I'd be interested in hearing from anybody who's attended That Conference (https://www.thatconference.com) -- which bills itself as a summer camp for geeks. That it occurs at a giant indoor waterpark makes me wonder whether the actual conference is beneficial, or if it's just an excuse to get your company to bankroll part of your vacation. If you've attended and your company did foot the bill, was it a hard sell?
Ask HN: What are the best developer conferences for 2015?
21–30 of 60 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are the best developer conferences for 2015?
#22I'm pretty excited for Facebook's React Conf at the end of the month, but I'm biased because I'm speaking. =D
Re: Ask HN: What are the best developer conferences for 2015?
#23You can find most relevant talks on youtube.
The value in conferences is only mildly related to the actual talks. Meeting people and the discussions and connections are the real value. Like, ClueCon, for VoIP devs. It's rather haphazardly managed, many of the talks are useless, some are even just pure ads. But if you spend time to meet people it can be totally worth going.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best developer conferences for 2015?
#24I'd be interested in hearing from anybody who's attended That Conference ( https://www.thatconference.com ) -- which bills itself as a summer camp for geeks. That it occurs at a giant indoor waterpark makes me wonder whether the actual conference is beneficial, or if it's just an excuse to get your company to bankroll part of your vacation. If you've attended and your company did foot the bill, was it a hard sell?
Gone every year so far. Company has sent the entire dev team (7 this past year). We're less than a two hour drive away. It was an easy sell for us because of cost. Tickets, hotel, travel, and food (the catered breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and pig roast are awesome) costs less to send 7 (8 or nine will go next year) than to send 2 developers anywhere else. Some talks are great, others are ok. Its great for netwotking and getting exposed to things outside your dev stack and for us its a team building function. You get out of it what you make it. They are trying to incorporate more family and kid stuff. Our team includes single devs, married devs, and devs with kids (though no families came with this year and would be a non company paid expense). It's also something simple our company does to stand out from others in the area (helps retain and show respect and care for developers from the company) feel free to ask me if you have any questions.
Add: There are some well known people from various dev communities that attend and/or present. Its kindof cool to be feet from them or even better getting hang out with them since its not massive in head count.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best developer conferences for 2015?
#25You should provide what kind of location or travel budget that you are asking about: there's great conferences across Europe but that may not be of interest if you are based on the West coast of the states for example.
Or leave it open and have answers that are more relevant to more people
Re: Ask HN: What are the best developer conferences for 2015?
#26Why has no one added JSConf. It is an amazing conference with a limited set of people and very good talks. And its a 3 day conference where one day is pure fun. I attended it once and wish to attend again.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best developer conferences for 2015?
#27PyCon ( https://us.pycon.org/2015/ ) is always a blast. It's large, but has an amazing sense of community. You will find at least three or four amazing talks each day, on a variety of subjects. The posters area will expose you to all kinds of cool academic and other projects. The Expo Hall is always full of hip companies (giving away lots of great SWAG, of course). I guarantee you will leave inspired.
Any Idea how much this will cost?
I am a student in college and I was interested in going to PyCon since python was my first programming language -- and do Students have a different rate than regular tickets?
Re: Ask HN: What are the best developer conferences for 2015?
#28I'm a little bias, but one of my favorite conference is the Erlang Factory SF! The conference is still small enough that there's no bullshit and you get to meet most of the active community! A must if you work with Erlang :)
Re: Ask HN: What are the best developer conferences for 2015?
#29Strange Loop is the one I'm excited for
Re: Ask HN: What are the best developer conferences for 2015?
#30PyCon ( https://us.pycon.org/2015/ ) is always a blast. It's large, but has an amazing sense of community. You will find at least three or four amazing talks each day, on a variety of subjects. The posters area will expose you to all kinds of cool academic and other projects. The Expo Hall is always full of hip companies (giving away lots of great SWAG, of course). I guarantee you will leave inspired.
Any Idea how much this will cost? I am a student in college and I was interested in going to PyCon since python was my first programming language -- and do Students have a different rate than regular tickets?
Student tickets are $125, Individual / Enthusiast tickets $350, and Corporate tickets $600 (https://us.pycon.org/2015/registration/)