Episode 16 - Making the Most of Tech Conferences

In this episode we’ll be talking about tech conferences, how to plan your schedule to get the most out of the content without getting burned out, strategies for participating in coding workshops, networking tips, and more.

With Music City Tech coming up at the end of May, we thought this would be a good time to talk about our game plan for the conference and share insights that have helped us make the most of tech conferences we’ve attended in the past.

Planning your schedule:

It’s easy to want to attend a session for every slot, but it’s really easy to burn yourself out that way trying to absorb so much varying information in such a short amount of time. I did this in the first couple of conferences I attended and definitely suffered from information overload. Pick a few talks you’re interested in, with some breaks between every couple.

Conferences are great to explore new technologies, languages, etc. that you may not work in everyday. They also make it easy to find people interested in the same things.

Code-alongs/Workshops:

I often find that if I try to code along with someone giving an interactive presentation, I often have to choose between getting the code correct in my editor vs. actually absorbing the concepts the speaker is talking about. So I’ve often opted to just listen and watch.

The speaker often posts links to the working code/demo that I can go look at on my own later with the knowledge I picked up from their talk.

Networking:

Conference environments are some of the most laid-back environments to network and meet other people: everyone is there to learn something and even if you are actively looking for a job, generally that isn’t your main purpose for attending a conference, but it does show potential employers that you’re eager to learn and expand your knowledge and skill set.

Kick-off/wrap up mixers – great laid back environments to chat with conference-goers