Conferences, events, and making rooms that are easier to walk into.
I have long been a fan of social rules to make events more inclusive. Ever since I attended my first tech conference, I’ve seen the career-enhancing power of events, but they have never been equally accessible to all people.
You walk into the room and you’re wearing the wrong thing. Everyone else is dressed casually, but you are not. You feel silly and find the quickest excuse to leave the situation. This is an example of a common situation: not knowing what is expected of you when you enter a new place.
I have had the opportunity to provide mentorship to folks who have organized conferences twice in 2017. Through this process I have realized the value in this practice, and I’d like to write this to promote others to do to same for first year conference organizers.
I’ve been going to professional events for a number of years, and one of the trickiest dynamics I have seen is that most events develop an “insiders” group who has been going for a long time. These groups tend to feel like exclusionary cliques for first-time attendees, and actively hurt the community’s goal of inclusion.
I firmly believe that conferences can provide a lot of value for people in an industry. Conferences allow people to create a network, which helps them feel integrated in a community and profession.
At many conferences, people allow the audience to ask questions after the talks. I want to argue that this is an anti-pattern in many ways, and some solutions that have worked that I recommend.
Conferences have been a fundamental part of me becoming a professional developer. Having a network of people you know personally in a professional context is a huge advantage. It helps getting jobs, they help you think through problems, and it’s important to help you identity as a member of the community.
A story about XOXO Festival in 3 acts. I will start first with something that set the tone, then talk about the importance to me, and then what I hope comes from it in the future.
I just gave a talk title “Large problems, Mostly solved”, which you will recognize if you’ve been reading this blog for a little while. I took my past series of Large problems posts, and expanded on them into a full talk.
It’s conference season and I realized that I haven’t talked about any of the ones that I’ve been to or am going to, so I figured it would be a good post.
At most open source conferences, a lot of attention is given to the talks. At the ones that I have been to (Djangocon and Pycon), the most fun that I have had, and the most I have learned is during the sprints. I want to talk about the value and importance of staying for the sprints at a conference.
The ice is starting to thaw and I’m making my way out from under my first winter in Kansas. You know that spring is coming because the conference season is starting to bloom. I’m looking forward to a bunch of conferences that will be upcoming in the new few months. I’ll be attending two of them, and hope to see lots of interesting people there!
Heard from Robert Lofthouse on Twitter. The Djangocon 2008 conference will be held at Google Campus (Googleplex) in Mountain View!! September 6 and 7th. That’s only two months away, so hopefully this gets pulled together well.
It is being kinda announced about DjangoCon 2008! It is going to be in the Bay Area and sometime around the release of Django 1.0 in September. I heard about it a couple days ago from Jacob at the office (because I work at Mediaphormedia, birthplace of Django). I’m really excited about it, and I’m thinking about heading out for it. I have never been to the Bay Area. We’ll see how it pans out when it gets announced, but I’m almost definitely going! YAY!!
Okay people. Here’s a proposal for you. Let’s change this school of ours. For my Senior project at UMW I’m creating an “Events” calendar for the school and fredericksburg community, if you’re interested in that, read below.
I co-founded Read the Docs, Write the Docs, PyCascades, and EthicalAds. Writing here since 2008, at various levels of intensity across the years. More about me.
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I walked a good chunk of the Pacific Crest Trail in 2013 until a foot gave out, took up bike touring while it healed, and have been finding long trails ever since. Every trip, with a map.