Anyone ever gone to any of the big developer conferences?

[purbeast0]

There is a potential opportunity that I may be able to go to ArchConf on my companies dime.

https://archconf.com/conference/san_diego/2016/04/home

As someone who's title has been "Senior Software Architect" for over a year now, I'm still doing normal engineering tasks. I find a lot of the classes at this conference interesting from the perspective of learning exactly what an architect should know, etc, when they actually do those duties.

I also have interest in looking at some of the classes dealing with scalability, which would be very helpful for my side project I'm working on now, which I'm hoping will become a full time job within a year possibly.

However this is the kicker...

If I leave my company within the next 3 months, I owe them 100% of the costs. Within 4-6 months, 75%, 6-9 months 50%, 10-12 months 25%.

While I am not planning to jump companies or anything, I am always on the lookout for a new opportunity, and I have been talking to quite a few startups and stuff, and actually have people asking me about being a CTO at a startup. I also have been looking at potential jobs out west and making a move out there. Then if my side project takes off, that would be another reason to leave.

I bring that up because I am wondering for those of you who have gone to these conferences, if it is worth the money paid for them. Overall I think this trip would cost about $4k - $5k. The ticket to enter alone is $2500, then the flight, hotel, meals, etc.

I'm wondering if I did end up having to pay some of that back, if for some reason I did leave, if in the end it would really be worth it. I'm just wondering those of you who have been to these conferences, if you feel they are worth it. I'd gladly pay $4k or so if it actually benefited me greatly for my career and knowledge, however I've just never been to one of these so I'm not sure how they really are.

 

[uclabachelor]

I usually go only for networking. Everything presented at conferences are available online.

 

[brianmanahan]

i've been to javaone and uberconf. they're pretty good, nothing earth shattering but i usually pick up one or two new things to try or think about.

i wouldn't pay for them myself, but if the company wants to pay to fly me there and get me in, sure!

 

[robphelan]

I go to the SAP conference.. typically every 2 - 3 years. and ever since I started back in 1998 i've never had a pay-back restriction at all

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

I did JavaOne about 5 years ago. Might try to go again this year. Oh, company paid.

It's interesting but not very useful.

 

[brianmanahan]

I did JavaOne about 5 years ago. Might try to go again this year. Oh, company paid.

It's interesting but not very useful.

at least you get a free conference out of it.

 

[Train]

I've gone to the last 4 Code Mash's, been to a few other smaller conferences as well.

Lots of info. But like someone above said, most of it can be found online. Oh you want to learn how to sycn AWS databases across data centers? Sure, a talk on it could be helpful, but there's also a million blogs, tutorials, and docs online about it. Once you've seen a few decent talks, you've seen 'em all.

I prefer the "workshop" type sessions. Do some TDD with people from other industries, build a game with a random group of coders, etc. Just talk to people about what kind of solutions they are building. These are where the best ideas come from.

Other than that, it's all about the networking, and freebies from all the vendors.

 

[brianmanahan]

I've gone to the last 4 Code Mash's, been to a few other smaller conferences as well.

heh, really? i have gone to the last few codemashes. i just figured nobody on here would know what they were.

 

[purbeast0]

so sounds like everyone is in agreement that it's cool to go but if i did have to pay back the costs if i left my company in the timeframe where i'd have to reimburse some of it, then it would not be worth it.

 

[brianmanahan]

so sounds like everyone is in agreement that it's cool to go but if i did have to pay back the costs if i left my company in the timeframe where i'd have to reimburse some of it, then it would not be worth it.

pretty much

unless it was like codemash and only cost 600$ for 4 days

 

[purbeast0]

nah this shit will probably be like $5k total. maybe it could be a good way to "job hunt" though out in san diego because i've been looking for jobs out there anyways. tougher to do from the east coast, but i haven't been looking too hard. actually have an interview on skype tomorrow with a startup over there.

 

[purbeast0]

so some of you say you went for networking to these conferences. question for you all...

when you went, did you have any idea how many people that went were locals and how many people flew in?

reason i ask is because i have been interested in moving to san diego for a while, and a conference in san diego could be a good place to meet people in the industry from the area. however, if it's just a bunch of people flying in from out of town, that wouldn't really help much in that regards lol.

so just curious if anyone had a sense of how many people at these conferences are locals and how many people fly in for them. i know it's kind of a long shot but figured i'd at least ask.

 

[Train]

If it is that big of an issue, I'm sure you can get a vendor list off the conference website and check their office locations.

But a lot of the actual booths that are hiring will be limited to large local corps and recruiting firms. I personally hate the large head shops, and also hate the giant 500 person cubicle farms at the giant corps. You could meet a lot of coders who work at local companies that are hiring though. Just make sure to interact with a lot of people. Go to the sessions about the tech you want to get hired for (language, platforms, etc) and meet people, even the speaker, they will sometimes be hiring or know who is.

 

[purbeast0]

yeah i'm not looking to go to some big ass company or go to some recruiting event, i was just wondering if local companies and employees usually check them out.

 

[Train]

yeah i'm not looking to go to some big ass company or go to some recruiting event, i was just wondering if local companies and employees usually check them out.

In that case, meet tons of people. Kinda hard with devs not being the outgoing type. I usually tell my devs not to sit with me if they see me at a conference, I see them every day, I am literally there to have lunch with strangers. I pick a table with no one I know there and start asking them what they do.

A better (and way cheaper) bet to network is to go to local dev groups or code retreats. That's where you'll hear about the small local shops that are looking for another guy.

EDIT: or just go to craigslist already ;P