Having our Developer Days in Munich behind and the ones in San Francisco ahead of us, I wanted to give you a few thoughts on how you might best approach technology exhibitions, seminars and symposiums in general to ensure that you always get the utmost out of the event in hand.
I hope it helps you come away feeling both inspired and enriched.
Go Early
Avoid registration queues - even though ours are really well managed – why not get a head start? Make a quick tour of the venue and find out where you need to be and when you need to be there. Sleep off your jet lag (if you have travelled far), maybe take a few pictures and generally get yourself together.
Plan With Precision
Get your conference guide out and form an attack plan to underpin your personal schedule. Don’t just sit in sessions; go and meet some of the people you know you ought to meet. Make time to tour the partner stands and make a few new friends.
Keynote Continuity
For Qt Developer Days, for any event in fact, don’t miss the whole keynote session – and if you are at an event that has a day two keynote, then don’t miss that either as these are often more technically in-depth.
Dear Diary
Write up your show notes as you go along (it’s so much easier). That way, when your team leader or project manager asks you to justify the expense of sending you away again next year, he or she will be super happy to have a tidy little report to refer to.
Tweet, Dent, Blog or simply tell about your experiences
Let those poor saps who couldn’t make it to Developer Days know how it is going. If you Tweet, blog, dent, or use some other form of new-age communication framework, let your audience know how things are going. In case you attend our Developer Days in San Francisco, use the tag #qtdd09 on Twitter or any other social network so we and others can find you.
Mingle With Your Peers
Even if you are not the most naturally gregarious person, try to chat with some fellow developers or other software engineers. Find out about the different tools, techniques and workflow methods they are using. Who knows, you might even be able to find out whether you are being underpaid!
Sleep!
It’s all too easy to go crazy working (and partying too) at many industry events. Take it easy and pace yourself.
Stay Late
If you’ve travelled a long way to a conference, chill out afterwards. If you can, stay an extra day and see the city that you’re in if it’s not your hometown. Feel like you’ve walked around the block at least.
Think About Next Year
If you’ve had a good time at an event then think about how you will want to have the same experience next year. Tell your colleagues, Tweet about it and blog about it – but most of all, tell us here at Nokia, Qt Development Frameworks and we’ll work to make our next events even better for you!
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