First-Time at Kansas City Developer Conference: Reflections of a Novice Speaker
I recently attended the Kansas City Developer Conference (KCDC), one of the largest conferences in the USA. This year, over 2,000 people participated in the event.
It was an absolute honour for me to have the opportunity to present at the Kansas City Developer Conference as a speaker. Little did I know that the competition would be fierce:
According to a post by one of the organizers, out of a total of 1,479 submissions, our dedicated content team had the daunting task of selecting only 172 available slots. With an estimated acceptance rate of 11.63% for KDCD 2023, I felt incredibly fortunate to be among the chosen few.
Another interesting fact was that when I submitted my proposal, one of the organizers reached out to me on Twitter. Surprisingly, I was the only applicant ever from Georgia. He mentioned that he knew about my country because he had once taken classes with a student from Georgia (truly a small world!). This encounter marked the beginning of a friendship between Jeff and me.
Several years ago, while working as a freelance writer for Okta, one of the biggest tech companies, I had the opportunity to contribute articles to their blog. As fate would have it, it turned out that Okta’s Developer Advocate, Heather Downing, was also one of the organizers of the conference, residing in Kansas. This delightful revelation further solidified our friendship during the conference.
As a speaker, I had the unique opportunity to spend more time with other speakers, as we were all staying at the same hotel. This arrangement allowed us to have engaging conversations, share experiences, and form connections beyond the conference sessions. Additionally, I had the pleasure of attending the Speaker Party, where one of the organizers surprised us with special badges. Each badge featured an AI illustration of every speaker, adding a personalized touch to the event.
During the conference, I had the pleasure of meeting individuals who had served on agenda committees for other prominent conferences like NDC Oslo and NDC London. Additionally, I had the opportunity to meet Neringa Young, the organizer of Build Stuff. It was quite surprising for all of them to learn that I had traveled from a distant country to take part in the conference.
I had the incredible opportunity to meet renowned developers such as Ian Cooper, Jimmy Bogard, Layla Porter, Jeremy Miller, Martin Thwaites, Glenn Henriksen, Poornima Nayar, Richard Campbell, and Shawn Wildermuth at the conference. Moreover, I was thrilled to interact with speakers representing top companies like Amazon Alexa, GitHub, Amazon Web Services, Dropbox, Redis, and MongoDB.
In such a remarkable gathering, alongside these fascinating individuals, I had the privilege of presenting my topic: “Beyond Relational with Entity Framework — Working with JSON, Spatial Data, and Full-Text Search.” It was a fantastic opportunity to share my experiences and exchange insights with attendees from all over the world. Although I must admit I was a bit nervous, the overwhelming excitement overshadowed any apprehension I had.
In conclusion, I firmly believe that you never truly know unless you try, and in the spirit of conferences, you never lose if you make the attempt. Conferences serve as platforms for individuals who are constantly learning and enthusiastic about sharing knowledge. It was an incredible experience to be part of this vibrant community of learners and contributors.
