I’ve loved the return of (in-person) tech events and conferences this year. I’m not expecting to go to any more events in 2022, so I thought this would be a good time to look back over some of my highlights for this year.
Infoshare F3
A tech conference in a 15,000-seat stadium arena. Two stages – one at each end of the arena, one called the Red stage, and one called the Blue stage. In the space between, there was an expo with stands from a variety of tech companies.
I gave a talk on the Blue stage, about the impact that cloud APIs has had on the role of the AI developer.
I was using my snowman photo to illustrate AI winters… that is my photo, too – all-but-one of the photos in my talk were photos that I’d taken. (It was nice to not have to resort to stock photos!)
It was a very developer-focused agenda, with a lot to learn. There were tutorials on things I hadn’t tried before like mutation testing, and sessions on things it’s always useful to hear a fresh perspective on like domain-driven design.
I got to see a little of Gdansk while I was there. My favourite bits were having dinner sat on the beach at Brzezno Pier, and hiring an e-scooter to explore Ronald Reagan Park.
what I said at the time (twitter)
HalfStack (Newquay)
A tech conference by the beach in Newquay. It was hard not to love the sound of that.
I gave a talk about what I’ve been doing recently with Machine Learning for Kids.
It was a small event – I felt like I spoke to everyone there! It was lovely, friendly, and relaxed. It was geeks sharing silly and creative things with each other.
The content had the eclectic vibe of a BarCamp except there was only one track, and no timetable in sight (we all just took our turn to share our piece, with no-one clock-watching).
Other than spending time on the beach, and going for long walks around Fistral Bay, I think my favourite bit of sight-seeing while I was there was finally getting to go to Land’s End!
NDC (Porto)
NDC was a huge, packed conference. There were over a hundred presentations, often with five or six sessions to choose from at any point in the day.
There were a lot of very deep, very technical sessions. There were also sessions on social subjects like mentoring and being a technical leader. And a few fun and silly ones, too.
I did a couple of talks.
One was a joint talk with Lori, where we gave an intro to ChatOps with a bunch of demos of how to manage a Kafka cluster from Slack.
The other one I did solo, which was a developer’s intro to AI/ML.
Porto is a beautiful, beautiful city. I loved exploring it – walking for miles every day. One highlight was doing the Porto Bridge Climb – a little bit nerve-wracking at the time, but I’m so glad I did it!
what I said at the time (twitter)
EMF Camp
A camping festival, except everyone there is a geek and a maker.
It’s hard to describe the event in a way that does it justice. If you think of yourself as a geek or a maker at all, go look at their website or watch the video below – because there is a good chance you’ll love it.
I ran a hands-on AI/ML workshop in the Youth Zone (with a lot of help from Adam), which was a lot of fun.
Everywhere I went, there was something to play with, tinker with, and learn from. Everything was hackable (even the name badges!) and everyone there was fizzing with creativity.
I had the best time there. I wish I’d gotten a ticket to stay for the whole four days – I’d been put off by the cost, but it is absolutely worth it. I can’t wait for the next one – I’ll definitely be there.
what I said at the time (twitter)
Heapcon
A tech conference in a 500-seat opera and theatre house. The main stage held the “C” track, and upstairs a smaller theatre held the “U” track. And there was a floor with stands from a range of tech companies.
My talk was a series of stories of AI/ML lessons I’ve taught in schools – how I’ve seen children react and respond to machine learning tech, and what they’ve learned from it.
As is often the case with tech conferences, I came away inspired, with a list of tech I want to try out – tools, programming languages, and techniques I haven’t tried before.
I had a day to explore Belgrade while I was there. My favourite bit was exploring Belgrade Fortress, which was beautiful. I spent an afternoon walking around it and the surrounding parks, and loved it.
what I said at the time (twitter)
Devoxx (UK)
I’ve presented at Devoxx many times now, and I always love it. It’s a large, slick, professional tech conference, that somehow has managed to keep the friendly, welcoming vibe of a much, much smaller event.
Lori and I gave a talk about ChatOps. We ran a bunch of Java and Kafka apps in OpenShift, and then demo’ed how to manage them from Slack using Hubot.
(And more importantly, talked about the cultural and team benefits that come from ChatOps practices).
There were hundreds of sessions, on so many topics. I tried sessions on tech that I haven’t used before, like Pulsar and golang, and a delightfully silly talk about a Shitposting AI.
That’s a wrap! Thank you for participating in #DevoxxUK! ?
We had a fantastic few days, and we thank you for being a part of this amazing community!
We look forward to seeing you in 2023! pic.twitter.com/kGY989qqTb
— DevoxxUK ?? 10th – 12th May (@DevoxxUK) May 16, 2022
Kafka Summit (London)
I’ve been to many Kafka Summits before, in London, New York, and San Francisco.
Kafka Summit is a rare event for me – I don’t often go to tech conferences with such a narrow technology focus. I don’t go there to broaden my horizons, I go to dive deep. It brings an intensity that you don’t quite get with other tech events.
Everyone there is interested in Kafka. Some of them have been using it for years. Some are looking to get started. But everyone has a single technology in common. It’s an unusual event, but the discussions there are super useful and interesting.
This year, Kafka Summit was at a hotel next to The O2 – which is a bit of London I’m always happy for an excuse to visit again.
Virtual events are still a thing…
I haven’t totally abandoned online tech events. I’ve still given more talks at online events and webinars this year than I have been to in-person events.
For example, I presented at APIdays Hong Kong about how to introduce Kafka into existing applications, and I presented at EDA Summit about using AsyncAPI.
Any excuse to encourage devs to adopt Kafka is always a good thing! It was great to speak at @APIdaysGlobal today and show a few live demos of how to use Kafka to introduce asynchronous APIs into existing applications https://t.co/NO588fUP0L
— Dale Lane (@dalelane) August 25, 2022
there is something very painful about watching (and even worse, hearing!) yourself give a presentation ? pic.twitter.com/rIuUiU6tOs
— Dale Lane (@dalelane) May 4, 2022
But, as useful as they are, I don’t come away from online events nearly as energised or inspired as I do from in-person events.
A huge thank you to all the organisers who have worked so hard to bring back tech conferences and events this year, and I hope I’ll get to visit even more in 2023.