I have never written a review on a conference and this isn't one: this is a brain dump (hence the lack of form and structure) that I quite simply needed to get out here. It might be incomplete, biased or what else: if there is anything that I should know then let me know in the comments. If you think I'm wrong then let me know that too, but please elaborate :-).
Last week I was, for the first time, at Codemotion in Milan. A first time doubly so: I had never been to a generalist conference before. Being I a generalist person I appreciated the format, even though I found some of the technical talks too light on actual details.
The talks that I liked the most were those of the inspirational track. I went to these two among others and I heartly recommend that you watch them (heck, have all your team watch them!). Maybe because I'm old and I have recently realized that people matter more than tools or technologies?
Overall I would rate the conference an 8 out of 10 just for those two.
Codemotion is a BIG conference, I think there were around 2000 attendees so rooms get crowded quickly, especially for keynotes or popular talks. Sometimes you might not even make into the room if you're just a minute late because, you know, you might want to talk someone or the speaker.
Food pretty much sucked in a big way. Coffee was not great and my suggestion is that they do without the human pouring it in the small plastic espresso cup next time.
Only nice thing was the fruit salad in the afternoon. Other than that, I pretty much recommend you consider bringing your own food.
Another thing that I did not like was the VIP room for speakers. Seriously? This is a conference and at conferences you meet people, not split them in two groups. On this theme a big shoutout to the awesome lastminute.com team that went to great lengths to answer all my technical questions at their booth. Tip of the hat, boys!
There was a small panel dedicated to job offers, but it was not exciting at all, to the point that it was discussed (or mocked, your call) on reddit.
Last week I was, for the first time, at Codemotion in Milan. A first time doubly so: I had never been to a generalist conference before. Being I a generalist person I appreciated the format, even though I found some of the technical talks too light on actual details.
The talks that I liked the most were those of the inspirational track. I went to these two among others and I heartly recommend that you watch them (heck, have all your team watch them!). Maybe because I'm old and I have recently realized that people matter more than tools or technologies?
Overall I would rate the conference an 8 out of 10 just for those two.
Codemotion is a BIG conference, I think there were around 2000 attendees so rooms get crowded quickly, especially for keynotes or popular talks. Sometimes you might not even make into the room if you're just a minute late because, you know, you might want to talk someone or the speaker.
Food pretty much sucked in a big way. Coffee was not great and my suggestion is that they do without the human pouring it in the small plastic espresso cup next time.
Only nice thing was the fruit salad in the afternoon. Other than that, I pretty much recommend you consider bringing your own food.
Another thing that I did not like was the VIP room for speakers. Seriously? This is a conference and at conferences you meet people, not split them in two groups. On this theme a big shoutout to the awesome lastminute.com team that went to great lengths to answer all my technical questions at their booth. Tip of the hat, boys!
There was a small panel dedicated to job offers, but it was not exciting at all, to the point that it was discussed (or mocked, your call) on reddit.
Things I wish I'd asked
Perhaps I'll get a reply here :-)
To Alaina Percival: any advice for (worried) fathers that wish their daughter played with Legos (and pursued a career in Engineering) rather than Barbies?
To Leo: in his talk he mentioned a slide showing a declining rate of innovation since the 1950s. What do you think is the role of patents in this decline.
To Sven Peters: I know what's culture! (raised hand) It's what's left after you forget all the rules.
Thanks for reading.
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