My First Conference

Another engineer and I attended the Android Developers Conference in Boston last week.  I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but was excited to be going.  Now, after 6 days in Boston, 3 keynote speeches, and 10 sessions, I wanted to share what I took away from the conference and why I think it was a valuable experience.

After the first day of the conference, Mike asked me if I thought the conference was worth the money Zoosk had paid.  I thought for a moment, and my answer was, “I’m not sure”.  But truthfully, I was probably leaning towards no.  Not all the sessions were interesting, and only about half the speakers were engaging.  There were no “Ah Ha!” moments where a problem I had been struggling with for weeks was solved.  But now, a week later, if I were asked if the conference was worth it, I would say “Absolutely”.

I believe that you have to take in the experience of a conference as a whole.  The 2-3 pages of notes I have about Fragments, Animations Loaders, etc. aren’t what made it worthwhile, because I could’ve learned the same things from a book or some tutorials.  Being around hundreds of other developers sharing ideas and stories of their product excited me about what I do.  It made me want to incorporate the cool things I saw into our Android Application.  And probably most importantly, it gave me confidence in what I was already doing.  Every time a topic was presented and I found myself thinking, “Well obviously, we already do that”, it made me realize we are making a lot of the right decisions with our App, and gave me a lot of confidence in my abilities and the team’s abilities.

For everyone thinking about going to a conference I would just make these few suggestions:

• Find one outside of San Francisco or stay at a hotel in San Francisco

  • I think conferences should feel like a mini-vacation.  Breaking out of your normal routine will help invigorate you and get you excited about what you are doing again.

• Talk to the other developers

  • This seems obvious, but it is really easy to get lunch alone or just stay in your own bubble.  You don’t get the opportunity every day to talk with people who may be tackling similar issues with you in very different ways.

• Don’t be afraid to leave a session you feel isn’t what you thought it was

  • There are many classes going on at the same time, if you find yourself falling asleep, there is probably another one out there that you’d be better off in.

• Mix up your sessions

  • Not everything you go to has to be highly technical.  I found it really interesting to go to a class taught by a designer or marketer.  Getting an idea of what other people in your organization know, or don’t know, is really helpful.