Fun night of presentations at the Tampa Bay Android Developers Lighting Round

If you’re interested in Android development you should definitely check out the Tampa Bay Android Developers group. The group is made up of a diverse mix of the Bay’s Android developers (both novice and professional), marketing & business professionals, designers, students and Android fans. Meetups are typically scheduled once a month, with more frequent mini-meets, and weekly Google Hangout coding sessions. The weekly hangouts are especially worth a mention, as this is where the group collaborates on their memory game app.

Organizer, Scott Thisse, makes it clear that this group is open to anyone with an interest in Android and mobile development. That means that it is truly a collaborative environment and enthusiasts from all areas of mobile development are welcome to join.

Last night’s meetup, the Lightning Round, is a special event held about once every 6-8 months. What makes it so special? Members of the group were all invited to give presentations on anything that would be of interest to someone involved in Android development.

• To kick things off developer, Scott Thisse, showed us how to set-up Git for multi-user live coding sessions. This was especially helpful for those of us that want to get involved in the weekly group coding hangout.
• Next Lee Woods (Android Developer – Caresync) showed off his awesome Moto 360 watch and gave us a quick tutorial on how to set up actionable Android Wear notifications using Android Studio.
• Local entrepreneur, Carl Lucchi (SuccessBuilders-TampaBay) spoke about the importance of forming strategic alliances and networks to market your own app. He then gave us a sneak preview of his business card app, My Card Listings, that Scott helped him create.
• Developer, Harvey Chapman showed us how to use reflection objects to view hidden variables, specifically sntp client code.
• I gave a brief introduction to the new Tampa Bay Tech website, Slack channel, and Twitter list.
• Product Manager and Developer, Dave Cagle, went next with a much needed overview of the new Android Marshmallow features such as standardized fingerprint scanner support and more native Chrome experience within apps.
• Developer, Randy Dalrymple, gave an awesome overview of the importance of protecting yourself from risk by setting up single-member LLC’s for your apps.
• To finish off the evening, Scott gave us a peek at one of his Arduino projects.

Overall, the night was a big success and I found it extremely enjoyable and informative. If you’re interested in Android, you should seriously consider popping in for the next meetup.

Special thanks to Panera of Feather Sound for hosting us in the Group Meeting space. I also want to show appreciation for the group organizers, Scott Thisse , Dave Cagle, and Harvey Chapman for doing such a great job of bringing together the Tampa Bay Android community.