Conferences in Tech
Oxide and Friends
Reflecting on Tech Conference Evolution
This chapter explores the nostalgia of past tech conferences, particularly the Surge conference of 2010, and the regrets over unshared recordings. It contrasts earlier, more intimate presentations with the current polished performances and discusses the significant shift in expectations around recorded tech talks. The hosts reminisce about the unique energy of live events while addressing the evolving dynamics of conferences and the challenges faced by speakers and attendees.
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Bryan and Adam were joined by Theo Schlossnagle, KellyAnn Fitzpatrick, and Steve O'Grady to talk about conferences in tech. A lot has changed in the past couple of decades about the impetus for conferences and what makes it worthwhile to attend.
In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, speakers included Theo Schlossnagle, KellyAnn Fitzpatrick, and Steve O'Grady.
The lightly edited live chat from the show:
- ellie.idb: 2005, huh? y’all met when i was 2
- goodjanet: yea i was younger than 10 lol
- jgrillo_: I was just thinking I feel very young because I was a junior in high school but not anymore lol
- aka_pugs: my first conference - 1975
- ellie.idb: oxide appeals to the youth
- jbk1234: my first one was LISA in 05 or 06... mostly because it took a near act of god because my director didn't believe in sending his people to conferences
- jgrillo_: "before software ate the world" is what I usually call "when the internet was still fun"
- ellie.idb: my earliest memory was, uhhh, Google I/O 2008 when they gave every attendee that android phone
- ellie.idb: i don’t recall which one it was, but i do remember playing with it when i was 5 hahahaha
- taitomagatsu: I've only been to one tech conference in person, and it was a very tame SIGGRAPH that happened in Santiago, CL (I live in Chile). It was a lot about animation. I wanted it to have talks on image processing like the ones over on the US x3 but oh well, beggars can't be choosers
- goodjanet: I've never been to a tech conference
- devdsp2175: The Germans know how to run a conference. The chaos communications congress is wild.
- ellie.idb: same!! never actually attended one as an adult hahaha
- taitomagatsu: Have you attended one remotely?
- goodjanet: nope, closest is just watching recorded talks after the fact
- taitomagatsu: I attended the rustconf of 2 years ago remotely. It was amazing and I was soooo tired by the end of it. Brain got depleted of juice for the day
- network2501: looking forward to in person dtrace conference with a dedicated zball room
- ahl0003: more of a trade show, but I went to the MacWorld conference in the late '90s
- ahl0003: I still have some BeOS install CDs from then
- goodjanet: im so thankful for recorded talks
- ahl0003: this is kind of wild: I went with my brother who was 12 or so and we met a guy at Be... my brother would go on to work with him 30 years later!
- ellie.idb: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Droid the OG droid with the flip up keyboard and everything
- tocococa: ISCA this year was just around the corner from Santiago in Buenos Aires and it was pretty cool, and CARLA took place this year in Santiago too
- blacksmithforlife: Since I can never get a conference approved from work, I live off recorded conference videos on YouTube
- network2501: best mom
- devdsp2175: The shade! Sending hugs to Bryan's inner child.
- taitomagatsu: daaaaaamn, I didn't know about either! I might keep an eye on ISCA, maybe I can go next year ❤️
- devdsp2175: You can't record the hallway track...
- jh179: Bryan's talk for Papers We Love on the History of Containers is how I found out about him, Oxide and all the rest. Had an incredible tangent about jails...
- zeanic: Conference idea: all hallway tracks
- devdsp2175: YouTube keeps recommending Bryan's talks on running containers on the metal at Joyant.
- devdsp2175: And I keep watching them!
- ellie.idb: wow, ISCA had some really fucking cool talks this year
- ellie.idb: damn. i’m adding this to my watch list too!!! i’ll try and see if i can get funding for next year hahaha
- tocococa: yeah, 100%, but my brain was melted after every day
- nahumshalman: Bryan has the luxury of working on OSS. I think the point that Theo was making is that Surge (I only attended the very last one) was a space where you could be open about proprietary stuff. Talking about failure in a safe space, etc.
- nahumshalman: Ah, Theo is now making that point.
- taitomagatsu: Does ISCA have any sort of official YT channel?
- taitomagatsu: Because I might... have a handful of talks to watch
- goodjanet: 18 years ago isnt that long ago?
- network2501: 18 years ago is almost 3 generations of lives/eras ago
- ellie.idb: what HPC conferences are going on? i need to hear about the deets going on with CXL
- jgrillo_: although 18yr is ~half my life it doesn't feel very long ago..
- tocococa: I am not sure, I know that all keynotes were recorded, but I don´t know where they might be
- ellie.idb: 21 years ago i was not alive 😅
- network2501: What if the second time you do the talk it's even better than the last? Like book revisions?
- ahl0003: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i1OK4y9x0w
- taitomagatsu: I've found a channel that has older ISCA videos https://www.youtube.com/@acmsigarch2299, imma keep looking for one that might have the 2024 one
- blacksmithforlife: Working in government, watching "old" conference videos is great because they're "cutting edge" for where my organization is at currently. Case in point, we are just now going to the cloud and doing micro services
- taitomagatsu: https://xkcd.com/979/
- ahl0003: https://craft-conf.com/2025
- srockets: That’s why I liked !!con so much. No one tries to sell you anything.
- jgrillo_: I've never owned a car newer than 20yo, that's kind what it's like when you look at the car ads from its era
- devdsp2175: Are you also doing an "Agile Transformation" which is neither transformative nor optimising for agility?
- ahl0003: https://monktoberfest.com/
- srockets: (Also, Ghent had better bike racing than Budapest)
- srockets: But worse weather
- bcantrill: https://youtu.be/stMEuZJJDck?list=PLvsKqlNNP3R8JKE97pwewsDmZdcO5MEWV
- drkellyannfitz: Here are the talks from this year: https://redmonk.com/?series=monktoberfest-2024
- blacksmithforlife: What does "hallway track" mean?
- zeanic: Cr...
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