Attending my first developer conference
Simon Saberian
Last year, after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in software engineering, I got my first ‘real’ job as a DevOps engineer at an industry company in the area. It has been a great experience, but there is, of course, that feeling of “faking it,” humming in the background like that fan you have on in your bedroom—feeling that I managed to trick everyone into believing I was a competent worker who could succeed in my role.
Well.. it seems I haven’t been exactly unsuccessful at my job because I got the opportunity to go on a paid trip to DevSum in Stockholm with some of my colleagues! So, with nerves bubbling in my stomach, I packed my bags and set off.
Having been raised a man in a patriarchal society, if there is one thing I am good at, it’s repressing emotions, so walking up to the conference floor I managed to keep cool. The organizers served breakfast and coffee, which was nice since I sadly missed the hotel’s continental breakfast that morning. After some chatting, we sat down for the keynote, but I was more excited about the talks, so once it was over, I hurried over to my first talk of the day.
I attended eleven talks throughout the conference, and here are some thoughts I had about a few of them! I’ll try to provide links to recordings of the talks whenever I can.
Let’s talk talks
“Embracing Neurodiversity in Tech” - Jonathan Fielding
This talk was one of my favorites at the conference. Jonathan talked about what people with conditions like ADHD and autism go through and what support systems workplaces can set up to help them. He also mentioned how some of the ways neurodiverse people are different aren’t necessarily negatives but can be a strength, such as people with ADHD not just being ‘impulsive’ but more inclined to try new things. Having been interested in accessibility for a while now, I was happy to hear about more ways to be inclusive and support people. There were some things I had never even thought about, like the background color of text impacting the reading ability of people with dyslexia!
Sadly, only a handful of people showed up for this one, which is an incredible shame because, according to the StackOverflow survey 2022, a substantial portion of developers are neurodivergent, and companies are doing them a massive disservice if they’re not giving them the support they need.
Often, support systems help disabled people as well as non-disabled people. For example, a wheelchair ramp isn’t just for disabled people but also for parents with strollers, bicyclists, or people who struggle with steps, like the elderly or young children. Similarly, neurotypical people can also use the support systems Jonathan mentioned if they need the same help.
This topic is really important, and I hope you check out his talk.
“Honey, I shrunk the backlog” - Allan Kelly
Wow, what an incredible speaker Allan is! He just exudes so much positive energy that keeps you engaged throughout, and I can’t wait to hear another one of his talks. This talk was about how product backlogs are not as helpful as your scrum master might make them out to be. He mentions that you should nuke your product backlog every three months and reassess what should be there based on your business goals and missions. Filling your backlog based on your goals sounds obvious when you spell it out, but it is probably not implemented in practice by those who say they do agile.
This talk was a real highlight for me, and what made it extra memorable was how Allan used his body language to accentuate his points! It was entertaining to watch, and I can’t wait to see what he has next.
“Open Source Exploitation” - David Whitney
David hit the nail on the head with this one. Most people take it for granted that open-source libraries are provided free of charge and allow you to use them in any way you like, even to make money yourself. Cloud providers rely on being able to charge for open-source software like Redis or Docker without paying the original developers for their work. Isn’t it unbelievable how normalized this exploitation is? Nowhere else is it normal for companies to profit from someone else’s free labor? I hope that someday, a package manager for a major language implements a billing system so that devs can actually be paid for their work. According to David, Nuget was supposed to have one, but Microsoft sadly removed it before launch. Check this one out if you have the time!
“Those “Business People” - they just don’t get me! - how to talk IT to non-IT leaders” - Hannah Engel
Communicating technical concepts to non-technical people has always been something I’ve wanted to improve, so when I saw it on the agenda, I knew I had to check it out. I’m glad I did too! She was super entertaining and engaging to listen to. At one point, she had us turn to our right and discuss with the person sitting next to us, which I didn’t expect but made it more memorable. I had a great time with this one and if you can attend one of her talks, I highly recommend it!
Some cool peeps
I’m generally pretty shy and find it a little difficult to approach people I think are cool, so I didn’t make many connections this time. One of the people I found a bit easier to approach was Jonathan, who gave the first talk I mentioned. I had a few chats with him, and he was delightful. We talked a bit about autism and how neurodivergent people generally like to hang around other neurodivergents. I have some suspicions about being on the spectrum, so this might explain why I found it a bit easier to talk with him and why a lot of people close to me, like my boyfriend and some of my best friends, are autistic.
Another person I had the pleasure of speaking with was one of the organizers! We talked a little about the after-party later that evening, and I mentioned that I was excited about dancing. She said she’d be looking forward to seeing me there, and I didn’t think much of it but came to find out that when I showed up at the entrance a bit later than the others, she had been waiting for me to show up. We chatted a little, but it was cut short by dinner being served. People stood around in their little cliques, which intimidated me a bit so I ended up not talking to anyone even though I wanted to.
After a while, I started to get bored, but I happened to spot the lady from before! So we started dancing and even convinced my colleagues and others to join. But then the DJ started to play a bunch of Greek dancing music that killed my vibe, so that’s where the night ended for me.
Wrapping things up
Attending this conference was a great experience! I had a ton of fun and learned a lot from all the talks. I would love to go to another one to network more. Sadly, I wasn’t able to take full advantage of this opportunity due to my nerves, which I’m a little disappointed about, but I think I’ll do better next time. Thank you for reading this far. Make sure to check out the talks and give the speakers a follow!