Welcome to Google Developers Melbourne, September Meetup. 

This month our meetup is one week earlier than usual.  This is to allow some of the presenters at this months Yow Connected conference to beta test their presentations!

We also have a Special session to discuss the future direction of GDG Melbourne.

Build Better Android Apps with Vector Assets
Luke Sleeman

There are many advantages to using vector-based assets in your Android apps — smaller binary size, faster loading, easier support for all pixel densities, dynamic drawing, and more ways to animate. Despite the upsides, SVGs and VectorDrawable assets are more complex to author and use.

Luke explores everything needed to implement SVGs and VectorDrawables on Android, including common issues and their remedies. 

Android DataBinding: This is the DSL You're Looking For!
Maksim Lin

The Android Data Binding Library is great for reducing the amount of boiler plate you need to build the view layer in your android apps.

But going beyond the basics will give you an even bigger payback.

In this talk I'll cover some of the more advanced users of Data Binding including:

• 2-way Data Binding

• custom attributes 

• complex widgets

• integrating 3rd party libraries

As a bonus, examples will come from an app in development for several year, in Google Play with thousands of users that has been refactored recently to use Data Binding.

For those that have seen the Google IO talk "Advanced Data Binding" this talk will serve as a good followup, providing more real-world examples of how to use Data Binding in your app and covering areas like 3rd party libraries that were not covered in the IO talk and are not well documented outside of blog posts and SO answers.

Community discussion around GDG's future.

Shine have told us that from next year they will no longer be able to provide us with a venue, or sponsor us for drinks and pizza.  This is so they can focus on the GDG Cloud meetup.  Shine have been a major supporter of GDG for years, and we are very grateful for their support.

The GDG Cloud Meetup and Shine ending their sponsorship have prompted some big questions about what GDG should be.  We used to be the "Android Melbourne" meetup.  The entire reason we became a GDG is to get more support off Google.  However becoming a GDG has come with a huge cost and caused some pretty big issues in how we market ourselves and how we are perceived.  Some questions up for discussion are:

• Do we remain a GDG, or do we go back to just being an Android meetup?

• If we do remain a GDG, what do we cover apart from Android?

• How are we going to find Volunteers, a venue and sponsors?

• What sort of events should we be running?  A monthly meetup?  Hack nights?  Conferences?  Drinks at the pub?

We will be hosting a community discussion to try and find answers to these questions, and to decide how we will deal with losing Shine as our major sponsor next year.

Lastly, to be very clear:  NONE OF THIS HAS ANY IMPACT ON THE DEVFEST!  It is going ahead as planned and it's looking like it will be a great event.  There will also be no changes in Shines commitment to GDG Melbourne until next year, so the November and December meetups will run as usual.

15% off offer on Yow Connected Kotlin workshop

Are you a Java developer interested in learning Kotlin?  Yow Connected have offered GDG attendees 15% off on their 1 day workshop:  Kotlin for Java Developers which is running on Wednesday the 20th of September.  The workshop will be facilitated by Svetlana Isakova, who is a Developer Advocate at JetBrains, Core Developer of the Kotlin language and co-author of the book Kotlin in Action.

Simply use the code GDGMELB-15 when purchasing your tickets.

Schedule

Doors open for drinks at 6pm, and talks will kickoff at 6:30pm. There'll also be pizza, and when the talks finish up (around 8:00pm) there'll be more time for drinks and networking. Look forward to seeing you then!