National Instruments’ (NI) annual VIP conference took place in October, and as always, we were there. This year’s VIP 2018 was different from the previous, as we were presenting too!
The VIP 2018 is by far not the first VIP we have attended. Each and every year proved valuable and fruitful. Considering we have already presented internationally many times, at GDevCon, NI Week and CLA Summits, it’s funny that this was actually our first time being active participants. Jörg delivered a presentation on the Skills Development Track, while Manu hosted a Meet the Experts Stand.
Our Presentation on Automated Release Distribution
“How many clicks does it take you from saving your VI to getting your built application to your customer?” Joerg’s presentation on Automated Release Distribution on the Skills Development Track tried to shine a light on how the automation of processes can help save time and ensure high quality when releasing software updates.
Using GitLab’s CI features, a set of custom-built LabVIEW VIs which get called automatically via James McNally’s LabVIEW-CLI takes care of all the steps needed: Testing, Building, Packaging and Deploying the updates to a download server. A small plugin for our web-based documentation platform takes care of generating download links for our customers. Easy like that!
If you’re interested, you can find more information on our dedicated Release Automation Tools webpage.
Atmosphere
The organisers decided to pay tribute to the host region of Bavaria and make the event traditionally Bavarian themed. We had rotisserie suckling pig, Bavarian wheat beer, Bavarian pastries, Bavarian folk dances. Best of all, the NI employees clad in lederhosen and dirndl. The hospitality of VIP never disappoints, but unfortunately there is never enough time to try all the food. 🙂
Presentations
As usual our focus wasn’t on the presentations, but the attendees. Nonetheless, the presentations were interesting and high quality. For us the most captivating were:
DIAdem and Datafinder Server – Highlights of the current Versions by Walter Rick
It was very interesting getting to know how combining DIAdem, a local solution, and Datafinder, a server solution, makes large amounts of data searchable and analysable.
Learning for Leadership 4.0 in the Time Machine by Marco Schmid
This presentation detailed how a small company could pivot form a traditional system to an agile one. This presentation was extremely energetic and moving.
LabVIEW NXG Web Module: Developing web-based User Interfaces by Josef Eiswirt
Josef showcased the advantages of LabVIEW NXG and its WebVI’s. WebVI’s are based on standard web development technologies (HTML5, CSS, JavaScript). These will be very crucial to integrating LabVIEW into the web.
Communication Technologies in the context of IIoT and Cloud Services by Stefan Kissel
The Industrial Internet of Things is destined to be the future of communication. This presentation gave a nice glimpse into the various protocols in use and the various ways LabVIEW could be implemented. Of special interest was the “Getting your LabVIEW data in the browser” of the presentation.
We gained a lot of useful insights into technologies and services, that we too might incorporate sometime in the future.
Networking
Networking was the focal point of VIP 2018 for us once again. We cultivated our relationship with NI and its representatives, built new customer relations with multiple companies and of course met members of our WUELUG network. We revitalised old friendships and created new ones of course.
On top of that, we had lots of fun!
All in all, we’re delighted we were able to once again build our community outreach. Looking forward to next year’s VIP already!
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