The newbie cloud architect diary

Let us assume that there is no difference between in-person and virtual conferences. There are lots of obvious reasons for not going, starting with no awareness, no motivation, no expectation, no conviction, no time, no approval, no budget for traveling and entry ticket etc. In addition, some significant effort is necessary to digest the growing number of existing events and formats, prepare and accommodate.

The good news is, that you can probably live without conferences. There are already tons of valuable information available from the Internet and from the Literature. There are even great digests such as Fishtownanalytics roundup and Thoughtworks Radar which are easing your Technology Trend Monitoring (TTM). But is that enough? And more importantly, will your brain even persist it all? 

According to some studies, best learning experiences include a significant part of social Affliction, Sharing or Recognition. In my opinion, this is where conferences are different. They will provide your mind some unconscious Breath off your day-to-day job. This is the occasion to take a step back, the existential need to reflect on certain topics, and if you are sociable enough, to connect with industry peers who are open to share their contact, practices, lessons and concerns.

Less is more. There are Wales diving for only a few minutes under water, and others showing up after 20 minutes. Without getting too excessive and precise with such personal goals, I personally find it a good rate to try to visit 1 conference and read 1 book every 3 months. Of course it is not always possible. If I don't make it happen, then I try to catch-up soon or later.

Last but not least, finding time and approval is not easy. During my career as a consultant, my schedule was 100% driven by customers and projects. I couldn't plan any hobby or medical aside from vacation. After a while I asked myself whether that sacrifice was worth my achievements, and the answer was "no". I had just got used to it. At the end it depended on me to set priorities, and on my manager to support me.

Because of the current world-wide pandemic situation, the ApacheCon was a virtual event for the first time since its creation over 20 years ago! Unfortunately, the combination of a non-Business context and a Home-worker setup turned into a dramatic challenge, both for the organizer to support speakers, and for the audience to engage. In fact, I assume that most people not even spent 5% of the time online which she/he would have spent in place. Should it be seen as a raise in efficiency, or a drop in outcome?

I had imported a few agenda items to my calendar from the tracks Big Data, Camel, Streaming, API and DevOps. At the time I intended to join my first session of interest, I figured out that the meeting invitation didn't even contain (as I expected) a link to the event platform. I also didn't get a dedicated e-mail-reminder since the sessions were registration-free. So I had to search for the event homepage, sign-in, navigate to the agenda and track until I could join.

The keynotes were certainly representative, but once I entered the nerdy room of interest, I found it difficult to concentrate on the content while watching to a speaker working from a precarious apartment and drawing aside her/his insufficiently enthusiasm (see also: Tips for being a better virtual speaker). 

In fact there was not only place for improvement on her/his side, but certainly on mine as well. It was definitely too easy to switch from one screen to another. I already lost patience while waiting for sessions to start, then ran other activities in parallel and finally didn't stay until the Q&A, which is not only a mess (see: How and Why to stop Multitasking) but also a random sign of misrespect for speakers and talks.

Given that conferences in online format now become the norm, and that I do not feel comfortable with my mistake, I decided to establish a strategy allowing me to prevent this to occur again.  

See also: Tips from experts for attendind a virtual conference

The COVID-19 pandemic probably marked The end of most in-person conferences in 2020, even if a few ingredients will be missing for making it a once-in-a-lifetime experience: 

On the other side, the current state of technology allows for online events such as virtual conferences to provide even more opportunities for IT professionals to learn new trends and connect with each other:

Still, in order to not loose overview and make the most of virtual experiences, new habits such as organisational dispositions and enforced concentration should be adopted.