On Tuesday, 17 November 2015 at 20:22:28 UTC, Olivier Pisano wrote:
> On Tuesday, 17 November 2015 at 18:47:58 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>> I'm thinking of inviting a notable industry luminary to deliver a conference keynote. Please reply to this with ideas! -- Andrei
>
> Erik Meijer?

+1, but FP programming is not D.

Why not Heckman (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=061AFej_cHs), he's a successuflull programmer in a domain that's not just JS/PHP/database. He's a star in the audio programming field. And his company is in Berlin.

On Wednesday, 18 November 2015 at 16:04:11 UTC, Pederator wrote:
> On Tuesday, 17 November 2015 at 18:47:58 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>> I'm thinking of inviting a notable industry luminary to deliver a conference keynote. Please reply to this with ideas! -- Andrei
>
> Russel Winder

+1 for Russel.

+1 for Erik Meijer.

On Tuesday, 17 November 2015 at 18:47:58 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> I'm thinking of inviting a notable industry luminary to deliver a conference keynote. Please reply to this with ideas! -- Andrei

John Carmack or Niklaus Wirth would be my favorites so far, although I'd consider the chances low.

Tim Sweeney (Unreal Engine). Obviously he works with C++, but has given talks about Haskell for example.

Cliff Click about Garbage Collection would be awesome as well.

From Rust, there would be the initial creator Graydon Hoare, who is not really involved anymore, though. Maybe Steve Klabnik about community management and documentation? He does a really good job for Rust.

Getting Rich Hickeys opinion on D would be interesting.

Someone who knows a lot about C++ on iOS/Android?

On Wednesday, 18 November 2015 at 04:29:29 UTC, Saurabh Das wrote:
> On Tuesday, 17 November 2015 at 20:20:22 UTC, Meta wrote:
>> John Carmack would be an amazing speaker; I love listening to his Quakecon/Oculus Connect talks. Problem is he can go for hours on end and routinely goes way over time. Also he's busy building the foundation for an entire new paradigm in entertainment.
>
> +1 - John Carmack has my vote too.

+1 for Carmack
+1 for Fabrice Bellard

On Thursday, 19 November 2015 at 10:34:09 UTC, Andrea Fontana wrote:
> On Wednesday, 18 November 2015 at 04:29:29 UTC, Saurabh Das wrote:
>> On Tuesday, 17 November 2015 at 20:20:22 UTC, Meta wrote:
>>> John Carmack would be an amazing speaker; I love listening to his Quakecon/Oculus Connect talks. Problem is he can go for hours on end and routinely goes way over time. Also he's busy building the foundation for an entire new paradigm in entertainment.
>>
>> +1 - John Carmack has my vote too.
>
> +1 for Carmack

+1 for Carmack

+1 for Tim Sweeney as a 2nd choice.

On Thursday, 19 November 2015 at 13:10:18 UTC, Mike Parker wrote:
> On Thursday, 19 November 2015 at 10:34:09 UTC, Andrea Fontana wrote:
>> On Wednesday, 18 November 2015 at 04:29:29 UTC, Saurabh Das wrote:
>>> On Tuesday, 17 November 2015 at 20:20:22 UTC, Meta wrote:
>>>> John Carmack would be an amazing speaker; I love listening to his Quakecon/Oculus Connect talks. Problem is he can go for hours on end and routinely goes way over time. Also he's busy building the foundation for an entire new paradigm in entertainment.
>>>
>>> +1 - John Carmack has my vote too.
>>
>> +1 for Carmack
>
> +1 for Carmack
>
> +1 for Tim Sweeney as a 2nd choice.

I think those talks would be great to listening and to gather newcomers.

I'm pretty sure if John Carmack accepted this invitation, he would take a look over the language and share his thoughts.

Matheus.

On 11/17/2015 10:48 AM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> I'm thinking of inviting a notable industry luminary to deliver a conference
> keynote. Please reply to this with ideas! -- Andrei

Maybe someone from JPL who can talk about software on space probes.

On 11/17/2015 08:18 PM, Ali Çehreli wrote:
> On 11/17/2015 10:48 AM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>> I'm thinking of inviting a notable industry luminary to deliver a
>> conference keynote. Please reply to this with ideas! -- Andrei
>
> Rob Pike comes to mind. He can tell us about the state of system
> programming languages.

For the record, I was joking.

Ali

On Saturday, 21 November 2015 at 22:21:48 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> On 11/17/2015 10:48 AM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>> I'm thinking of inviting a notable industry luminary to deliver a conference
>> keynote. Please reply to this with ideas! -- Andrei
>
> Maybe someone from JPL who can talk about software on space probes.

Sounds like someone just watched The Martian.

On 11/21/2015 6:32 PM, Jeremy DeHaan wrote:
> On Saturday, 21 November 2015 at 22:21:48 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
>> On 11/17/2015 10:48 AM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>>> I'm thinking of inviting a notable industry luminary to deliver a conference
>>> keynote. Please reply to this with ideas! -- Andrei
>>
>> Maybe someone from JPL who can talk about software on space probes.
>
> Sounds like someone just watched The Martian.

No, I'm waiting for it to appear on dvd.

It comes from 20 years ago I attended a seminar given by the lead on the Voyager project, and his discussion on how they developed the software and fixed bugs in it and drastically improved it while it was traveling was fascinating. For example, they figured out how to boost the resolution of the cameras with a software improvement.