Contemporary dance performance about gender at European Rails Conference

Sometimes you go to tech talk that you would never watch at home because you "have other stuff to do", just because is between two other interesting talks... and it often happens that also that one is awesome and you are glad you didn't miss it at the end of the day.

Then I realised that at 44Con[1] we have a daily Gin O'Clock break with Gin and Tonics all round. To be fair, the purposes of Gin O'Clock are to give us time to join the two theatres for the final talk of the day, to promote networking in the sponsor area and also to provide something very quirky and British at the conference.

The bottom line is that the organiser wants to put it in, let them put it in and try it. If the attendees like it, great. If they don't, then they should say so. If it puts you off attending you should tell them (as long as you were going to attend originally).

[1] - http://www.44con.com/

For some people (typically execs, sales people, recruiters, PR people, consultants, freelance professionals, etc), conferences are mostly or entirely about networking. They don't attend the sessions or, when they do, it's because it's the only place in the venue where they can sit down and catch up on emails.

At larger events like Mobile World Congress, those who know how networking works don't even waste their time attending the main event. They have pre-arranged meetings with all the key people they want to meet. And when they're not in a pre-arranged meeting, they are at one of the unofficial fringe events or parties, which is where the real networking happens (and they have, of course, arranged to get an invitation to the key fringe events as the best networking events are often invite-only).

For others, and most software developers would fall in that category I guess, conferences are mostly about personal development. No, you won't hear anything at a conference that you wouldn't have been able to find online. But a good speaker will instill a sense of energy and enthusiasm that you would never get from reading an article or even watching a YouTube video.

Because you're away from your daily grind and because of the way the content is delivered (you have to sit through an entire session and listen - unlike an article, a book or a video, you can't stop half way through or skim it), you also think very differently and tend to be a lot more open-minded and receptive to new ideas. So you almost always end up learning things that wouldn't normally have bothered to even read about otherwise or that you wouldn't have properly understood.

Not to mention the fact that you're surrounded with people coming from very difference backgrounds and industries than those at your workplace. You'll often pick up very different ways of thinking that might very well change your approach to your work.

Personally, in the good old days when I was "just" a software developer and didn't care much about networking, I loved attending conferences. I would leave a good conference bursting with energy and enthusiasm. My best work would always happen after a conference. That's when you feel the most ready to tackle hard problems and don't mind powering through the statu-quo to make things better.

Try it - if you're passionate about your craft, chances are good conferences will make you a better craftsman.

I'll add one thing: don't be put off by the term "networking". It's about having interesting conversations, finding out what's going on in your industry and sometimes making new friends. If you go to "network" it can feel a bit contrived, but if you go to learn from other people and teach people yourself you can do excellent networking without even realising you are doing it.