more members of the committee must live nearby.

The conference committee consists of individuals from various Knowit companies. There are no rules regarding who can join the committee; new members are welcome to get involved!

KDS is financed through cost price, and thus there is no profit target. The cost is shared equally between all participants, regardless of where you live, whether you are a speaker, audience member, or a member of the committee. Travel to and from the conference is handled by the participant.

History

The idea of holding a conference "by developers, for developers" arose sometime around 2012 within Knowit Objectnet in Norway, thanks to Fredrik Vraalsen, Alf Kristian Støyle, Tobias "tobiast" Torrissen and Jan Henrik Gundelsby). It was important that the conference's title make clear that the conference was for developers; thus, Knowit Developer.

The word "Summit" was added quite undramatically; its use may have been inspired by the "Colorado Software Summit". The target group for the conference was the passionate system developers from Knowit, especially within the Java- and .NET- platforms. The goal was that as many of the participants as possible would also be speakers - preferably all. With this arrangement, it also became clear that no external speakers would be invited.