Node nerds unite at the first-ever Node Summit

“I don’t cargo cult often, but when I do, I do it with Node.js.”

So runs a wry joke we recently read about Node.js, the somewhat suddenly popular server-side programming technology that’s been all the rage among developers in our acquaintance.

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If you’re ready to join the cargo cult too, initiation is just around the corner.

Node Summit is coming up January 24 and 25 in San Francisco, so mark your calendars, book your plane tickets and train your eyes to the Bay Area sky in search of the Node-shaped beacon.

We got in touch with Joyent, the company that sponsors the development of Node.js. While they said the summit should be valuable for developers and investors, they also highly recommend that businesses sign up to attend, particularly companies planning large-scale or data-intensive real-time web apps or companies that have already done so and want to show their wares.

“This would include telcos, mobile operators and device makers, PaaS providers, Internet companies and enterprises with big data challenges,” said a Joyent spokesperson.

Sessions at the summit will cover “a range of areas where Node.js is relevant, including PaaS, Large Scale Web, Mobile and one or two others.

“We have invites out to industry experts and executives who are working on future computing challenges, who can talk about the need for technology that addresses these challenges and who can show why this is important for the target audience,” said the rep.

So far, Node-focused meetups and hackathons have been zeroed in on the technology itself. So the Node Summit team wanted to create a space to zero in on the business benefits of Node.js, including the efficiencies that companies are already seeing and hypothetical or theoretical benefits that haven’t yet been implemented.

“The Node.js project has evolved to the point that we are seeing large companies like LinkedIn start to deploy major applications using Node,” said our Joyent spokesperson, “and we are seeing significant interest as a result of this. We at Joyent were talking about holding such an event when we met up with Charles Beeler and Andy Jenks, and we decided to join forces.”

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The summit is being produced by Joyent, El Dorado Ventures’ Charles Beeler and EMC Ventures’ Andrew Jenks. Both of the venture firms are also making financial contributions to the event.

Tickets should be available within the next couple months. The summit doesn’t yet have a website online, so interested parties should follow the above-linked Twitter account for more information.

Relevant vendors might be present, and the organizers are also planning to have a day of the summit “dedicated to a startup showcase (think LaunchPad)… about 30 startups leveraging Node.js in a significant way. These companies will each have a space to demo their stuff and meet with investors, and some will be invited to present on stage, as well.”

We’ll definitely be at the summit to report on Node news, and we’re particularly excited about the startup showcase. Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.

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