Recap of the EuroRust 2023 conference in Brussels
In mid-October we attended the EuroRust conference in Brussels. At OTTO there are more and more enthusiasts for the programming language Rust, because this still young language offers very good performance combined with high security and a very comfortable toolchain. In my team, FT9, Rust is already being used productively for some services to provide high-performance and efficient components on otto.de. Other teams are still experimenting.
We both really enjoyed the conference. It’s not one of the big conferences like JavaLand or the AWS Summit, where there are so many parallel tracks that it’s hard to decide which one to attend. EuroRust is much smaller. There were about 450 people on site and another 300 online. There was only one track, but it showed the full range of Rust applications. For example, the first two talks were very high-level talks about current and future developments of Rust, then about Async in the depths of the compiler. But there were also talks about art with Rust, embedded systems, memory allocators, and web services. There was something for everyone. If you want to know more, the talks are also available on YouTube.
The close connection between the language’s designers and the community was clearly evident, as many developers were present to provide a glimpse into the language’s future. Probably the most important changes presented were the 2024 edition, which introduces new language features, and the introduction of async traits, an important step towards deeper integration of asynchronous programming into the language.
The fact that JetBrains did not use sales people to promote their new Rust IDE RustRover, but instead recruited the developers and the project manager for the booth, perhaps also shows that this is a different kind of conference.
We were also very impressed of the community. We met a lot of people who are involved with Rust professionally or privately. One or two luminaries (e.g. Jon Gjengset and Luca Palmieri) were also available for a personal exchange.
But it wasn’t just during the conference that there was a lively exchange. In the evenings in particular, you could meet up with a wide variety of people for a Belgian beer, for example, and talk shop about your shared passion.
Speaking of the community, it turned out to be extremely diverse. And because this diversity is respected, the conference badges are marked at the entrance to indicate whether or not you are open to discussions and would like to appear in photos. A really good idea that shows respect for the community.
The next EuroRust is scheduled to take place from October 10 to 11, 2024, the location has not yet been determined. Kay and I are already looking forward to it!
Feel free to contact Kay and me if you have any questions or just want to get in touch.
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