The Road to GOTO Chicago: Chaos Tour
San Francisco to Chicago via … most places!
It’s on! It’s REALLY on!
Thanks to GOTO Chicago and the GOTO Conferences, Russ Miles, the Geek on a Harley, the CEO of ChaosIQ, is on tour across the US in April!
Yes, you heard correctly! The lovely people at the GOTO Chicago conference are in my corner and I’m working with their team to set the details of the Geek on a Harley tour across the US in April this year!
So what are the details I hear you ask… great question! Right now I have an itinerary and a lot of arrangements to make. Flights, hotels, the bike, learning to pilot a drone for video footage … all this is ahead of me and I’m absolutely stoked to get stuck in.
But here’s the thing, this tour is not really about me, it’s about YOU! The GOTO conference’s tagline is “For Developers, by Developers” and that extends to this tour as well. I want to come say hi and speak to as many people as possible as I wind my merry way on the tour and I am looking for like-minded souls to help me get that organised.
Before I get into the details of what I need some help with though, let’s talk “schedule”.
The Schedule from Hell! (Or Heaven, depends on your perspective)
Things kick off in San Francisco and then it’s a fairly rapid ride from city to city across as much of the American nation as I can make.
Here are the dates and stops:
- In San Francisco — Sunday 1st April.
- San Francisco to San Jose — Monday 2nd April
- San Jose to Los Angeles — Tuesday 3rd April
- Los Angeles to Las Vegas — Wednesday 4th April
- In Las Vegas — Thursday 5th April
- Las Vegas to Salt Lake City — Friday 6th April
- Salt Lake City to Denver — Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th April
- In Denver — Monday 9th
- Denver to Oklahoma City — Tuesday 10th April
- Oklahoma City to Dallas — Wednesday 11th April
- Dallas to Houston — Thursday 12th April
- Houston to New Orleans — Friday 13th April
- In New Orleans — Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th April
- New Orleans to Atlanta — Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th April
- Atlanta to Nashville — Wednesday 18th April
- In Nashville — Thursday 19th April
- Nashville to Memphis — Friday 20th April
- In Memphis — Saturday 21st April
- Memphis to Kansas City — Sunday 22nd April
- In Kansas City — Monday 23rd April
- Kansas City to Chicago — Tuesday 24th April
In a nutshell this is how the tour looks on a map (well, two maps as planning all the stops is tricky in one go on Google Maps…):
Here’s where YOU come in: A Meetup in Every City
If you are in one of the destinations on the tour and would like to help me organise a meetup for your community (or communities if there’s more than one as that’s even better) then get in touch!
At every stop on the tour I’m aiming to give a free talk on software.
The theme of the tour is “Chaos Engineering and Cloud Native”, because that’s what I know best, but that’s fairly broad and the aim will be to tune the talks I give to the audiences that show an interest in each of the destinations.
This is where I need your help. The mission of the tour is to meet people, have interesting conversations about software, and generally bring communities together. To do this I need you!
If you are in one of the destinations on the tour and would like to help me organise a meetup for your community, or communities if there’s more than one as that’s even better, then get in touch! We’ve already got some community’s looking to set things up in their towns but we’d love to hear from more as we look to make me as busy as possible as I ride the tour.
It’s going to be Social
The tour is going out on every conceivable social channel I can think of, so even if you can’t get involved or get to one of the destinations on the schedule you can still get involved in the fun!
Here are the places to subscribe to and check out:
- Geek on a Harley blog: Regular posts before and during the tour will be features here on Medium on the Geek on a Harley blog.
- GOTO Conference blog: The GOTO Conference blog for social media updates/news.
- Geek on a Harley and GOTO Chicago YouTube channels: Videos will be regularly posted to the Geek on a Harley and GOTO Chicago YouTube channels.
- Geek’s and the GOTO Chicago twitter accounts: Talks on the tour will be live streamed from the Geek’s and the GOTO Chicago twitter accounts.
- Geek on a Harley and GOTO Conference Facebook Pages: Videos and updates will feature on the Geek on a Harley and GOTO Conference Facebook Pages.
- Geek on a Harley on instagram: A stream of pictures and other entertaining oddities will be flowing through Geek on a Harley on instagram.
Want to ride?
Join for a bit of, or the whole of, the Tour!
Got a bike (or can hire one), or a car, and fancy joining some of the tour as well? Just a section, or the whole month-long tour? You’re entirely welcome!
Get in touch with me and we can discuss where to meet up and ride. The more the merrier on the tour!
No Les Paul, but if there’s a guitar to hand…
Those of you who do know me will know I tend to play guitar a bit in my talks. Due to the bike I won’t be able to bring my usual, gorgeous travelling companion, my Les Paul, but if anyone wants to supply a PA and a guitar for the evening … I’m in!
Promotions and Interviews
I want to chat with, and live-stream, with YOU
As well as T-shirts, stickers and the usual merchandise, there will also be awesome discounts foir the GOTO Chicago 2018 conference for those that can make one of the meetups on the tour or who watch the activity on the various media and social media for the tour.
As well as the talks I’ll be looking to chat and live-stream interviews with people at the meetups, talking about their experiences with software development as well as anything else that comes to mind! Fancy chatting to the Geek, then get in contact.
Finally, a Tour Book as well
For the truly inside scoop there will be a Tour Book available on LeanPub for a small price.
For those wonderful folks who get involved in helping me with the tour I’ll be giving free access to the Tour book, the Antifragile Software book (will be completed before the tour), and anything else I can think of to reward these heroes.
A Celebration of Roadtrips, Code, and what it is to be a Geek!
The GOTO conference motto is “For Developers, by Developers” and that certainly is the message to bring technology communities together that the Geek on a Harley is all about.
I’m looking forward immensely to this tour and I hope we can make it something that truly brings some tech communities together in a fun, engaging and entertaining way. That’s the goal!
If you want to get involved in any way at all, give me a ping on Twitter, Facebook, Email or even just a comment here on this very tour-announcement article!
I look forward to hopefully seeing you on the tour!
Russ Miles
The Geek
Sponsors
The “Road to GOTO Chicago: Chaos Tour” Geek on a Harley tour is sponsored by GOTO Chicago 2018 — For Developers, by Developers
