For the first time in four years, Maritime DevCon, the conference for computer developers, will take place on Saturday in Fredericton.

Maritime DevCon was started in 2006, but was called DevEast and held in Moncton. It then occurred again in 2010 in Moncton and in 2011 in Fredericton.

DevCon Chair Derek Hatchard only started organizing the conference six weeks ago.  Despite that, this year’s DevCon is almost sold out, with more than 120 people registered to attend this Saturday’s event.

“I think it really speaks to the pent-up anticipation in this area because we haven’t had a lot of events lately,” Hatchard said. “Nobody’s been organizing the developer group.”

This year’s DevCon will have 12 speakers, 11 of whom are from Atlantic Canada (the other speaker is coming from Austin, Texas). Topics covered include mobile web development, statistical analysis and data design.

Hatchard said that the organizers received 16 speaker submissions—an all-time record. They were even receiving submissions after the deadline. In the past, Hatchard said he had to persuade people in to talking at DevCon.

“I can’t go to all of these sessions, and that really bums me out,” he said. “I would go to every single one if I could.”

Through his own and his team’s network, Hatchet managed to secure sponsorship from companies such as SalesForce and Planet Hatch, an incubator in Fredericton.

Hatchard said it’s important to him that cost isn’t a barrier to those wanting to attend the conference. Tickets are $60, and that gets you access to $1200 worth of door prizes (including an iPad mini, gift cards, electronics and clothing), a continental breakfast, lunch, coffee and snacks. You can register for the conference here.

“I’ve found that there are two things developers love: one is food, and the other is free T-shirts,” Hatchard said. “If you have either of them at your event, people will come in droves.”

Of the 123 people registered, 17 percent are students.

“We’re also creating an opportunity for our more seasoned professionals to pass on some of their wisdom to these up-and-coming developers,” Hatchard said. “And 10 and 15 years from now, they’re going to be experts in their area and hopefully come back and they’re going to hopefully come back and speak at conferences like this.”

Social media also helped leverage DevCon’s presence. In a contest to win a free pass to DevCon, participants had to upload a GIF showing how excited they were for the conference. With a bunch of these GIFS on Twitter and Facebook, DevCon engaged even more with the Fredericton tech community.

“We want to put on an event that caters to people who are really passionate about what they want to do,” Hatchard said. “They care about it enough that they will show up on a Saturday, and engage in this deep, technical and sometimes geeky conversation because that’s what they care about.”

DevCon is very likely to happen again next year. Date and location will be decided at a later date, but sign up here for DevCon’s newsletter to find out first.