Scala World is a friendly, intermediate-level Scala conference set in the
beautiful Lake District in north-west England, incorporating a weekend of outdoor
activities with two days of Scala talks from thirty internationally-renowned
speakers, a delicious conference dinner and the annual Eyjafjallajokull Lecture.
Scala World 2017 takes place from Monday 18 to Tuesday 19 September at the Rheged Centre near Penrith, with outdoor activities on the weekend of 16 & 17 September, and optional Typelevel Workshops and a Scala Center Open-Source Spree on Wednesday 20 September.
For more information, email [email protected] or send a tweet to @propensive.
The conference venue is 2km from the small Lakeland town of Penrith, and we run a special bus service to and from Penrith town centre before and after each conference day. Penrith has a selection of hotels, guesthouses and B&Bs, any of which would make a suitable place to stay over the conference days. The largest of these are The George Hotel in the town centre, and The North Lakes Hotel and Spa, which is a little closer to the conference venue, and although walkable, we would recommend taking the bus to avoid needing to cross a main road.
Within walking distance of the Rheged Centre are the smaller Brantwood Hotel and the local Travelodge. There are many others options available through third-party agencies on Google.
But for those looking to fully immerse themselves in the full Lakeland experience, renting a car opens up a wealth of other opportunities, and staying in the nearby town of Keswick, or one of the more remote self-catering cottages deeper within the Lake District National Park, will offer you some of the Europe's best scenery on the morning ride every day!
This year we are working with Typelevel and the Scala Center to organize
something a bit different for our optional third day. We aim to improve upon
the ad-hoc workshops of previous years with a more structured format this
year: small-group workshops in the morning, followed by a Scala Center
open-source spree in the afternoon, with the Scala Center team and library
authors on-hand to help.
We think that workshops work best when they're with small groups of no more than ten people, so everyone feels involved and comfortable enough to ask questions along the way. A number of speakers, past and present, have agreed to run workshops in the morning, to teach beginners a new topic, to make intermediate users into advanced users, or as a natural hands-on follow-up to one of the main conference talks.
We will also be investing a lot of time and energy into ensuring we have the
infrastructure necessary to support a hundred users all connecting at 9am and
running an SBT update. This has been a problem in past years, so it's our
priority to make sure it works well this year.
Then, after a morning of learning, the afternoon will be an opportunity to contribute back to a Scala project at the Scala Center Hackathon. The goal from the Hackathon is to make more Scala users into Scala contributors. Whether you're already active in the Scala ecosystem and want to contribute to a something new, or if you've never made an open-source contribution before, this will be your chance! Authors of some of the most-used Scala libraries and other Scala experts will be present to do whatever they can to make the pull requests happen!
On Saturday, it is a tradition that everyone heads into the beautiful hills of the Lake District for the Big Hike.
This year we will be taking a route starting from Hartsop, passing over
Thornthwaite Crag, then down across the Kirkstone Pass (which offers tired
walkers an early exit point), before crossing to Red Screes, and down a rocky
gully, past a number of waterfalls and the tarn of Brotherswater to end up back at Hartsop.
The Brotherswater Inn should provide a convenient place to rest whilst waiting
for the return coach.
Meet at Sandgate Bus Station in Penrith at 9.30am for the bus to Hartsop, or go directly to the Cow Bridge car park near Hartsop for 10am.
For those of you missing out on Saturday's big hike, or looking for some more demanding climbing, Sunday's hike will be a chance to try out another of the Lake District's great peaks: Skiddaw. Situated just to the north of Keswick, Skiddaw is one of Lakeland's most recognisable peaks, and will offer spectacular views over Bassenthwaite Lake and Derwent Water, and will provide an opportunity to check up on the canoeing progress going on below.
After a successful, but intense, debut in 2016, mountain biking is returning this year! A local guide will take some adventurers on a choice of routes (according to ability) through some of the Lake District's best scenery.
This year we are introducing a new activity, only for the brave amongst you: canoeing on the River Derwent! A team of professional canoe instructors will lead groups of six on a 3-4 hour adventure on the stretch of river between Derwent Water and Bassenthwaite Lake.
Groups will set out at 9.30am, 10.30am and 11.30am to take to Derwent Water in Keswick for some initiation and safety training on the lake before progressing to the faster-flowing waters of the River Derwent.
Each group will then follow the river downstream, passing between the peaks of Grisedale Pike and Skiddaw, where Sunday's hikers should get a good view of all the activities going on the river below them, before finally emerging into the northerly lake of Bassenthwaite.
This is an intermediate-level activity, and we expect participants to be reasonably fit and healthy before attempting this activity. Past canoeing experience is not strictly necessary, but may be beneficial. You will, however, be in the capable hands of canoeing professionals throughout the adventure. No special equipment will be required, though we will send full details of clothing recommendations to participants a couple of weeks prior to the event.
Be sure to sign up early, as canoeing spaces are limited to 36.
©2017 Propensive Events Ltd.