The opening keynote was done by Tom Dale and Yehudah Katz. It started with some thoughts on inclusivity which was really nice to see. I also think the way they frame inclusivity both for the conference and for the Ember community at large was really impressive. It wasn’t just a standard read of the code of conduct and it wasn’t presented in a lecture format. It was presented in a way that the emotion of exclusivity and inclusivity were really felt by the participants on a deeper level.

This idea of inclusivity continued throughout the talk. Tom and Yehudah spoke about the Ember core team and encouraged people to get involved. They made a point to stress that the core team is not just about being a developer, there is also space on the core team for event planners, community builders, and others who will be core to building ember in different capacities. They talked about contributing to the docs and, as a newbie, was encouraged by the fact that they stressed a need for newer developers to be contributing as well to ensure that the docs and pieces of ember were accessible and understandable to everyone.

They also spoke about productivity. A core reason for people using ember is to be more productive every day. They showed this through the idea of outlining flows. When you think about a flow on an app, even simple features can have a complex flow and many screens. They then highlighted different ember apps that showed ember from different flow ideas and representations, making the point that one of Ember’s strengths lies in it’s ability to allow developers to create and link new screens very easily. Some of the apps highlighted were Vine, Bustle, and Travis.

It was an excellent opening session that really set a good tone for the rest of the conference.