(Originally posted on the Inside BlackBerry Developer’s Blog)

Lots of developers work day (and night) to try out a new technology until they understand it completely – but BlackBerry® DEVCON Americas 2011 has a shortcut. Research In Motion® (RIM®) and training partner New Toronto Group (NTG) are pleased to announce the launch of two new application development courses at this year’s conference. Choose between two one-day training opportunities that are intended to improve your skills for developing for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet OS!

Develop for the BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Using Adobe® Flex® or Adobe® AIR® is a great course if you’re an experienced developer working with Adobe Flex or Adobe AIR and need hands-on experience with the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet OS. You’ll create your own code and work through various features of a sample application, focusing on fundamentals such as designing the user interface, geolocation, consuming XML data and JSON data and deploying the app.

Develop for the BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Using BlackBerry® WebWorks™ is a course designed for experienced HTML5, JavaScript® and CSS developers. This course will teach you how to create, compile, package and deploy a BlackBerry WebWorks -based application for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. As well, you’ll focus on details like debugging an application using the BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Simulator and using an offline database within an application.

Both courses are offered at BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011 on Monday, October 17, from 9 am to 5 pm at the rate of $499 USD per person (lunch and refreshment breaks included). The course fee is in addition to the registration fees for access to BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011.

In one day, you can come away with skills that can make your apps better or your development process faster. And you can do it all while taking advantage of the resources offered at the biggest BlackBerry developer conference in the world. Register now and receive a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet when you arrive at the conference!

In just a short couple of months, some of the best community developers, key partners and industry gurus the world has to offer will gather to lead more than 30 sessions at BlackBerry® DEVCON Americas 2011. This year’s event runs from October 18-20 in San Francisco, California, and it’s a great opportunity to interact with experts on BlackBerry products and learn from their expertise.

Where else can you meet technical wizards from Adobe® for a bootcamp on Abobe® AIR® for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet? Or hear first-hand from innovators like Xtreme Labs, Penrillian, and Magmic (a game-developer dynamo responsible for Rubik’s® Cube, The New York Times® Crosswords, THKLive and Ka-Glom)? This is the place to learn how Universal Mind built a fantasy football app, how Assanka created The Financial Times app and how PricewaterhouseCoopers builds corporate mobile apps.

What else are our community leaders covering?

• Learn how to use the time-saving features of the BlackBerry® WebWorks™ Platform to build BlackBerry apps
• Understand how to build and test BlackBerry applications using the BlackBerry Java® Development Environment
• Learn how to make beautiful apps faster
• Find out how to squeeze more from an accelerometer
• Take your mobile campaign from basic to buzz with marketing tips

To tap into this vast community know-how, all you have to do is register for BlackBerry DEVCON Americas 2011. For more details on community-led sessions at the event, please visit our session catalog!

We are thrilled to announce that registration for BlackBerry® DEVCON Americas is open! BlackBerry DEVCON Americas – taking place October 18-20, 2011 at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis in San Francisco, California – reflects our commitment to make this an incredible event for developers from across North America and Latin America. In fact, we have re-opened the BlackBerry DEVCON Americas Call For Papers for developers in Latin America until May 30th; we are looking to have sessions presented in Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.

Early Bird registration for BlackBerry DEVCON Americas is only $699 USD, or $599 USD for our qualifying 2010 event alumni. This is our best registration offer ever (35% less than last year!) and represents incredible value to attendees. Also, this deal can be combined this with a special early-bird 4th-night-free offer for even more savings. Please hurry as these early bird offers end June 24th – register now! We also have special registration pricing for students ($199 USD) and faculty ($399 USD). All prices are subject to applicable taxes; please see the applicable terms and conditions.

We are also excited to announce the first ever BlackBerry DEVCON Europe as well as the second edition of BlackBerry DEVCON Asia, which builds on the success of its debut event earlier this year! We are opening the Call For Papers for BlackBerry DEVCON Europe and BlackBerry DEVCON Asia from May 2nd to June 24th. We are expecting great submissions for both events – make sure you stay tuned here for more information on dates and locations!

These events offer the best opportunity for BlackBerry platform developers – learn more about all three events at the official BlackBerry DEVCON website.

With a successful BlackBerry® DEVCON Asia just completed, we are already working on creating the best possible BlackBerry DEVCON 2011 on October 18-20 in San Francisco, USA. With little surprise, one of the biggest drivers for both new and past attendees continues to be the speakers and sessions. To ensure that we are providing one of the best programs anywhere in the mobile industry, we are going to open our call for papers earlier than we ever have in the past.

The Call for Speakers submission is now open for developers to submit their ideas for great sessions at the conference. We are now accepting descriptions for sessions that you would love to deliver at the conference. In a simple twist on last year, we are also accepting submissions for sessions you would love to see at the conference but may not be able to deliver yourself. We are actively recruiting great speakers in the field and would like your ideas on key topics for the conference.

The deadline for submissions is April 1st, but we encourage you to submit your BlackBerry DEVCON 2011 session ideas ahead of the deadline. We will be providing feedback on submissions and working with potential speakers through the submission process. I am looking forward to seeing your great ideas and session submissions!