The Hitchhiker’s Guide to a Tech Conference
This article is meant to give you an overview of why and how to visit a tech conference. It targets professionals in the software engineering discipline, but most of it can also be applied to other professions and knowledge sharing events.
Why Should I Visit a Conference At All?
What is the most vital asset in your career? You. Some people like to call this human capital. It is one of the most important things you can invest your time and money in. By doing so, you will progress in your personal development, leading to the next steps in your career. Your personal growth can be broken down into three pillars:
- specialized in-depth knowledge of a particular technology or methodology,
- broadening the horizon,
- and social skills.
For each of these pillars, different methods and techniques can be used to improve them including books, online courses, articles, magazines, recorded talks, tutorials, and so on. Every person is different in how to gain knowledge. For some persons just reading articles is sufficient to have a profound idea of how a specific technology works. Other people need to have hands-on experience to get a grasp of it.
There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.
— Douglas Adams
In general, visiting a conference talk is an excellent way to get a general idea about a topic. Further, it enables the attendees to hear about emerging trends. You might also find solutions to the one problem that is annoying you the most in your current work. But do not only trust the vendor in presenting their product. I like to hear from the users of the technology about how they use it and what problems they had in adapting it. You can discuss the pains and struggles they had and the ones you experienced. Thus both of you will gain new insights and have an idea about how to solve your respective problems. Furthermore, this helps you network with other professionals in your field, which might come in handy the next time you need help.
What Types of Tech Conferences Exist?
The following classification table is populated with conferences I attended myself. It shall give an idea about what kind of events there are and how to categorize them. We will discuss later how this influences your experience as an attendee.
It felt natural to me to divide the events by their duration. I did leave out additional workshop days though for simplicity. But apart from this, there are other properties to consider to have a distinction between events. These might be:
- number of talks,
- targeted level of the audience,
- number of attendees,
- number of rooms or even venues involved,
- and the ticket price.
Special Considerations at a Multi-Track Conference
Some of the conferences are organized in multiple tracks, which also means, that there are various rooms involved. These tracks might signify an overall topic that a specific talk belongs to or the level of knowledge for those talks. Conferences of category L and XL are commonly organized with multiple tracks.
For Multi-Track conferences, I suggest having a look at the schedule some days before the event to look for your favorite topics. Mark them. Furthermore, I recommend you to have a backup session to attend. If your first choice is not available due to sickness or being overcrowded, you can switch to the backup without the need for going through all the alternatives for the time slot in that very moment.
Special Considerations at a Multi-Venue Conference
Getting more complicated now. Alright, talking about category XL. I attended the AWS re:Invent in November 2018, which was distributed between different locations on the Las Vegas Boulevard. Even though the distance is not that big for a fit person, it is still very exhausting to switch the hotel. Remember, you are here for actively listening to inspiring talks, which is tiring enough for its own.
For this kind of conference, the recommendation is to limit the changes between building to one or two times per day at the very most. Especially at the AWS re:Invent, you will have the opportunity to attend a repeated version of that session on a different day or different venue. AWS also offers to watch a live stream of popular talks from a dedicated streaming room at another hotel. And in the end, there are always the recordings, where you might find the content you missed.
Rather than running from one building to the other, I recommend you stay at one location for that day and fill the free slots with sessions taking place at the venue where you are in for that day. By doing so, you will attend content you usually would not have chosen and therefore even entirely out of your field. Which, again, will broaden your horizon.
Preparing Your Attendance: Always Carry a Towel
Now that you know, why attending conferences are insightful, let’s choose a conference to attend and have a look at how to plan your visit.
Select the Appropriate Conference to Visit
Not every conference will be useful to you. Selecting the right conference will be the first step, and depending on where you live and where you work not an easy one. Usually, your company will pay for the conference ticket as they are certainly interested in your development. But they also would like to make sure they invest their money wisely. Therefore, the selection of the appropriate conference is a crucial part.
Apart from asking your colleagues about which events they would recommend, you can always look at the website of a conference. You will find a general description of their content and target audience. Mostly, the content of the next occurrence is finalized some weeks or even days before the event. But you can have a look at the schedule of last year as well as the recordings in order to get a picture of the conference.
There’s a whole new life stretching out in front of you.
— Zaphod Beeblebrox in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Conferences come in different sizes as we have discussed already. But they are also targeting different audiences. Some are focused on specific technologies (AWS Summit, NewRelic FutureStack, etc.) and also come in different shapes of the target level. The AWS conferences always give you an idea on the level of the talk with the attached numbers ranging from 1xx for the beginners to 4xx for the most advanced topics. This year, the AWS Summit offered more basic sessions on the first day and more advanced ones on the second day. This way, one could choose to visit only one of those days, according to the level of content they wanted to hear.
One additional thing I would like to make you consider is the travel time and distance which you would need to cover to get to that conference. It’s not only about your personal comfort or about how much costs you would generate, but also about the environmental impact. Is there maybe a conference with similar content, but closer to you? Is traveling by train a suitable option?
Booking the Ticket
As already mentioned, most companies will cover the expense of the conference, e.g., by booking the ticket in your name. Some events even offer a discount if you book a certain amount of tickets. But you can also save on the ticket price by booking early in advance. Which makes only sense, if you already know you definitely want to visit that specific conference, even though the schedule is not published yet.
If you book for yourself, you might want to think about which data you will give away. Most conferences will have a paragraph in their ‘Terms and Conditions’ document, which allows them to forward your name, position, company name, email address, phone number, etc. to sponsors and exhibitors. Especially in the case you scan your badge (or QR code for that matter) at one of the booths at the expo. The exhibitors/sponsors are the second source of income for a conference in addition to ticket sales.
If you choose to put in a valid email address and get scanned at one of the booths (because you desperately needed to have that pair of socks they are giving away), you might get some marketing emails after the event. My experience so far showed that it is possible to politely decline any offer and unsubscribe from their mailing list without any problems. And with any company residing in the European Union, you can ask for the deletion of your data according to GDPR.
Before the Conference Begins
No later than on the evening before the conference, I recommend you to read through the (updated) schedule. You might have already looked for your favorite sessions. You can now make a rough plan for what to visit, as discussed earlier. And remember: it is always nice to have a backup. But don’t only think about the content. Your physical well-being is also crucial. If not already planned by the organizers, you should leave some room for having lunch or snacks.
For the conference categories M or above, there usually is an expo area, where you will find the sponsors. You might want to have a look beforehand if there are exhibitors of your interest. Think of some topics to discuss with them and pay a visit. Is there an exhibitor you are considering to collaborate with? Or one you know nothing about what they offer?
Most conferences in categories L and XL offer a mobile app to make your visit more comfortable. The app usually includes the schedule, venue map, sponsor names, and links to social media channels. It might also already contain your conference ticket, which you need to present at the front desk to get your official badge. It is sometimes also used by the organizers to make public announcements. Most of those apps also offer to rate sessions leave some feedback to the speakers.
Another special consideration at XL conferences are reserved seats, if applicable. For some session, you only will have the opportunity to join it, if you booked your seat early enough in advance. You might still have the chance to get into the “walk-up” lane, but that is a gambling game. For the AWS re:Invent 2018 in particular, the initial session catalog was published about two months before the conference started. And two weeks later, you could reserve seats. The schedule was still subject to change all the time. Sessions were added or moved repeatedly. As there was no calendar view or app at that time, I helped myself by implementing a simple Python-based script for showing what sessions I favorited or reserved so far and if they overlapped. Later, there was an official mobile app helping with that.
During the Conference Itself: Don’t Panic.
The day has come. It is going to happen. After having prepared your schedule and looking for the best way to get from your home or hotel to the conference venue on time, you will be at the conference.
Arriving at the Location
As soon as you reach the venue, the first task is to collect your conference badge. You did bring the printed ticket, right? Most conferences of category L or XL offer cloakrooms. Depending on the time of the year, you might want to get rid of your winter jacket here. But don’t forget to pick it up later. Of course, you should keep the towel with you. Never leave that behind! The next step is to orientate yourself if you haven’t been at this location already. And even if so, the organizers might have changed room numbers or walking routes for technical reasons. Now go and get some coffee, you will need it for the next part.
While in a Talk
So you managed to get into the first talk. Or is this the keynote? Well, it doesn’t matter. One thing that always helps me to stay focused on the content and keep track of what I experience is to take notes. On old-fashioned paper with an old-fashioned pen. Others prefer to make their notes digitally or directly code them in LaTeX. For most talks, the slides will be made available after the conference.
If you want to help the speaker to improve, you can usually write some feedback afterward in the official app. And if the conference app doesn’t offer that, go ask the organizers to add it for next year. Feedback from the audience is always an excellent source for improving the style and content of a talk. Additionally, I strongly encourage everyone to shut the hell up during the session. The other attendees who are trying to follow the content (maybe not even in their native language) will appreciate, as will do the speaker.
Between Talks
As you leave one session, you might already want to know where to head next. In which room is your next favorited session? Even though this might seem to be the perfect opportunity to get some food, snacks, coffee or bathroom, you will not be the only one with that idea. Depending on the local capacities, I would recommend doing those things in a time slot, where you have not found a session to attend. You can, of course, use the free slot for visiting the expo and talk to the exhibitors, as discussed earlier.
After the Event: So Long, and Thanks for All the Ideas
Ok, it is finally over. You did it. Even though conferences are great, they can also be quite exhausting. Leave it for now and relax. On the next day, you can read through your notes with a fresh mind. What did you learn? What are the things from which your current project might profit? Or do you want to try out something just for yourself? After the recap, you could make a prioritized list of what to work on next. This list is not limited to hands-on experimenting with a technology you heard of at the conference, but also things on which you want to do further research and readings. And if you know others attendees personally, why not talk to them and discuss your lists together?
The last ever dolphin message was misinterpreted as a surprisingly sophisticated attempt to do a double-backwards-somersault through a hoop whilst whistling the ‘Star Spangled Banner’, but in fact the message was this: So long and thanks for all the fish.
— Douglas Adams
Additionally, you can give a short presentation at your office on what you learned. Doing so will also allow you to train public speaking. And who knows, maybe at some point you will do your first public talk. I will share my thoughts on that in a future article.
