Conferences are expensive... they assume you work for a stacked megacorporation that believes the fastest path to increasing their shareholder value is investing in your individual career training. If your employer is not having a great year or has had a surge of resignations from last year's crew of esteemed conference goers, chances are that you won't be getting reimbursed to attend your local geek-fest.
Fortunately for you, I happen to know the inside secrets to enjoying all the conference perks at OSCON without handing over a single Benjamin.
Secret 1: Conference pre-events are free and easily crashable!
Today I dropped in completely unexpectedly on the Community Leadership Summit today, and even after boldly announcing myself as a party crasher was awarded with a super-secret badge (a.k.a. index card w/sharpie etchings). This gave full access to their sessions and let me attend the after-party for free drinks!
Tomorrow I am planning on crashing the free OSCON JVM Languages Symposium... I hear they have some of Portland's scariest pastries being brought in and might even be doing a free lunch outing thanks to their sponsor, Typesafe.
It helps that both of these events have an unbelievably high Rockstar to attendee ratio... more on why this matters a little later.
Secret 2: The best type of conference pass is the free type
There are 9! different OSCON passes available for you to choose from on the registration site. While this is a bewildering array of options, but if you pay attention to the price it is quite an easy decision. Click the "Register Now" button below and you are good to go:
Register now for a FREE Expo Hall Pass (use code EXPOPASS)
So what are you missing out on with an Expo Pass? Well... you can't sit with the rest of the attendees and listen to a canned lecture, but you can hang out with your new Rockstar friends in the hallways. Which takes us to Secret 3...
Secret 3: Conference value = # of Rockstars / # of Attendess
This makes sense if you think about it... if you were the only attendee, surrounded by a cluster of speakers and geniuses waiting to impart their knowledge on you, it would be infinitely valuable. Most conferences you are one speck of sand in a huge pool of attendees vying for a little bit of wisdom to be imparted on your section of the audience. The smaller the audience, the more chance you might actually get something of value out of the experience.
So what does this mean for the value you get from difference conference events?
- Keynote = 1 speaker to 1000 attendees: Avoid this at all costs... you can always get the highlights off twitter, so who cares. [as you can see, my days as a conference chair are clearly numbered. :)]
- Technical Session = 1 speaker to 100 attendees: This is slightly better, but still the odds are clearly against you! [yes, and now my days as a speaker are coming to an end as well... see if anyone invites me to give a technical talk again]
- Birds of a Feather Sessions = 1 speaker to 30 attendees: A slightly better ratio, more focused, and absolutely free!
- Ignite = 30 speakers to 300 attendees: Ignite talks are for the speaker grazer in all of us... yeah, talk your heart out... for 5 minutes. If you haven't impressed us in that amount of time, at 40 minute session will not change our opinion. It also helps that this event is absolutely free!
- Unconference = 20 speakers to 100 attendees: Now we are talking. With this many technical gurus walking around you are virtually bound to learn something... without even without trying! This includes the JVM Languages Symposium and Community Leadership Summit, both of which are free!
- OSCON Hallways = 1 speaker to 1 attendee: When you bump into Martin Odersky in the hallways after having had some good times over beer and pizza at the JVM Languages Symposium you are at a ratio where the real value comes in! (and didn't pay a dime to start the conversation)
If you were paying attention, you probably noticed an interesting relationship... the most valuable parts of the conference were the parts that cost absolutely nothing to get into. (don't let your megacorp friends know about this, or all the wonderful corporate sponsorships that pay for all these extras might dry up!)
Secret 4: Free stuff is the open source way
Open source is all about giving software out for free, right? Well, maybe there is more to it than that, but there is still plenty of free conference stuff flying around that you can take advantage of with over 60 exhibitors waiting to hand you prizes just for the privilege of scanning your free badge!
Secret 5: And parties galore!
While all those folks who paid for the high priced admission tickets may think they are special, the reality is that from a sponsor's point of view, their eyeball is worth exactly the same as yours. This means that you have an equal opportunity to take advantage of the most important part of any conference experience... the parties!
Here are some of the free events that you won't want to miss out on:
- Opening Reception - Grab a drink and mingling with exhibitors and fellow attendees
- OSCON Carnival - Join us for food, drinks, entertainment, and lots of good old fashioned fun
- Puppet Labs Party at their headquarters in Portland's Pearl District.
- OpenStack Party - Join OpenStack for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at the Spirit of 77
- Surprise Attendee Event on Wednesday evening (sorry, we can't tell you anything else about this event because it's a secret)
- Booth Crawl where you can quench your thirst with vendor-hosted libations and snacks while you check out all the cool stuff in the expo hall.
- Media Temple Party at the Jupiter Hotel with open bar, music, and all you can eat tacos!
Final Secret: Everyone can be a Rockstar
What makes the difference between a Rockstar speaker and an attendee? Just the drive to do something with technology and be proud of it. You can be an open-source contributor, user group leader, and technical speaker if you simply apply the skills you already have to the benefit of the community. Don't expect to get paid much, but at least it is a really easy way to get invited to conferences around the world.
While this article is all meant in good humor, on a serious note I want to thank the O'Reilly folks for putting on OSCON, offering discounted expo tickets, and compiling this great list of free events.
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- Events, Flash, JavaFX, OSCON Java