WHY I LOVED MAGE UNCONFERENCE 2019:

Hello!

Here are just a few reasons why I loved MageUnconf 2019:

• The hugs. I’ve never hugged so many men in such a short space of time before. And they were all genuine too. It had that lovely feeling of belonging. I was meant to be there. Thank you everybody.
• Fabian. The man is a gentle giant. The unmistakable voice of Unconf. When he says “shut up” it would be in your best interest to shut up ;-)
• The variety. Where else in the world can there be a conference for you to actively participate in topics like JS bundling, working remotely, fairy tales, ClojureScript, keep happy, gathering project requirements, MFTF, HR tips, server side rendering, becoming certified and much much more. Wow.
• The surprise. It’s an unconference. It’s everything and anything. The good, the bad and the ugly all discussed openly and respectfully. The beauty is you don’t know the chosen sessions until everyone votes! Nobody is better than anybody else. New speakers are also encouraged which is wonderful to see.
• The build up. Sitting in Früh am Dom discussing PWA. Drinking beer at the same time definitely helps.
• No video. The single most important element of Unconference. No recording of any kind simply encourages the speaker and audience to say what they really want to.
• The attendees. As an international visitor, I was made to feel very welcome indeed. Given the format of how the sessions are decided we probably hit the maximum number of people to pull off this kind of event. It just felt like a really good crowd of people. I didn’t get a chance to have a proper catch up with quite a few. Too many nice people! :-)
• Christmas markets. That was a bonus.
• The venue. Really good location in central Cologne. 4 separate rooms upstairs for each track. Lots of space downstairs to strike up mini-meetings, chats etc. And of course some games for the kid inside us to happily break away and play.
• IDD = Irish Drunken Development. This was very clearly evident on Sunday morning. Thanks for the inspiration to now go ahead and write all about IDD. This could get messy.
• Food and beverage. From breakfast to evening meals everything was accommodated for in a very delicious way. Thanks to all the sponsors here. It makes a huge difference. I’ve not eaten that many sweets for a long time!
• The craic. It’s such a relaxed and friendly conference. I could be myself. There are real and relevant conversations happening everywhere. It’s great. For example, while having my lunch I joined in on a conversation with Jacques and Max about how important it is to switch off and get a break — you need to step away sometimes, go off-grid, recharge the batteries.
• The pre-party. I always like to see an event pre-party on the agenda. It helps break the ice, introduce yourself to people, get into the swing of things. #MageUC19 certainly delivered on that! It was grand.
• The crew. To everyone involved with organising this event —> A MASSIVE congrats and well done. You have an event to be very proud of. 5th anniversary! Roll on 2020!
• Affordability. Every effort is made to keep costs down for the attendee. Having fantastic sponsors of course helps. The ticket price is next to nothing for what you actually get. It’s unbelievable value. But the MageUC committee and sponsors go one step further. They help out some who simply can’t afford the cost of the whole trip by paying for their travel and event ticket. What’s not to love about that!
• Popular reference. www.officevibe.com : Officevibe is a simple platform that helps managers to enhance performance, leaders to understand their people, and organisations to thrive.
  I heard the above being mentioned several times over the weekend. Looks good.
• For the love of music. At last year’s event, I shared some of my favourite music with a great guy named Peter. This year we met again. To find out he recently went to see one of my favourite bands in Cologne was pretty cool (it’s a Canadian band named Half Moon Run). At MageUC, I would love to have a DJ playing our most popular tunes.
  Note: I do appreciate unconference is all about conversation and sometimes loud music at a party can drown that out somewhat.
• Keeping it a secret. I was tempted not to write about how brilliant this event is! :-) I don’t want others to know about it. But I just couldn’t help myself. The Magento community is the best!

#MageUC19 = Done. See you all next year!

Merry Christmas.
Tadhg x

:-)

5th anniversary!