API Strategy and Practice Recap!

API Strategy and Practice (affectionately known as API Strat) is my absolute favorite industry conference, both as an attendee and as a sponsor manning a booth. Though smaller than a lot of conferences out there, API Strat is attended, sponsored, and organized by the most dedicated, friendliest, and most enthusiastic group of people I've ever had the pleasure of working with.

I attended for the first time last year, when the conference was held in Austin, Texas. This year, it was a bit closer to home for me. In fact, it was in Boston - right in my back yard! The conference was held at the beautiful Marriott Long Wharf hotel, right next to the New England Aquarium. With excellent amenities, a welcoming atmosphere, and a truly accommodating staff, it was the perfect place to host such an event.

API Strat is truly a focused conference. Only those who are interested in or working with APIs attend, and SmartBear is no exception. Our Ready! API Platform might be our hometeam favorite, but relative newcomer Swagger Hub was definitely the MVP of this show. Lots of people are familiar with Swagger, but many of them were completely unaware that SmartBear (who donated the Swagger Specification to the Open API Initiative) has a powerful tool in place for designing and building APIs using the Swagger spec. If you haven't already, click the link above to check it out! I had several really great conversations with attendees and a few of my fellow sponsors about Swagger Hub and the way it works, what it can do, and the features available within the solution.

This year, I was not only a sponsor and an attendee, but a speaker as well! I got partnered up with some truly knowledgeable presenters from companies like Microsoft and Cloud Elements and not only did I have fun speaking about the importance of virtualization and engaging with the audience, but I also learned some fascinating things and met some really interesting people.

All in all, it was a wonderful event and a great way to connect with people in the industry, as well as seeing some old friends, like Lorinda Brandon, Amelia Mango, and Paul Bruce.

If you have the ability to attend next year, I highly recommend doing so.