Attending JCrete has become a tradition for me. It is high up there among my favorite events and probably my favorite location. Whenever possible, I take some time off before or after the conference to explore the Island of Crete.

Every day at JCrete starts with a morning run. You have to be up early for this as it gets very hot very quickly and the hills above the OAC are pretty steep.

But JCrete is about so much more than the running, the location, the food….It’s all about the people! And the conversations. It is not often you get to spend a week in the company of such a group of dignitaries of the Java community in such relaxed circumstances. If you ever get the chance to attend JCrete, just do it!

Since JCrete is an unconference, there are no scheduled talks. The topics for the sessions are presented and voted on every morning and the schedule materializes from that. An interesting observation is that the topics on the first and second days are usually very technical, low-level JVM stuff. Whereas later in the week, the softer topics of remote working, burnout, traveling, and coping with various work situations are more common.

After JCrete, there is no better place to be than on a beach with coffee in the making and delicious Cretan thyme honey on Greek yogurt.