During the last few years, I’ve spent a lot of time on the conferences, meetups and workshops.

Many of my friends ask me why I am doing this. Is not that a waste of time and money? Couldn’t you do something more productive in that time? Today I will share my point of view: why I attend the conferences and what can you gain if you will follow my steps.

1. People

The audience at Scalar 2019

The community of IT is great. But there is a stereotype, that describes us as nerdy people that can talk only about games and joke about the binary system. You know there are 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don’t. You may feel like you don’t belong to this community but I can assure you that like every stereotype that is a lie. People which I met at the conferences and meetups were kind, open and cheerful. I saw many of them help to solve other people’s problems from their projects. Not because they wanted to show off. They wanted to help and solve some puzzles. That kind of people they are.

2. Knowledge

If you are at the beginning of your carrier, those events could give you an incredible increase in your skill. At the start of my conference journey, I’ve noticed that I don’t know many of the terms that speakers are using. That was terrifying. I felt that I was worse than I thought I had been.

And that was true, thanks to the meetups and conferences I’ve found areas of need for improvement. Conferences can give you a lot of information about new “hot” terms. Because of the participation in those events, you can know what future employer will want you to know next year.

3. After-Party

Scalar 2019 after-party

Almost every conference has a party. Sometimes it is a before-party and sometimes an after-party. God bless conferences with both of them. At the conference, you can feel overwhelmed with an amount of people. That’s why you can talk calmly with other people at the party.

But those parties are not just for having a drink. Here you can talk with many of the speakers, hear stories which no one says on the talks. Why? Some of them are funny and some of them are big failures of the companies. This is a place where people share their experience. After some after-parties, I felt like my experience increased over 9000!

4. Knowledge about the market

Photo by Sean Pollock on Unsplash

Many companies want to show themselves at events like that. There is a lot of reasons why they want that. They can gain new employees, show clients that they are professionals and so on. Because of that, you can create your own view of the market. You can talk to people on their stand at the conference. You can talk with speakers and learn first hand about their companies. After some time you can know which company is probably good for you and which is not. You need to remember. Marketing and gifts are one thing, but hearing what people are talking about their company is another.

Should you try it?

Yes, definitely you should do this. If you want to feel the full experience of the conference, you need to go to the talks, speak with people and go to the conference party. After that, you will know if conferences are your thing.

Where should I start?

There are many conferences depends on where you live and what technology you are interested in. I cannot tell you what is the best solution here. I started with local meetups because there were free, so you can do the same. After some time when I met many speakers, I found that some of them are speakers at conferences. So I went there and noticed the magic of the conferences.

What if I don’t have money?

There is a reason why many people are not going to the conference, money. You can hunt for your ticket in the early bird or you can go to them as a voluntary. You can even get a discount from your local meetups or even funding from your employer, for example, SoftwareMill is paying half the price of the ticket just to let people develop their skills. Everything is up to you.

I hope we will meet next time!