2016 Develop Denver Rumination & Reflection

Five years… That’s a hell of a long time in the tech world. It’s also the age of Develop Denver, one of my favorite underrepresented events in the conference world.

Unless you work in the Denver tech and/or design fields, you likely aren’t aware of Develop Denver. Thankfully, they have a nice website which you can find here. Most of all, understand that it is a two day conference organized with the goal of bringing local developers and designers together to discuss all things code and design.

This fifth anniversary was my second time attending the event, and my first time volunteering. I enjoyed my experience last year, and found it to be an invaluable opportunity to learn and socialize with others in the community. The conference and its surrounding community have been a boon to me thus I feel inspired to share my impressions. Below, you will find my thoughts on the event, as well as some key takeaways from some standout presentations.

What Went Well:

Headquarters: Having a home-base at CodeTalent for attendees to work and socialize proved to be a valuable addition to the conference. Personally, I found that the dedicated HQ gave people a comfortable spot to rendezvous and hang out. The space facilitated networking and socializing in a way that presentation spaces couldn’t.
The Lineup: Relative to last year’s conference, I felt that this year’s presentation lineup spanned a wider variety of topics and concepts that ensnared my personal interest. Most presenters seemed to be well prepared with their delivery and content, and I often found the follow-up Q&A to be illuminating.
RiNo: Having the conference in the River North art district was a nice change of pace from last year. The wealth of restaurant and brewery options in that area is hard to beat, and the dispersed layout of the venues gave attendees the chance to get fresh air and physical activity between talks.
Ticket Price: The affordable ticket price (~$100) continues to make the two day conference an easy sell for myself and others. Rarely have I seen a conference that offers this much bang for your buck.
High Attendance: A credit to the affordable ticket price in part, the conference consistently sells out. This year was no exception.

What Could Have Gone Better:

Cramped Presentation Rooms: A consequence of the well attended conference was that some presentation areas were cramped. Additionally, a couple of the venues were noticeably smaller and didn’t have proper ventilation which made for some stiflingly warm talks.
HTC Vive Availability: It was a great idea to have the VR device demoed at the conference, but availability was limited and the device was in high demand. I only wish there would’ve been more opportunities to try it out.
Scheduling App: A minor complaint, but it would’ve been nice to have some sort of a dedicated application for adding talks to a personal schedule. I was able to improvise with a Google Sheets doc, but it would’ve been nice to have a more customized solution. I’m sure there are some bootcamp students or beginners out there that would benefit from taking on a project like this given advance notice.
Talk Selection: While most of the talks were stellar, there were inevitably some presentations that didn’t meet the average quality level both in terms of content and presenter preparation. This is an understandable drawback of having a community-driven talk selection process, but something worth noting nonetheless.

Presentations of Note:

There were a handful of talks that I found to be particularly informative, interesting, engaging or some combination of each. Frankly, too many to name. And I must preface this rundown by pointing out that I was unable to attend presentations on Thursday afternoon because I was busy volunteering at CodeTalent. That said, I’ve heard from others that there were many great talks on Thursday afternoon, so I recommend keeping an eye on the Develop Denver website as they should have videos posted soon. Here are three talks that caught my attention in all of the right ways.

Agile: More Than Just Stand-Ups presented by Kyle Coberly

In classic Kyle Coberly fashion, this talk was very energetic, opinionated, and instructive. I really appreciated his insights on finding the pieces of Agile that work for a team, and I couldn’t agree more with his take on stand-ups. He offers excellent food for thought, making it a talk I would definitely recommend to other Agile practitioners.

My Five Biggest Failures in Software presented by Will Klein

Will gave a very heartfelt rundown of some of his biggest failures as a developer and how they’ve affected his outlook on life, family, health, and career. Will’s candidness and his talk’s emotional touches made this one particularly memorable and also enlightening to someone early in their career like myself.

Professional Whack-A-Mole presented by Kristina Brown

A non-technical talk from Kristina Brown that impressed me due to the openness and panel-like discussion of her presentation. I felt that Kristina and audience members offered fascinating insights on how we prioritize learning and career advancement in a world that increasingly pulls us in separate directions.

Additional Kudos:

The Community: There are too many examples of community interaction to name here, but one of my favorites from the week started with Kyle Coberly and an amusing whiny developer impression he gave in the middle of his talk. The following Slack post appeared on Kyle’s laptop interrupting the presentation, yet he forged on without issue. Big ups to Kyle for keeping his cool and to the entire community for being so consistently jovial.

Volunteers: The entire Develop Denver staff including Dan Hannigan and the rest of the volunteers whom he organized. The conference couldn’t have happened without them.
Code of Conduct: Every conference needs one. Develop Denver’s can be found here.
Libations: Props to all of the local breweries and distilleries for contributing. A personal favorite of mine was Finkel & Garf out of Boulder.

Final Impressions:

Overall, Develop Denver was a smash hit in my book. The aforementioned positive changes were resounding and my complaints were minor by comparison. It was a proper 5th anniversary get-together, and I look forward to next year. Thank you once again to all in the Develop Denver community who made this event possible!