GraphQL Finland 2018
A community-organized GraphQL conference
I’m super stoked to be organizing GraphQL Finland at 18–19th of October, here in Helsinki. After React Finland ended up being a big success, we thought we might add a separate GraphQL Day or a pre-event next year. However, at the afterparty of YGLF Kiev Juho and me decided to arrange an entire conference around the topic.
We felt there was room for a new GraphQL conference given only two exist so far. This way we can provide more space for emerging speakers and topics that might not get attention otherwise. The goal is to make the community stronger and more united. What’s a better way to achieve this than with a conference.
Conference Venue — Paasitorni
The conference will be held in Paasitorni, a place of historic value. There’s something special about organizing a conference in a venue with history behind it as React Finland showed us.
Conference Format — One day of workshops, one day of talks
The first day of the conference (18.10.2018) has been dedicated for workshops. The plan is to have four workshops. So far we’ve confirmed “Let’s Learn GraphQL“ with Sara and “Advanced GraphQL” with Nik.
Workshops
“Let’s Learn GraphQL” is going to be a free workshop, specifically for the underrepresented people in the community. Tickets to this workshop will also include a free diversity ticket to the main conference. We’ll publish more details soon.
Nik’s workshop is for people already using GraphQL. It’s a good chance to further your understanding of the topic. You can bring your own problems to the day workshop. It’s a good chance to figure out how to solve them.
Talks
The second day of the conference (19.10.2018) follows practices we discovered during React Finland. We’ll have two talk formats: regular talk (30 mins) and lightning talk (15 mins) arranged to flow from a talk to another. There will be breaks in between so you can get your daily dosage of caffeine.
We’ve already secured most of our speakers although a few more remain to be announced. We have an international and diverse range of speakers waiting for you.
Conclusion
I hope we can see you in this non-profit, community organized conference. I feel it’s a good addition to the conferences available at the Nordics. It’s a good chance to see what GraphQL is about and how you might be able to use it. It’s really not that cold in October and you’ll see beautiful yellow Autumn.
