Conferences in Tech

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Dec 14, 2024

Theo Schlossnagle, a tech industry veteran and conference enthusiast, joins Steve O'Grady, an insightful commentator on tech events, for a lively discussion. They reminisce about the evolution of tech conferences, sharing quirky anecdotes from early gatherings. The duo highlights the essential role of in-person networking in an increasingly digital age. They also explore the unique culture of events like Monktoberfest and how venue design can enhance attendee interactions. The conversation emphasizes the balance between remote collaboration and the irreplaceable magic of live interactions.

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ANECDOTE

First Conference Experience

Theo Schlossnagle's first conference talk was a closing plenary at ApacheCon.
He presented his master's thesis to 2,000 people.

ANECDOTE

Horse Meat in Ghent

Adam Leventhal's first conference was AA Debug in Ghent.
He attempted to eat horse meat there after it became illegal in California.

ANECDOTE

From Medievalists to Tech

KellyAnn Fitzpatrick's first tech conference was Mongotoberfest 2015.
Her previous conference experience was with medievalists, with beer, wine, and mead.

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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...