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Just be sure to put the interface class in a non-controlled package, such as you root-package (and not root-package.pages).

Which is better, using magic method names (i.e., beginRender()) or annotations (i.e. BeginRender)?

There is no single best way; this is where your taste may vary. Historically, the annotations came first, and the method naming conventions came later.

The advantage of using the method naming conventions is that the method names are more concise, which fewer characters to type, and fewer classes to import.

The main disadvantage of the method naming conventions is that the method names are not meaningful. onSuccessFromLoginForm() is a less meaningful name than storeUserCredentialsAndReturnToProductsPage(), for example.

The second disadvantage is you are more susceptible to off-by-a-character errors. For example, onSucessFromLoginForm() will never be called because the event name is misspelled; this would not happen using the annotation approach:

  @OnEvent(value=EventConstants.SUCCESS, component="loginForm")
  Object storeUserCredentialsAndReturnToProductsPage()
  {
    ...
  }

The compiler will catch a misspelling of the constant SUCCESS. Likewise, local constants can be defined for key components, such as "loginForm".