Introduction
Hi, I’m Masaki, one of the FlutterNinjas organizers.
In this article, I will introduce what the event was like with several photos. I’ll also reflect on my thoughts during the event.
I hope you’ll enjoy reading this, if you didn’t attend the event and are curious about the event’s atmosphere, or already participated but want to reminisce about the day or get to know about the behind-the-scenes :)
About the Event
This is the LP:
The event was held at docomo R&D OPEN LAB in Odaiba, Tokyo.
The venue map:
The venue is mainly divided into:
- BRIDGE: Session area
- PARK: Rest area
Now, let’s take a look at each area one by one.
BRIDGE (Session Area)
The area looked like the picture above.
- The left side of the stage: Speaker
- The right side of the stage: Host
- Audience seats: Desks available for using PCs
- Japanese translation section(lower right in the pic): Displaying Japanese translations using a tool.
Session schedule:
The sessions are explained by Kuno-san (in Japanese):
After each session, there was a Q&A time, and we gave limited-edition stickers to those who asked questions as a thank-you for contributing to the session.
The breaks were:
- Regular breaks: 15 minutes.
- Lunch break: 1.5 hours.
- Coffee break: 30 minutes.
We ensured long breaks as the event takes up the entire day and can be tiring, especially for non-native speakers.
PARK(Rest Area)
The atmosphere in the rest area:
- Sponsor booths on both sides.
- Large monitor displaying session slides from BRIDGE.
In the central circular space, we placed various items for participants to enjoy during breaks.
World snacks corner
Snacks from around the world, thanks to international participants who brought their national snacks.
It was great to taste different cultures through their snacks.
Drinks corner
Fresh coffee from a nearby café, which was very popular.
People loved coffee so much that we frequently had to refill it 😂
Free Items corner
Stickers and pins, including those provided by the Google Flutter team and participants.
The Dash pins were especially popular and you were lucky if you got one :)
Swag display corner
Various items from the Flutter team and FlutterNinjas T-shirts, with a QR code for a raffle.
Almost everyone participated in the raffle, and it went very exciting.
Ask the speaker space
Space for asking questions to speakers after their sessions, which was quite relaxing with tatami mats
I assume it provided a fresh experience, especially for international speakers.
Free conversation space
Conversation topics like “What CI/CD do you use?” and “How do you see your career with Flutter?” were printed to enhance conversations between participants during the breaks.
Though I never saw anyone use those prompts, it was totally fine as they were naturally engaging in conversations without any assistance!
Books display space
Books by Kei and Majid (“Flutter Engineering”), were displayed and sold at a discount.
The real books added a nice touch to the atmosphere, I hope.
About meals
Lunch
The lunch was Japanese bento with fish, pork, or chicken.
Vegetarian menus were provided as well, especially for some international participants.
Dinner
At the end of Day 2, after the closing ceremony, we had a fun time, with a toast of “Kanpai” (cheers in Japanese).
After party
Many of us enjoyed the Japanese izakaya a lot!
Conclusion
Thank you for reading.
I love organizing events and occasionally hold events called FlutterGakkai, but FlutterNinjas was a much larger scale two-day event, and it was a significant challenge for me.
I’m deeply grateful to everyone who came from all over the world and told me they were looking forward to the next year, which made me feel it was worth all the effort so far.
Thank you to all participants, speakers, and sponsors.
We are planning the next event for spring, so stay tuned on our official X account!
