From the book Thinking in Java:
I found out, by creating and chairing the C++ track at the Software Development Conference for a number of years (and later creating and chairing the Java track), that I and other speakers tended to give the typical audience too many topics too quickly.
What does that actually mean? I tried to look up other definitions of the word track in dictionaries, but to no avail. I couldn't find anything that could even remotely fit the particular usage the author uses here.
Answer
In the context of a conference, a track is a series of related presentations all focused on the same topic.
For example, if you look at the conference planner for OOPSLA 2014, you'll see that they had four presentations on Program Analysis and the Web in one room, while there were four more talks on Runtime Systems in another room.
So, two conference attendees might be having lunch together, and say:
"Did you see that talk on garbage collection?"
"No, I was in the other track."
meaning that she was listening to the talk in the other room.
Evidently, the author of the book started the C++ track at the Software Development Conference, and later did the same thing with the Java track. The chair of a track often has the responsibility of introducing each speaker during that session, and making sure speakers don't go past their allotted time.
Incidentally, a corollary of Murphy's Law says: At a conference, the two talks you most want to attend will be held at the same time.
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