🔊 Why you should attend a software engineering conference

Without feeling guilty for the productivity loss of a few days without coding.

Some day an opportunity appeared in a Slack channel at work: Attending a conference.

A question popped into my mind: Should I take it?

For sure it’s fun to do something different than everyday work. But at the same time, my team is in the middle of some projects with deadlines before the end of the year. Disconnecting from work could hurt my rhythm.

I decided to take it and here are the learnings of why and how to take these opportunities.

🎤 Why conferences can be good

Discovery.

There are many topics you wouldn’t explore on your own.

Attending a conference won’t make you an expert in any of them. But you’ll get an introduction and the next steps if you decide to continue exploring

Inspiration.

Sometimes being a software engineer is lonely, especially for those working remotely.

Talking to other people on the same path as you boosts your motivation.

Networking.

This shouldn’t be just a matter of getting leads.

But genuine networking. Spend time on quality conversations with people.

Branding.

If nobody knows your product or service, people won’t buy it.

But even more, people won’t go and work for you.

You can’t quantify the return on investment of a conference properly. You are planting a seed in someone’s mind and they may buy or apply to your job positions years down the line.

🪷 Your mindset when going to conferences

Be genuine.

If you are an engineer, talk with other engineers as if they were your peers. Nobody likes it when people talk to you just to sell you something.

But they like it when they have the opportunity to talk to someone doing cool things.

I was so genuine that I started talking about engineering at my company to a director at my own company. In my defense, I'll say he was coming from another office to check the conference. Talk about good first impressions when they see engineers so engaged 😉

Go to make the most out of it.

Don’t go just because your company offers it as a benefit. If you go there, it is to make the most out of it.

I went a couple of days, but I made an effort to talk to people and learn what they are doing in their companies.

Thanks to talking:

• I got a coffee mug despite being awful at the challenge you had to do to obtain it.

• I was in the video eating a spicy Dorito chip because I said: “challenge accepted”.

• I empathized with a new grad looking for his first job and I referred him.

• I had a meeting after the conference to learn more about employer branding from someone I met.

🎯 Conclusion

Everything is an opportunity, you are the one that makes it something worthwhile or not.

With conferences, it’s the same. So, should you go to one?

I described the possible benefits, but it’s up to you to take advantage of them or make them a loss of productivity.

When you go somewhere, make noise 🔊

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