Ask Slashdot: Why Do You Care About Tech Conferences?

An anonymous user is "just starting a programming career," and has several questions for Slashdot's readers: What exactly is the role of tech conferences? I always assumed they were mostly for exhibitors to pitch me things, but then what's in it for me? Am I just going there to network, or am I learning new cutting-edge techniques and getting enlightened by awesome training sessions? Or is it just a fun way to get a free trip to Las Vegas?

And then what's in it for my employer, who's paying to send me there? If my boss has to approve the cost of attending a conference, what's going to make him say yes? I mean, do employers really get enough value from that extra conference-only information to justify sending off their employees for several days of non-productivity? (Don't they know all that networking could lead me to job offers from other companies?)

It's always been a little intimidating the way people talk about conferences, like everyone already knows all about them, and drop the conference's name into the conversations like you should already know what it is. I always assumed people just attended only conferences for their current programming language or platform -- but is there more to it than that? What exactly is the big deal?
I'm struggling to even find the right metaphor for this -- is it a live interactive infomercial or a grand gathering of geeky good will? So leave your best answers in the comments. Why do you care about tech conferences?

Comments

Go to the conference

[Anonymous Coward]

If it's on your employer's dime.

For you: fun, broadening, exposure to more of what the industry segment is about, chance to make connections which could prove valuable to your career, opportunities to attend technical seminars or paper presentations which will clue you in to what academia or standards groups are up to.

For your employer: a way of rewarding selected employees with a nice perk, boosting their morale, gflying the company flag to keep up name recognition with others in the industry, giving them a chance to get a clue about what academia or standards groups are up to.

Re:Go to the conference

[Anonymous Coward]

chance to make connections which could prove valuable to your career,

Absolutely this bit. Don't underestimate the networking opportunities at these kinds of events. If you go for no other reason than just networking then it's still invaluable.

If you're not good at networking, then practice and learn before you go.

Re:Go to the conference

[Anonymous Coward]

> How exactly do you "practice networking" if you never talk to people because you're an introvert and, you know, an actual nerd.

Not by assuming it's impossible because "nerd".

Ask a co-worker to coffee. Find out about an interesting project in a different area and ping them about finding out more.

I don't

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm old enough to remember a time where tech conferences were actually useful, when actual techies were present that actually knew about the tech.
Of course, there were already salespeople there, as well. But both categories knew their stuff:

One could actually learn something, get good information from insiders, pose and get immediate answers to relevant questions, access that was hard to get otherwise, in those days.

But it has been decades since that state of things. I have stopped going to tech conferences when they started getting populated by junior sales folks and booth babes only. All you seem to get now is some bored young person handing you a flyer before losing eye contact and returning to whatever is more interesting on that smartphone screen. I'm making it a caricature, but that's what it feels like to someone like me..

I can get that flyer as a PDF without leaving the office.. and a lot more information, online.. So why bother going to a conference?

Cheers,
Anonymous Old Grumpy

Re:I don't

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

One could actually learn something, get good information from insiders, pose and get immediate answers to relevant questions, access that was hard to get otherwise, in those days.

Yes, that's the big difference. Going back maybe 15-20 years, if you wanted to learn a programming language, you bought a book or read the manual or help text that came with your compiler. We did have online programming communities to some extent, but they kept in touch through forums like bulletin boards or electronic mailing lists or Usenet groups. Discussions would take place over days or even weeks instead of the minutes or hours they often last nowadays. Those discussions were usually more civilised than a lot of online forums are today, but there were no YouTube videos of presentations by the key people who actually designed the languages and tools you were using, we had manually curated FAQs instead of the huge Q&A sites like Stack Overflow today, and so on.

In that context, going to a conference meant an opportunity to meet the experts at the top of a given ecosystem, watch presentations on the next big things they were working on, and even pick up a copy of the new version of your favourite compiler to take back.

Of course, today, we do have much better online channels. We can watch presentations on YouTube whenever we're ready. We can pose questions in forums and have a fair chance that more experienced programmers will answer them within minutes, and we can collaborate with other leaders in close to real time if we're in that expert position for some particular subject ourselves. We can share code snippets for peer review, download the latest tools, or upload our contributions to community projects. And we can do all of these things from the comfort of our own homes/offices, without worrying about where we're going to stay overnight, or who's going to look after the kids, or the frustration and abuse that is common with long distance travel in the 21st century.

In short, most of the key advantages conferences used to have don't really matter any more, and business travel isn't what it used to be either. Some people argue that they're still worthwhile for "networking", whatever that means. I'm pretty sure I have far more opportunities to connect with other people who share my interests online today than any conference ever offered, though.

Re:I don't

[shanen]

I knew that reply was going to be here, but I feel like you mostly wasted your thoughtful reply on an invisible AC.

I would say the same thing, but perhaps too briefly as "Improvements in network communications have largely addressed the communications problems that technical conferences used to help with." You didn't mention bandwidth, but I think conferences have also become relatively slow mechanisms when it comes to information exchange. The logistical problems are the same as they ever were and require the same amounts of preparation and lead times. Only the marketing has gotten slicker (but shallower).

Going meta again, but I think the question would have been more useful with some background about trends in attendance. Maybe they're bigger and better than ever and it's just me who's gotten jaded?

Knowledge

[MasseKid]

It's all about knowledge. The technical talks are rarely, if ever worth attending. Let's face it, now one is going to give out trade secrets in those things. At best, they are a minor muse towards how you could do something. The real benefits in conferences is seeing things you didn't know existed. Do you need a 10+2 1/10G ethernet, mil-rugged, layer 3 switch in a forum factor the size off your fist? If you do, then hell knowing the right company is the difference between a project going bust and making it. Conferences are about sharing knowledge of the technology that exists that you don't know about, not about saving costs on commodity items. No one is going to go to a conference and say "zomg, I just saved my company 50% on the price of steel!".

Re:Knowledge

[aldousd666]

True, but you're speaking only from a hardware perspective. I have been to 'good conferences' where they have talks that spark me to research new ideas that eventually lead to productive lines of inquiry (RailsConf or in a previous life, PDC) and ones that are just advertisements or feature "Touchy Feely" talks about programmer sentiment and egos (RubyConf, total Yuck.) The ones that make me think, or research, are worth it. Even some of the keynotes (RailsConf 2016, keynote by Paul Lamere, from Spotify, fired my imagination and prompted me to take 6 months of courses on Big Data and Machine learning, which will eventually pay my employer dividends and then some,) by big names in their fields are worth the entire costs. It just means you need to know where to go, and what to look for, and what to avoid. Talks about diversity for the sake of coloration, or whatever, are little more than rants about unfairness, which leads to nothing company 'costs' if you buy in to them. But ones about how they take advantage of technologies (like one I saw [by a woman, speaking of diversity, which didn't even mention the fact that she was a woman -- BECAUSE THAT ISN'T THE IMPORTANT PART] about how Github used the Scientist gem to migrate their entire security structure without any downtime...) they can lead to local 'breakthroughs.' My advice is to stay away from 'touchy feely' conferences about developers and how they 'feel' at work, and to go to those that focus on the actual state of technology and what's out there and how to use it for your own personal, professional, and business's growth. Being around people who care about the same things, especially when those things are putting numbers on the board, is a great thing. NOT ALL CONFERENCES ARE CREATED EQUAL. That's just how it is. Do your research up front.

A step back to see the big picture

[SuperKendall]

I think the days of going to tech conferences just to see vendors are long gone. Most I've been to have either a handful or no vendors.

The reason I like going to tech conferences, is actually to take a step back from day to day work in the industry and think about larger trends. Where is your field going? What is the leading edge of things being done? Do you agree with the common assessment about ways to approach solving problems?

Basically, to think and inspire new ideas...

Also of course there are the people. You can't really know until you get to any given conference what the people that attend are like, but to to as many people as you can. The parties (if they are parties) are nice, but more spectacle and harder to talk to people at - find people between sessions and talk to them, just say hi and ask them what they are working on and why they are there.

When I say talk to as many as you can, listen to Clint Eastwoon and "know your limitations". For a lot of us social interaction is draining so if you've maxed yours out, don't feel bad not chatting for a while. Do what you can.

These days more and more content is online or streamed so there may not be as much reason to go. But it's still good to just have that break from work and routine, otherwise the videos may be there but you will not watch them or really pay attention they way you do if you are there.

Here are the criteria I use to tell if I care

[El Cubano]

I've gone to quite a few different events (both as an attendee and as a speaker), including free events, pricey events, events where I went for my own reasons, events where I went for an employer or a client, etc.

Here are the criteria I have found that help me judge whether I should really care about the specific conference:

• Cost: cheaper is better, because if the event costs $$$ to attend you know you are getting the business-only crowd where most of them have expense accounts, or plenty of manager-types, or any of a number of other elements that make the conference decidedly less "tech" (sweet spot is $0-$100)
• Size: too small and you might not get much out of it, too big and you definitely won't get much out of it (sweet spot: 100-1000 attendees, though the number of sessions, tracks, etc., plays an important role as well)
• Schedule: if it is on a weekend, you know it is all about people who love/enjoy the topic so much that they give up their own free time to hang out with a bunch of other people who are similarly inclined; if it is during the week it is an expensable business boondoggle, though there are some exceptions that I can think of, like DebConf (sweet spot: weekend events)
• Bonus: If John "Maddog" will be there, you probably want to go, and if he will be speaking (as he often does) you would be a fool to miss it

For me, this mostly means that I end up attending events that resemble meetups, Linuxfest-type, coding workshops, hackathons, etc. While some of them do have vendors, the type of events which I favor make it pretty easy to stick to the "interesting" parts and avoid the vendors altogether.

Of course, if you want to just go and socialize, just about any event will end up with groups of people that skip all the sessions and do nothing but talk.

Re:obvious

[jellomizer]

In your office it is very easy to get stuck with your own way of doing things and your companies approved products. You could be suffering at your job and you don't know it. Going to these conferences even just visiting the sales booths you get to see what else is out there and how to approach a problem differently. Realizing you may need a new class of products to stay competitive. That is companies pay for people to go to these. Also it gives your company exposure too. Sometimes those vendors may not sell anything to you but can become a partner were you can both expand the customer base.

Re:If you have to ask...

[ruir]

I had the luck to work for a consulting outfit where my direct manager sent me to all conferences he could (actually several a year), to in his words "broaden my horizons". After all his years, I am the proof he was right.
While sending guys early in his career does not seem beneficial, believe me it is. He helped me achieve a certain place, and in exchange, I also helped the firm secure several businesses in a market abroad.