I Will Be At The API Specifications Conference In Vancouver Next Month

Looking through the ASC program schedule I am seeing coverage of the entire API toolbox, covering REST ,Hypermedia, GraphQL, gRPC, and event-driven APIs, with representation for JSON Schema, JSON-LD, OData, OpenAPI, RAML, API Blueprint, and AsyncAPI. Which for me represents the future of API design and development, preparing us all for the realities we will be facing on the ground across the organizations we work at each day. While REST is the cornerstone of everything API, I support everyone being well versed in a diverse API toolbox, as well as there being multiple API specification formats to rule them all—again, making the API Specifications the most important API event out there in my opinion.

I will be heading to Vancouver for ASC in October. No plans to speak yet, but Abhijit Kane from Postman will be speaking on API schema formats and his learnings using them at Postman. If nothing else, I will just be roaming the halls panhandling and maybe busking a little bit in the corner. The lineup is pretty amazing—I’m looking forward to actually plotting out which talks I will be attending, and trying to take in sessions from across the spectrum. I’m looking to learn more about what the future holds for JSON Schema, AsyncAPI, as well as OpenAPI, but I’m also keen on getting up to speed regarding how some of the larger companies are viewing the spectrum of API specifications that exist across the landscape today.

It will be interesting to be at the conference after operating it as API Strategy & Practice for so many years. It REALLY makes me happy to see it reborn as a specification conference. I’m completely serious when I say it is the most important API event out there (3 times). It is! To me, API definitions are what matter the most. Code will be refactored, and tools and services come and go, but our most important work will live on as API definitions. While there are plenty of vendor experiences to be had at other conferences, if you want o rub elbows with the who’s who of the API sector, and learn what matters from the experts, you should be in Vancouver next month. I look forward to seeing you all there, and catching up with many of you that I haven’t seen in a while.